Lou Lamoriello (the Devils’ Godfather) – from nj.com

With Labor Day weekend having come and gone, along with fantasy football drafts and most of the baseball season, hockey finally seems just around the corner…and it actually is just around the corner.  In fact, the Devils’ first preseason game is next Monday as camps open all around the league this week.  New Jersey’s first regular season game is just 26 days away – in Pittsburgh on October 3.  In many ways it’s truly been a long wait considering the Devils’ season ended more than four months ago but in other ways it barely feels like the season ended with all of the twists and turns throughout the offseason.

Whether it was the surprise draft-day trade for goaltender Cory Schnieder (during a draft held in the Devils’ home arena), the free agent signings of Jaromir Jagr, Ryane Clowe and Michael Ryder or the shock departure of Ilya Kovalchuk to the KHL, the Devils’ offseason certainly didn’t lack for drama.  And oh yes, the team was sold – which in many ways was probably the most important occurence for this organization going forward.  Although it’s hard to say how much the finances of owner Jeff Vanderbeek compromised operations the last two years, it certainly feels like a cloud’s been lifted.  Even GM Lou Lamoriello, who usually plays his cards close to the vest said as much:

“It’s been a long few years here,” Lamoriello admitted. “There has been a wall up. What you can and can’t do really isn’t something that you talk about because there is no good that comes out of it. I don’t look back and I don’t look for excuses. Right now I think it’s a very positive situation going forward.”

Certainly, there has been spending this offseason even while the ownership change was still in the works.  Ironically despite shedding Kovalchuk’s enormous salary, the Devils are barely under the $64.3 million cap after re-signing RFA Adam Henrique to a 6 year, $24 million contract a couple of weeks ago.  CapGeek has us at $63.7 million with 15 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies under contract.  At least one forward will have to be shed before the season starts with a 23-man roster limit, which will be one camp story since fourteen of those forwards are on one-way contracts.  Among those on the bubble are former first-round pick Mattias Tedenby, quasi-enforcer Krys Barch and perhaps even Stephen Gionta, who is the only forward on a two-way deal though if we did try to send him down he’d likely be claimed by someone.

Not that merely seeing who makes the team is the only intrigue when it comes to roster composition.  Only twelve of fourteen (assuming we keep fourteen) forwards can play on a given night and the three forwards mentioned above plus former first-round pick Jacob Josefson, new signing Rostislav Olesz and former reclamation project Andrei Loiktionov will be all fighting for icetime as well.  While it’s likely the latter three make the roster for various reasons, they aren’t assured of an active role in a deep lineup where only the top seven forwards plus back-line dynamos Ryan Carter and Steve Bernier seem assured of lineup spots.

Having that kind of depth excites the GM, who also came close to another admission about the Kovalchuk era:

 “I don’t ever look at anything as far as what people think or don’t think. I like our hockey team,” the GM said. “We’ve always built our team from the goaltender out. I like our goaltending situation. Our defense is mature, stable and yet has some outstanding young players that could push for jobs.

“Our forward lines are going to be back to where we were several years ago. It’s going to be a solid lineup. I’ve seen the words ‘interchangeable parts.’ I love those words.”

It’s ironic that Lou refers to the lineup as interchangeable parts, because one-time Ranger coach Colin Campbell was widely pillored for using the tag ‘interchangeable flock’ of forwards when describing the Devils of the late ’90’s.  Instead of taking that as an insult, the organization has worn it as a badge of honor.  If you read between the lines of having our forward lines be what they were several years ago, Lou’s also saying having our forward lines be without a guy that plays 26 minutes a game and runs the entire power play.

Part of me cringes at that quote though…yes, you do need depth, but when crunchtime comes (especially post-lockout) you still need a player or two that can carry the load offensively and demand attention from other teams.  When first-place Devil teams failed in the playoffs during the late ’90’s, it was because Bobby Holik was our first-line center.  After the A-line came into being and the Devils traded for Alexander Mogilny, they won a Cup in 2000 and got to Game 7 in 2001.  Ironically the last team that won the Cup without a dominant forward was the 2003 Devils.  However, that team had two HOF defensemen and a HOF goalie in his prime – not to mention a should-be HOF coach.  This year’s version has none of that, although Martin Brodeur‘s still around and Cory Schnieder has been described as a ‘top five’ goalie by Lou himself.

You can’t quantify the chip on the shoulder this team will have going into this year though, both because they missed the playoffs a year after making a surprise run to the Finals – and because they have something to prove collectively after top forwards Kovalchuk and Zach Parise left in back-to-back offseasons with most ‘experts’ counting us out.  The Hockey News goes so far as to predict us last in an eight-team division.  While the GM says he doesn’t care about such things, coach Pete DeBoer admitted last season is a motivation:

“We’ve got something to prove. … We have to prove that we’re the team that went to the Stanley Cup Finals less than two years ago and not the team that didn’t make the playoffs last year.”

Certainly on an individual basis, players like Henrique and Travis Zajac will be motivated to prove their off years in the lockout-shortened 2013 were just that.  Jagr and Brodeur – two of the three oldest players in the league – want to show they have plenty of good hockey left in them, while fellow goalie Schnieder is out to prove he should be the man in Jersey.  New acquisitions Ryder, Clowe and Olesz (along with Jagr) want to help a forward core still reeling from the losses of Kovalchuk, Parise and David Clarkson over the last fifteen months, while our veteran defensive core wants to hold off a bunch of up-and-comers looking to take their spots.

All of that intrigue should make the Devils a compelling watch over the next several months, if nothing else.