During the last eight days, the Devils have made a series of bold moves trying to simaltenously position the team both for now and the future. Sounds like a near-impossible task, right? Generally, either you’re rebuilding, or you’re going for it now. Devils GM Lou Lamoriello doesn’t believe in rebuilding though, only retooling. Yet, even as the team was signing win-now FA’s Ryan Clowe and Michael Ryder, they also made an unexpected trade for goaltender Cory Schnieder, now anoited the successor to HOF-goalie Martin Brodeur. And somewhat paradoxically, Lou claimed the Devils’ latest move – trading Henrik Tallinder to Buffalo for a low-level minor leaguer and clearing cap space – would make room for a young defenseman like Jon Merrill, Eric Gelinas or Damon Severson, but didn’t completely close the book on re-signing vet Marek Zidlicky either.
Whoosh, pretty much the only thing that hasn’t changed in the last week is my own computer woes going on three plus weeks and counting. Note to self: never, ever, ever rely on STAPLES to fix a hard drive ever again. Part of me wished I was around to recap this year’s FA, as opposed to my live-cap with only no news and bad news to report last offseason, at least until Brodeur, Johan Hedberg and Bryce Salvador were re-signed the day after FA started. Hedberg is gone now though, bought out in yet another change and facing an uncertain future – neccesitated of course by having Schnieder and Brodeur in goal.
Although in Lou’s own words, the team is probably done with ‘outside FA’s’ (again not ruling out Zidlicky), that doesn’t mean the task of putting together the 2013-14 Devils is near complete yet. According to Capgeek the Devils are currently $7 million under the cap celing, but that’s not factoring in the RFA deals for Adam Henrique and Jacob Josefson, likely to command around three to four million between them, as well as the salary of a seventh defenseman – who will probably start leaving Peter Harrold back in the swingman role – whether it be a rookie or Zidlicky. There will eventually have to be a forward subtracted at some point though since Henrique and Josefson would give the Devils fifteen guys under contract, with only Stephen Gionta on a two-way deal.
Even though he’s on a one-way deal now, former first-round pick Mattias Tedenby is probably the odd man out given the staff’s clear lack of faith in him the last couple of years, and with the underrated pickup of Rostislav Olesz on a one-year, $1 million deal. Olesz was once highly touted in Florida – where he played for then-coach Pete DeBoer – before getting too much money too soon, and winding up banished to the minors in Chicago after being a cap throw-in to the Brian Campbell trade, and later tore his ACL last Spring to boot. However, Olesz did average nearly a PPG in the minors, toiling without complaint while the cap-strapped Hawks had to keep him down in Rockford, and he did have his best pro season under DeBoer, putting up 14 goals and 15 assists in 2009-10. Maybe he’ll follow the path of recent castoffs like Andrei Loiktonov, Peter Harrold, Ryan Carter and Steve Bernier and find a home in New Jersey?
Of course Olesz didn’t get quite the ink that our other two FA signings got. Derek of course recapped the Clowe signing, which was in my book a neccesary evil. I hate giving a guy with his age/recent concussion history a five-year deal, and a guy with limited offensive talent just a hair under $5 million per, but sometimes you have to pay for talent scarcity. Especially considering our previous second/third line physical presence predictably cashed in and went home – in a script all too familiar to Devils fans as David Clarkson followed Zach Parise and Brian Rafalski (as well as former coach Brent Sutter) in the sense that he went home. Although Clarkson’s agent strangely tried to burn bridges on the way out the door, Clarkson was his usual understated self after the fact, genuinely appreciative of all the Devils did for him, and at least he didn’t keep the Devils hanging. For Lou’s part, he admitted he’d ‘moved on’ from Clarkson last Sunday after the draft when he rejected the Devils’ offer and went the FA route, and signing Clowe was the only realistic short-term replacement available for Clarkson’s skillset – with young Stefan Matteau probably a longer-term replacement.
If Lou tried to keep status quo by ‘trading’ Clarkson for Clowe, he also took a step to alleviate our biggest weakness last year – winger scoring – by signing Michael Ryder (pictured above with former teammate Carey Price) on a surprisingly friendly two year, $7 million deal. Finally, the Devils at least were able to somewhat replace the scoring that walked out the door with Parise to the land of ten thousand lakes. Ryder has had three 30-goal seasons in the NHL, including as recently as 2011-12 in Dallas, where he set a career high with 35. Last season, he scored 16 in the shortened season (46 games total) for the Stars and Canadiens. Yes, his all-around game is more limited than Parise’s, but Ryder’s touch around the net is something a 28th-ranked offense badly needed and he has postseason experience – putting up seventeen points in twenty-five playoff games on the Bruins’ run to the 2010-11 Stanley Cup.
If our forward depth and goaltending have been improved, our defense still has some questions with the departure of vet Tallinder and possible exodus of PP quarterback Zidlicky. However, one of those questions – for the time being – at least isn’t what do we do with too many defensemen anymore? Even if the Devils bring Zidlicky back, at least we’ll only have seven signed defensemen on our roster with Harrold in the swing role and the other six clear starters, unlike last year where we seemingly had to scratch guys after picking names out of a hat since it was hard to tell a guy to sit in the press box while the Devils were allowing the fewest shots per game in hockey. However, the Devils still need to improve their offense from the blueline. Perhaps that improvement will have to come from within, however. Even if we bring Zidlicky back, Adam Larsson will still have to step up since there are few other candidates to add offense from the back with NHL experience on the roster. If Zidlicky doesn’t come back (and we did have a hideous PP with him last year, so I can’t claim he’s irreplacable), a younger d-man like Merrill or Gelinas will also likely have to help fill the void and provide an offensive spark.
In a time of uncertainty for the Devils, two things are certain – Clarkson or no Clarkson, the team we have on paper now is much better than the team we ended last season with. And after the Devils ballooned their payroll by several million dollars from the start of last season close to this season’s lowered cap, this organization proved once and for all that whatever problems current majority over Jeff Vanderbeek may or may not be facing – none of them have affected the team’s hockey business, just the way Lou promised it wouldn’t. Rumors of financial trouble have been so rampant over the last couple of years, Lou even had to reassure FA’s like Patrik Elias and Danius Zubrus that the team was still financially stable and that he (Lou) would be remaining on the job even after a rumored imminent change of ownership.
Both re-signed just before FA, and in Elias’s case he’ll likely retire a Devil although as Daniel Alfredsson proved last week never say never. Even not being a Sens fan I was saddened for Ottawa fans by the news of Alfie leaving (seemingly slipping out at night, the way the Baltimore Colts once did) given all he’d done in Ottawa and the fact few guys remained with their original team throughout their career. Alfie’s defection to Detroit – and their rumored interest in Elias before that – was a sobering reminder of how much Devil fans should appreciate Elias staying all these years, even through all the Devils’ coaching changes and turmoil earlier in his career. Brodeur too for that matter, although it’ll be interesting to see how the acquisition of Schnieder, and his own role going foward impact what Marty does after his contract expires next offseason.
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Derek
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