Lou Lamoriello and the New Jersey Devils were very busy on the first day of free agency as two players were bought out and allowed to become free agents,one player was lost,two were re-signed to new contracts and three new players were signed by the Red and Black.
First off,the Devils lost a player that was thought to be a linchpin of the franchise by some,but I don't think will turn out to be a huge loss over the long haul.
Paul Martin signed a five year contract with the division rival Pittsburgh Penguins,so the Devils will see Martin quite often over the course of that contract.
Martin was the Devils best offensive defenseman,but with the improvement of Andy Greene last season Martin's role could be filled by Greene with very little downside.
Greene will have to raise his game some,but with Martin missing 55 games last season Greene and the Devils were able to have an extended preview of life without Martin.
I think the Devils will do fine and the Penguins may wind up disappointed in the long run.Martin has never scored more than six goals in a season and for a player that Pittsburgh will be looking to replace Sergei Gonchar with-that is not exactly Bobby Orr country.
Andy Greene will have to be up to the task of being the power play point man and the top threat because the Devils signed two players that are basically defense oriented in Anton Volchenkov and Henrik Tallinder to long term deals.
Volchenkov was brought in from Ottawa (six years 25.5 million) for this reason according to Lou Lamiorello-"He's going to do something in our zone that we haven't done since Scott Stevens left,and that's make it very hard to play in our zone."
In other words-Lou has made it a priority to make the Devils defense play old time Devils hockey and keeping the net clean and clear looks to be a Volchenkov speciality.
I talked to our number one expert on everything Ottawa Senators and he told me "You are going to love Volchenkov,you (Devils) havent had a guy like this since Scott Stevens,one of the top four defensive D-men in the game and Volchenkov and Chris Phillips were the best shut down defensive pair in the game".
That sounds good enough for me!
The other new Devil blueliner is Henrik Tallinder for four years and 13.5 million.
Tallinder is noted as a puck mover,although not a goal scorer with a career high of four.
Tyler Myers credits Tallinder as the main reason that his rookie year was as successful as it was in Buffalo and with three young Swedes on their way soon in Alexander Urbom,Mattias Tedenby and Jacob Josefson,Tallinder looks to be an excellent tutor in the locker room as well as on the ice...
The Devils also upgraded at backup goaltender with today's signing of Johan Hedberg.
Hedberg is an immediate improvement over Yann Danis and shows that for the first time that the Devils may truly be serious about reducing Marty Brodeur's playing time a bit.
Hedberg is capable of playing twenty or so games at a decent level that Brodeur can sit and rest and not allow the team to be out of the contest.
New Jersey kept hard nosed right winger David Clarkson in house with a three year eight million dollar deal that needed to be done.
Clarkson's injury last year was the missing intangible to the team and between his coming back late and the late season acquisition of Ilya Kovalchuk,caused the team to be out of sync.
A full season of Clarkson changes that.
Rod Pelley was also resigned as well to an unknown deal.
The Devils waived Jay Pandolfo and Andrew Peters.
If both clear waivers,they can then be bought out of their contracts and the Devils would save two million dollars in cap space.
I'll miss Pandolfo for his contributions to the franchise and his classy persona,but he is clearly near the end of the road and not of value for the contract that he was receiving.
Peters will be replaced easily in the big enforcer role by Pierre-Luc LeBlond and wont be a loss of any stature.
Lou Lamoriello also says that the team is not finished making moves and still has a shot at Ilya Kovalchuk as well.
I think that Kovalchuk will likely be out of the teams price range unless they are able to move someone and quickly so to make space,but I can hope.
I know many think Kovalchuk was a bad fit for the Devils,but I disagree.
One training camp with the team is all that Kovalchuk would need to seamlessly fit into the team.
The Devils used their second round pick in last weeks draft on Jonathan Merrill,a defenseman from Michigan.
The 6'3 Merrill will attend michigan this year and was rated 21st by International Scouting,yet the Devils were able to grab him at the 38th pick.
Back tomorrow with Pirates-Phillies and maybe the promised inbox cleaning.
Tonight's Devils news put that on the backburner...
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