The Toronto Maple Leafs and their cap constraints came to the Devils rescue when an injury forced Toronto's hand that caused them to waive forward Jason Spezza and goaltender Aaron Dell to create cap space.
Spezza was an easy player to slide through waivers- he's 37 and he had told any team that should they claim him, he would immediately retire, but Toronto knew that as much as they hoped that Dell would return to them, Dell's return would be unlikely with the Devils and the Edmonton Oilers in dire straits with depth in their net.
The Devils pounced on Dell and will be bringing to Newark as the steady veteran hand behind Mackenzie Blackwood.
Dell signed with Toronto in the off-season after spending his entire NHL career with the San Jose Sharks and was the loser in the Maple Leafs roster shuffle,
Dell won twelve of thirty starts for the Sharks last season, finishing with a save percentage of .907 and a goals-against-average of 3.01.
Dell is an upgrade over Scott Wedgewood and might be better suited for the backup goaltender than Corey Crawford would have been.
Crawford was a player that was used to playing a lot and even though the plan would have been for the two players to split time fairly evenly, I'm not positive that Crawford (Like Cory Schneider before him) that Crawford would have been fine with that over the course of a season.
Aaron Dell will be fine with that role.
It's what he's always been, it's what he's best suited for, and for a New Jersey Devils team badly in need- Aaron Dell will shore up the roster.
It will be a bit before Dell will actually join the team as being with the Maple Leafs involves crossing the border and will have to go through Covid-19 protocol before being allowed to practice and play with the team.
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