Devils retain two, say bye-bye to Brylin

July 1, 2008   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

Four hours into UFA and already there have been a ton of interesting moves which I’m sure Derek will recap at some point tonight although the big fish (Hossa, Campbell, Sundin) haven’t committed anywhere yet.  The biggest surprise so far was Carolina’s trade of rugged winger Erik Cole to the Oilers for talented but mercurial defenseman Joni Pitkanen. 

So far New Jersey’s biggest moves have come pre-noon when they retained defenseman Bryce Salvador with a 4 year, $11.6 million deal and shutdown left wing Jay Pandolfo for 3 years and $7.5 million.  They also said good-bye to Sergei Brylin by not picking up the veteran winger’s $1.5 million option and GM Lou Lamoriello confirmed he wouldn’t be back, saying of Brylin (and Pandolfo):

“The role that they play and the style they play with what we have to do with our offense, I don’t think we could keep both at this point,” Lamoriello said. “It was a very very difficult situation to make the decision. In both best interests to give him an opportunity, we did not exercise our option.”

Personally I would have wanted Salvador at 3 years, don’t mind the annual $2.9 million per salary that much but I guess the extra year was payment for Salvador backing off his demand of a no-movement clause.  I’m not too crazy about the money on Pandolfo’s deal either, I love Jay but he is on the wrong side of 30 and a bit one-dimensional – fluke scoring streaks in the ’03 playoffs and the beginning of last year aside. 

I am glad if one of the three had to go it was Brylin.  Don’t get me wrong - he’s had a nice career in a Devils uniform and with his departure Martin Brodeur is now the only remaining Devil who played on all three Stanley Cup winning teams.  But Brylin’s time clearly passed, as evidenced by his terrible season last year.

In other news, the Devils also re-signed RFA David Clarkson for 2 years at $1.675 million and waved bye-bye to the dissapointing Aaron Asham.