Chill out, fellow Devils fans!

July 2, 2009   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

Every year it seems like I hear the same ol’ complaints from fans in Devils Nation, people whine about how we don’t do enough – despite throwing out some questionable UFA contracts in recent years – and teams around us get so much better, and every year the Devils are fine though lately not so much after mid-April, which I suppose has added to the angst.

Other than the Montreal Canadiens who basically did the equivalent of fumigating an entire team after their disasterous (on and off the ice) centennial season, perhaps no team changed more on July 1 than the New Jersey Devils.  Saying goodbye to key pieces on past Cup winners is never easy, and the Devils saw John Madden, Brian Gionta and Mike Rupp all leave for greener pastures.  Not to mention Scott Clemmensen, who was a key contributor to last season’s division champions. 

Having already seen veterans Bobby Holik and Niklas Havelid retire, that’s six players who were on the roster at the end of the season who are not going to be here in ’09-10, with Brendan Shanahan in limbo for the moment.  And we won’t get into the Brent Sutter departure again, but suffice it to say the remodeling isn’t quite complete since the Devils haven’t named a replacement.  If you believe GM Lou Lamoriello though, there seems to be a priority on getting the kids more time next season, hence this curious quote on the departures:

“It will be status quo to see where our budget is,” Lamoriello revealed. “We have to make room for Rod Pelley and a couple of others. And we have to get more ice time for David Clarkson.”

So is the world coming to an end…has Lou really lost it like so many irate Devils fans all over the Internet are claiming?  I think not, and here’s the case why:

First of all, cap or no cap - it’s not exactly unprecedented for the Devils to have a changing of the old guard and bring in kids.  Exhibit A being the 2000 season where the Devils debuted four rookies including Madden, Scott Gomez, Brian Rafalski and Colin White.  That didn’t turn out so bad, did it?  Madden and White have had fine careers – so did Gomez and Rafalski who both left before last season.  And all were replacing key vets on the ’95 team such as Bobby Carpenter, Stephane Richer, etc. 

Yes there have been slipups like trying to replace sniper Alexander Mogilny with the immortal Pierre Dagenais, but either way you have to find out what you have sooner or later.  Recent draft picks like Nicklas Bergfors, Matthew Corrente and Jeff Frazee look just about ready to make a contribution.  Pelley played a lot two years ago and though he doesn’t exactly seem like the next Madden, he can contribute as a fourth-liner who kills penalties.  What good is having a farm system if you’re not going to give the kids a chance at some point (or trade them before their value deteriorates)?

Whatever you think of the merits of retooling (and that is really what this is) a Devils team with a 38-year old Martin Brodeur, you can’t deny that the cap is a huge factor here.  Some organizations spend to the cap limit – and a lot of times the Devils have been one of them – but with the cap number projected to go way down next year as Lou himself admitted, teams that spend up to the celing this year without contracts that come off the books are going to be scrambling to get under next season.  Most of our defense and top six forwards are signed through next season, and our main UFA is Paul Martin, who is an absoulte must to retain, as is giving long-term deals to Travis Zajac and Zach Parise.  Even Clarkson and Bergfors are RFA’s and both will require a raise.  This very good post from HF details the Devils’ cap situation for the next two years. 

To sum it up, next season the Devils have 13 players under contract at a combined $41 million plus.  That leaves around $10 million if the cap goes down to $51 million or so the way many – including Lou himself – project it will.  That $10 million needs to be used for eight or nine roster spots including Martin, who will take up a good chunk of that money himself.  Add in more money for Zajac, Clarkson and whatever long-term deal Parise gets and you can see where I’m going.  For the Devils to accomplish all of this, they had to let Gionta walk and not give out any long-term deals to free agents this year. 

Unfortunately fans don’t understand this because many aren’t looking ahead to ’10-11.  Fact is, we don’t have expiring contracts next year and can’t shed payroll except maybe Pando if you wanted to be cruel and hide him in Lowell.   Of course if you want to say good-bye to Martin next year or make some other desperate last-minute trade to get under the cap when a lot of teams won’t have either cap space or budget to take on a big deal, by all means play that game of Russian Roulette.  I refuse to.

For those who want to rip Lou still, obviously you can debate the merits of a couple of the above contracts or even a few if you want, but facts are facts.  This is the situation we’re in now.  Two wrongs rarely make a right, spending insane money now will only put us in more of a crunch next offseason and Lou understands this.

So giving the kids a chance and cap concerns are two compelling reasons why the Devils have subtracted without adding on Bastille Day the first day of UFA.  Here’s another – it was time for all of the players who left to move on. 

I like Gionta as much as the next guy but he’d plateaued here averaging >22 goals over the last three seasons without going over 24 since his breakout 48-goal campaign of ’05-06.  Clearly the Habs feel that reuniting him with Gomez, who he enjoyed so much success with that year and even to a degree in ’06-07 would help him regain some of that production.  Fine – we don’t have Gomez or any equivalent as far as an offensive center, and Gio can’t create his own goals - especially if he’s going to play on the perimeter instead of going to the net the way he did during that season.  While it’s a common theme, again facts are facts, he got paid way too much and there’s no way Lou could have retained him at that salary for that many years.

As far as Madden goes, it really was time for him to go.  His even-strength effectiveness has diminished in recent years, particularly offensively where he’s had two down years in his last three.  Used to be Madden was good enough offensively to be a great two-way player, now he’s just good enough defensively and on the PK to be a passable one-way player.  

Rupp was gone the minute Lou inked Pierre Luc-Letourneau Leblond to a three-year deal as a fourth-line enforcer and really Rupp never embraced that role here, though he did well at it for stretches.  Plus he had no offensive skills that particularly warranted paying an extra 200 or 300k for.  Clemmensen clearly was going to get more money and playing time from other teams than he would get here, even after what he did last season.  Buona fortuna to Scotty, he deserved it after years of kicking around the minors.  Now he’s finally got some long-term security.

And let’s say that even after all that you still want to spend…spend on what, exactly?  Our biggest needs just aren’t available in UFA.  Most of the big-name UFA’s are wingers and stay at home defensemen, which we already have a bunch of.  This year’s UFA centers aren’t really much better than what we already have, and there aren’t many defensemen available who are a huge upgrade offensively (which we’ve needed for years, a offensive presence on the blueline).  Not unless you wanted to give up last year’s first round pick Mattias Tedenby, two future first-rounders and Clarkson for one year of Chris Pronger.

So clearly what happened yesterday and the rest of this offseason can’t be helped…but all fans care about is whether the team will be competitive next year.  I don’t see why not, the Gionta of the last couple years is eminently replaceable if you get say, 70% of his production from Bergfors and the rest through increased production from Rolston.  Madden’s offense is easy enough to replace, and the Devils have plenty of skaters that can be and have been effective penalty killers.  True, we probably won’t have the checking line anymore but in my mind that’s a good thing – line matching (unless you are doing it with talented players to begin with) isn’t as advantageous in a post-lockout NHL, particularly in the playoffs.

All that said, I still have concerns – like who the next coach will be, whether Lou gets a deal done for Zajac before some center-needy team goes nuts and decides to throw a long-term offer sheet his way and whether next year we go back to the play Marty until he drops mentality.  I guess we’ll find out who the new coach is soon enough at least.

Till all that is resolved, just please exhale my fellow fans and count your lucky stars, we could be a team like the Panthers who’ve missed the playoffs nine straight years and shed an All-Star goaltender, center and defenseman in the last three offseasons respectively, or have the Islanders’ problems and worry about even having a team to root for in a few years.