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Lou knows best

July 2, 2009, 10:08 AM ET [ Comments]
Sam Woo
New Jersey Devils Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Lou knows best

Yesterday and even at this moment, the text messages, e-mails, and status messages have Devils fans steaming over the fact that Lou Lamoriello did not land a prized free agent and let fan favorites, Brian Gionta and John Madden, sign with other teams.

To tell you the truth, Lou did the right thing.

Devils fans, this is the salary cap era and the nucleus of the team is Zach Parise, Travis Zajac, and Paul Martin. All three will be receiving significant pay increases within the next three seasons and the resigning of Johnny Oduya before the free agency frenzy was a smart move. Ultimately, it came down to this: Would you sign Madden and Gionta to deals at the risk of losing Martin? Or have Parise and Zajac be offered contracts that Lamoriello cannot match because of the salary cap? This is the reality of the new CBA and today’s NHL.

It has been six years since the Devils last won the Stanley Cup. Time for a change and New Jersey may have gotten stronger by letting Madden and Gionta walk because they would have commanded nearly 15% of the entire cap space alone. Now, Lamoriello has options to use the cap money wisely when an opportunity presents itself and he will need to expedite the farm system, which has been restocked with great talent. Overall, he will get a bigger bang for the buck.

New Jersey still has one of the elite goaltenders in Martin Brodeur and a consistent defense that has about two full seasons playing together as a unit with prospects of Tyler Eckford and Matthew Corrente getting a chance to make the team.

Offensively, the top six forwards are above average and look for Brian Rolston to take Gionta’s right wing position with Dainus Zubrus at center and Patrik Elias on the opposite side. Look for Lamoriello to give Nicklas Bergfors and Matt Halischuk an opportunity to make the team. I like the toughness of David Clarkson and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond. Rod Pelley will get a chance to be Madden’s successor and he is at a fraction of the cost.

The player scouting was done by a team led by David Conte and like in the past, now more than ever, Lamoriello will need to rely on his prospects he helped select in the last five years. Based on Conte’s track record and three Stanley Cups later, I am confident that Lamoriello knows exactly what he is doing. Moreover, Devils fans will be drinking more Kool-Aid after three more Stanley Cups in the near future.

Big Thank you to all those that joined our Live Blog

Thank you to all those that joined our Live Blog yesterday. We had over a few thousand hockey fans joined us and it was a huge success. This exceeded my expectations and I am grateful for all the complimentary e-mails I have received. We’ll have more events like this to come. Keep following my blog for more details.

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