According to multiple reports, Larry Robinson will be leaving the Devils to sign a two-year contract with the San Jose Sharks and become an assistant there. The Devils now need two new assistants after losing Robinson now and Adam Oates earlier in the off-season when he was hired as the Washington Capitals Head Coach.

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As we get deeper and deeper into the off-season, the rumors and speculation league wide seem to drop off dramatically. That said, several teams rosters, the New Jersey Devils included, are not quite set for the upcoming season. Here are some notes on what they could do, and why I have reason to believe that the Devils could be shopping one of their defenseman.

- I'll start with Petr Sykora. He has still not signed with an NHL team and from what I understand, he wants to remain in the NHL this season and his preference would be to stay with the Devils. While he is streaky, he did prove last season that he still can be a threat and produce when given the opportunity. He scored 21 goals, tallied 44 points and, according to Hockey-Reference.com, was 6th on the Devils roster with 17 goals created. He would likely re-sign cheap and given his production, I think it would be a good idea to at least consider bringing him back for another year.

If you missed my reference to the goals created system yesterday, here's how it works (via Hockey-Reference.com). "add goals scored to 0.5 times assists, then multiplying by team goals divided by team goals plus 0.5 times team assists. For example in 2006-07, Sidney Crosby had 36 goals and 84 assists. The Penguins as a team had 267 goals and 468 assists. Thus Crosby is credited with (36 + 0.5 * 84) * (267 / (267 + 0.5 * 468)) = 41.57 goals created. Note that the sum of player goals created is equal to the sum of player goals scored for all teams."

- Andrei Kostitsyn is another guy who could fit in well with the Devils. According to TheFourthPeriod.com's rumor/free agent chart, the Devils are reportedly showing interest in the 27 year old winger. Kostitsyn has 50+ point upside and though he is inconsistent at times, he has posted a total of 13 or more goals created each year since entering the NHL. He's also never posted a point per game average below .50 in a season.

- I've touched on this before, but with Peter Harrold, Bryce Salvador, Anton Volchenkov, Marek Zidlicky, Andy Greene, Henrik Tallinder and Mark Fayne (he's not re-signed yet but he will get a one-way contract) on one-way deals plus Adam Larsson, who's on a two-way deal but will be on the team, the Devils certainly have a log-jam on the back end. To my count, that's eight NHL defenseman. They also have Eric Gelinas and Alex Urbomb both of which will push for a spot in camp, so at some point someone needs to go.

Mark Fayne underwent surgery last month and may not be ready for the season but should he miss any time, he won't miss much.

If the Devils don't bring back Sykora or dip into the free agent market, there's no doubt they have a slot open in their top-9. Will Lou Lamoriello move a defenseman? Who knows, but he's going to have to make a decision on what he wants to do sooner or later.

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