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With news that the Philadelphia Flyers will use one of their two compliance buyouts on Daniel Briere, another name has been thrown into the free agency pool.
While many New Jersey Devils fans want the Devils to sign one of the top potential free agents such as Jarome Iginla or Nathan Horton,
names like Viktor Stalberg, and now Daniel Briere are much more realistic.
Why is Briere a realistic option? Well, he doesn't want to move his family from his home in South Jersey. The Devils are one of a handful of teams that fit Briere's criteria of being close by, so right off the hop they have a leg up on a team like, say, Vancouver if they were interested. To be clear, the Canucks haven't been linked to Briere. I was just using that as an example.
Anyways, Briere doesn't want to move and the Devils are one of a few teams he could sign with where he wouldn't have to.
So Briere might be interested in the Devils. But are the Devils interested in Briere? According to several reports from Flyers beat writers, the Devils just might be.
Darren Dreger is reporting that over 15 teams have at least some interest in Briere, so chances are the Devils are among that group.
It's no secret that the Devils are shallow on the wings and have trouble scoring goals. They're also pretty poor on the power play. While Briere is a liability defensively, there's no doubt he would help in those areas. He'd be a much better option than a guy like Steve Sullivan, who somehow found his way on the top power play unit after being acquired by New Jersey.
As I said, Briere is a liability defensively and Devils coach Pete DeBoer would have to be very protective of Briere, but if utilized properly, he can be effective. DeBoer would have to play Briere with at least one good defensive linemate like Patrik Elias. He'd also have to spoon feed Briere offensive zone starts. It would take some creative coaching, but I think DeBoer's smart enough to be able to utilize him.
Briere won't be looking for a ton of cash, so if Lou Lamoriello could bring him in on a two-year deal worth around $2 million per, give or take a few hundred thousand, I think the Devils should consider it.
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Notes on Mattias Tedenby's new contract, David Clarkson, Patrik Elias and more.
I rank the top-10 forwards and
top-5 defenseman in this year's draft.
I recently wrote a scouting report on draft eligible forward Erik Bradford.
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