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Devils GM Lou Lamoriello made waves around the interwebs Wednesday when announcing former Devil Scott Gomez would be attending training camp on a tryout basis.

Gomez, like Tomas Kaberle, who I'll write about in more detail tomorrow, is trending downwards, and as such has resulted to accepting a camp invite to try and prove he still has something left in the tank.

He will enter training camp in mid-September as a long shot to make the team, but a good showing could lead to an NHL contract; either with New Jersey or another franchise.

Lamoriello is generally quite loyal to his players, so it's not exactly shocking that he's giving a former star for his team a chance to rejuvenate his career.

While Gomez's best days are long behind him, he's still a serviceable NHL player and bringing him in to compete for a roster spot can't hurt the team in any way, shape or form. If he's good and plays himself into a contract, that's obviously a positive for the team. If he struggles to keep up, he still provided competition for some of the kids trying to make their way through the system.

Gomez scored just four goals and posted 27 points over 85 games during the last two seasons. He was playing somewhat limited minutes with San Jose and Florida, but those numbers aren't going to excite anyone. On first glance, it's hard to see someone who's on the wrong side of 30 and has averaged just over .30 points per game during the last two seasons providing much help for an offensively challenged team.

Gomez does have one thing going for him, though: he has a history of playing with Mike Cammalleri, and the two fared quite well together.

That duo hasn't played together since 2011-12, but they were effective over a moderate sample size while they were in Montreal.



Those are some encouraging numbers, and if Gomez has the opportunity to play with Cammalleri in camp and they can rekindle that chemistry, it could certainly help Gomez's case for making the team.

Another thing he has going for him is that he's a natural center, and that the team's four naturals are Travis Zajac, Adam Henrique, Jacob Josefson and to a lesser extent Stephen Gionta. If Josefson doesn't perform and the team is more comfortable with Gomez down the middle than a guy like Dainius Zubrus pivoting a line, it could make sense to keep Gomez around. That, of course, is assuming he plays well.

Gomez may not have the inside track on a roster spot, but he probably has a better chance of making the team than most think.

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