The Devils play their regular season opener in less than a week, and they still have plenty of roster decisions to make.
Among them is what to do with the 4th line, and on the backend.
Some thoughts:
- I'm really not sure why Cam Janssen is still in camp. Sure, he's been a good soldier to the team over the years and there was a string of games last year where he actually played relatively well, but they have plenty of 4th line options; all of which are better than him. Sure Janssen will fight until the cows come home, but besides that he doesn't do much else. If Pete DeBoer and the Devils front office are hellbent on keeping players who will fight, then Ryan Carter and Jordin Tootoo are much better options. Obviously they aren't going to drop the mitts every couple games like Janssen would, but they'll fight when they have to and are much better players.
- I can't say enough about how well Damon Severson has played in camp. Seth Helgeson has been surprisingly good, too, but you could easily make a case that Severson has been one of the team's top-4 defensemen in camp. Last night's game wasn't televised, but he was the 3rd star, logged over 22 minutes and posted excellent possession numbers so it's probably safe to assume he played very well once again.
Here's the up to date possession numbers for Devils defensemen in the preseason. The amount of games played is in brackets.
My money is still on Severson starting the year in Albany, but he very well may force his way onto the team.
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