The Devils' Offseason To Date

in his career. The season after the 48-goal outburst, Gionta was still playing alongside Gomez, but fell far short of the previous season's stats.

The Canadiens took on two long, bad contracts with no guarantee of results. Meanwhile, thanks to the new players, the Candiens have let go of Alexei Kovalev and longtime captain Saku Koivu.

The Blackhawks have taken on a lot of new players, and are now over the cap, despite not having signed Calder Trophy candidate Kris Versteeg. For all their moves, they're extremely cap-strapped, and will lose a significant young player in the process.

Meanwhile, the Devils will remain well under the cap, and will replace their losses with a youth movement. This strategy has worked well for the Devils in the past, but that's no guarantee it will work now.

But Lamoriello doesn't only have this year to consider. The NHL will play again next season, and the salary cap is expected to drop significantly. With so many teams so close to the cap, many tough decisions will have to be made, and bad contracts will do severe damage to many teams. Lamoriello will have none of that.

It's an interesting strategy, and I think Lamoriello is making the right decision. While it's frustrating to watch players leave and none come in, it would be downright awful to be trapped under bad contracts. So many teams have, and will have, this trouble, and the Devils won't. That's a good thing.

And it's not like they've sat back and lazily watched everyone move. They've looked at players who they felt would be affordable, only to see them sign elsewhere.

Scott Niedermayer was pursued by his former team, but he re-upped with the Ducks without any hesitation. Saku Koivu was also recruited, but he ultimately also signed with the Ducks.

While Koivu's one-year, $3.25 million deal looks so attainable from a Devils' fan's standpoint, keep in mind that this probably wasn't available to the Devils. Koivu was offered more money to play in Chicago, but turned it down because he wasn't offered a fourth year.

He's taking a pay cut and a short contract to play where he thinks he can win NOW, like Karl Malone and Gary Payton did with the Lakers. He also wanted to play with Teemu Selanne, who is retiring after the year.

The Devils would have had to do better than the Blackhawks to bring him in, and that wasn't happening, especially since Koivu is 34 years old.

There are still free agents available and I'm sure a move will be made. Perhaps Derek Morris can be had for very cheap now. He'd be a top-four defenseman on this team.

And while Jason Williams isn't an ideal player, he could be an affordable option at center. Lou could supplement his roster with cheap players that would improve the team without costing it too much, and it would be the best way to go.

I think the Madden move was a mistake, I wish we could have brought back Gionta, and if Koivu could have been acquired for that kind of contract, we should have taken him.

But overall, the offseason has been an odd success for the Devils, even if the results won't be seen until later.

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