Jason Arnott Reacquired By New Jersey Devils

The New Jersey Devils made their first major change of the offseason by naming John MacLean as their new Head Coach . They followed that up by filling a void at the center position, by once again dipping into their past and Devils re-acquire Jason Arnott" target="_blank">reacquiring Jason Arnott from the Nashville Predators .

In return, the Devils gave up young winger Matt Halischuk and a 2011 second round draft pick. Arnott, 35, will likely be reunited with LW Patrik Elias, who formed two-thirds of the famous "A-Line" along with Petr Sykora. Arnott's most famous moment was scoring the Stanley Cup winning goal in the second overtime of Game Six of the 2000 Stanley Cup Finals against the Dallas Stars.

Contract-wise, Arnott is in the last year of a five-year, $22.5 million contract he had signed with the Predators before the 2006-07 season. He fills a definite void by providing the Devils a top six center to pair with Travis Zajac, a void the Devils have had since the departure of Scott Gomez after the 2006-07 season to free agency.

Arnott has scored 383 goals and added 490 assists in 1099 career games with the Edmonton Oilers, Devils, Dallas Stars, and Predators. In 302 games with the Devils he  scored 97 goals with 124 assists. Arnott could provide some help not only to the center position, but by adding a dimension of size the Devils have been lacking, as well as a strong shot to the power play.

Coming off three straight first round departures, the Devils hinted there would be changes this offseason, and this is definitely a strong indication of what might be GM Lou Lamoriello's plan to reload for the 2010-11 season.  Next on the list of things for Lamoriello to work on is to upgrade the back line.  

The next priority is to try to re-sign unrestricted free agents-to-be, Paul Martin and Ilya Kovalchuk. It may be tough to re-sign both and fit them under the cap, but one great thing about bringing in Arnott is with only one year left on Arnott's contract, it should allow Lamoriello to keep the flexibility he will need next offseason to re-sign Zach Parise, who will then be a restricted free agent.