Travis Zajac Being Shopped by the New Jersey Devils: Brian Burke Better Call

With Ilya Kovalchuk's name finally on a contract, the New Jersey Devils now have to shed around $3.5 to 4 million off their total salary. Many have been saying that Danius Zubrus, Bryce Salvador, and possibly Brian Rolston would be the most likely candidates to be shipped out. The problem with trying to trade Zubrus and Salvadore is that that teams trading for them would want high draft picks coming with them.

Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun reported yesterday that Devils GM Lou Lamoriello is not happy with the idea of trading away draft picks and has been quietly shopping Travis Zajac. If that is indeed true, I sure hope Brian Burke has been whispering into his phone the past couple of days.

While the Maple Leafs also have their salary cap issues, Travis Zajac would a great addition to the Leafs and would help shore up the center position. We would most likely have to give up a prospect or two with a draft pick.

Now, to any Leafs fan that says they shouldn't give up any of their prospects or draft picks, just imagine a first line of Zajac centering Kris Versteeg and Phil Kessel. Even if you put Nikolai Kulemin there instead of Versteeg, that would be one of the most feared lines in the Eastern Conference.

Zajac, 25, compiled 25 goals and 42 assists for 67 points in 82 games last season with the Devils. He is also regular power-play contributor and penalty-killer.

The questions are what prospects would New Jersey want in return and how high would the draft pick would be? If we could make this trade without giving up Jerry D'Amigo, someone I think Lamoriello would want, I would consider this a win-win for the Leafs.

If we could send them a package of Dale Mitchell, Mikhail Stefanovich, Korbinian Holzer, and our third-round draft pick this year for Zajac, then both sides get what they need. Toronto gets a player that will give us strength down the middle, and New Jersey sheds salary and acquires a package of prospects and a draft pick.

According to capgeek, with that trade we would then be over the cap by $5.88 million. Sending Jeff Finger to the Toronto Marlies takes the amount down to $2.38 million over the cap. Then taking into account that at least two or three of John Mitchell, Christian Hanson, Luca Caputi, Matt Lashoff, and Brett Lebda will be sent down to the Marlies, that takes around $500,000 over the cap.

One way to completely take away this problem is to trade Tomas Kaberle for prospects and a pick, I don't care who from. Let him choose the team and make sure we get at least a second rounder this year out of the deal. Trading Kaberle and not taking back any salary in return gives us $3.8 million in cap room. Getting rid of the nuisance that is Mikhail Grabovski would also help the salary issue.

Now I'm not saying this will happen, because most likely it won't. There are just too many things in the way, but if Burke could figure out a way to make this deal happen, it would not just make a lot of Leaf fans happy, but it would vault the Leafs right back into playoff contention.

So what do you guys think? Agree or disagree?