‘amen’ to everything you said, except that, IMHO their only real need is a playmaking center and we’ll just have to wait & see that that plays out…if memory serves, last year they didn’t sign rolston until most of the other ‘name’ UFAs were already signed to their new contracts

Madden has now signed with the hawks. The devils are sitting on their ass and not making any moves, this is painful for all devils fans who are still in pain from the painful game 7 defeat to the canes.

I was pretty elated last year when the Devils went out and signed Brian Rolston and Bobby Holik on July 1. This year, Mr. Lamoriello’s big signing (tongue in cheek) of Andy Greene has me even more excited.

Our number one priority going into the offseason was re-upping Johnny Oduya. Lou locked him up at a reasonable salary for three years. Yesterday I thought it was a market value signing. Seeing some of the deals today and I think you could argue that Oduya took less than market value to stay in red and black. Good job there.

Furthermore, we needed to keep our depth on the blue line and resigning Andy Greene did just that. While Andy Greene isn’t the second coming of Bobby Orr, he’s 26, a great skater and a reliable 3rd pairing defenseman. He comes in at a bargain price. He’s proven that he can come in and shoulder a pretty solid workload, even if he’s been a healthy scratch for a number of games. Having a player who is ready to go at the drop of a hat is a huge plus, especially when the bumps and bruises of an 82 game season catch up with the Devils D-corp. Additionally, he’s still young. JohnnyO didn’t come into his own until that age. Perhaps Greene is also a late bloomer. Even if he never reaches Oduya’s levels, he’s still a serviceable player, especially at a cap hit of $735,000.

The departure of Brian Gionta clears the way for Brian Rolston to assume a more prominent role in the top 6. A healthy Rolston can carry much of the load that Gionta did last season. People all too quickly forget that Rolston had a serious high-ankle sprain last season and spent much of the year playing with the bottom pairings. Rolston steps up next year in a big way.

Right now we have about $11 million in cap space left. That’s a pretty nice luxury with a pretty full roster right now. It gives us options both internally, allowing some of the prospects to come into more prominent roles, and externally by allowing us to sign someone if it is a good situation.

The last order of business is re-upping RFA Travis Zajac. I’d love to see Travis inked to a 4-year deal for about $3 million a year, but I would be neither surprised nor upset to see him get an even bigger raise. We re-sign Zajac and our top line is set.

I’d also like to address the hypocrisy of Devils fans for a moment. As the Devils skidded into the playoffs (and I say this with some hesitance, as they won 4 out of the final 5), fans were calling for Brent Sutter to be fired. Then after the shocking Game 7 loss to the Hurricanes, the fire Sutter chatter only intensified. Fast forward to Sutter leaving, and people were shocked by the decision and felt betrayed. While those feelings aren’t without merit, you can’t have it both ways folks. You can’t be kicking the guy to the curb and then be upset when he leaves.

The same thing can be said for Brian Gionta. Fans were displeased with Gionta for a lack of productivity, essentially since he signed the contract paying him $4 million a year after his 48 goal season. Looking over the fact that he came off his second most productive year this season, is he really worth $5 million a year over 5 years? I say absolutely not. I’m sure Gio is a good guy and that he pays his taxes (have fun taking a 20% haircut in MTL Brian!) every year on time, but he’s not a $5 million a year player. Such a contract would cripple our cap situation for years to come, making it harder to re-sign Parise in 2 years and field a capable team. Furthermore, had Lou made the same/similar offer and Gio produced at the same levels as before how would people react? I’ll take the bait. Not well. Again, I’m sad to see Gio go, but for at that price point, I’ll pass.

Also, during the season and after the aforementioned Game 7 (forgetting for a moment that Madden wasn’t on the ice for the tying goal and that Colin White made an ill advised decision to step up on the blue line leading to the winning goal) many were saying the game had passed Madden by. While I’m sad to see him go, because he was such an integral part of the Devils, how can you be upset that he has moved on to Chicago? If the game has truly passed him by like many insist, why is a bad thing for him to go be over-the-hill in Chicago? I don’t think the game has passed him by but I also wasn’t too keen on bringing a 36 year-old, defense oriented player back at almost $3 million.

I’m sorry for the long post but seeing some of the comments from Devils fans in the past few weeks has left me befuddled. Looking forward to hearing about how prospects camp goes in a couple weeks and the start of the season. I really think we’ll all be pleasantly surprised at how the Devils perform for the 2009-2010 season. As the name of the blog suggests, In Lou We Trust.

I am tired of hearing these fans,"why did lou not sign X’ if you have followed the team for the past few years you would see that Lou never makes big moves for free agents. If you want to see big names and no wins go watch the Rangers. Otherwise shut up. In Lou we trust.