As tweeted by Mirtle and confirmed by Gulitti, the Devils have made a trade.  They have sent a conditional draft pick to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for the Tim Sestito.

Sestito's rise in professional is a nice story. According to this profile at Hockey's Future, he went through the OHL undrafted, but he was invited to the Oilers training camp and did well enough to make it to the main training camp.  He was then signed to Greenville of the ECHL, worked his way up to Springfield of the AHL and even got a game with the Oilers last season.  An example of what hard work and tenaciousness can do for a player in pro hockey.

Per his stats via NHL.com, well, let's just say he's never been an offensive force in professional hockey.  Penalty minutes? Yes.  Points? Not so many.  The talent analysis at HF is in line with this, so I expect this to really be a depth move for Lowell.  After all, with Rod Pelley penciled in to be in New Jersey next season among other potential forwards; Lowell will need forwards, especially centers. Hopefully, he fits in well and helps them out as the Devils' minor league teams haven't been all that competitive for years now.  As far as the conditional pick goes, I can't imagine it being too high of a pick unless Sestito becomes a serious player.  And in that case, I really wouldn't care!   I'm fine with the trade, minor as it may be.

In the meanwhile, Gulitti forwards this blurb about the coaching situation. That is, it will still be vacant in the forseeable future.

OK, I get what Gulitti's saying and he is right.  It is a long summer.  The prospects will most likely not be coached directly by the new coach unless they do well in preseason anyway.  Scouts and management (most likely Lou) will be looking at them, I'm sure.  Still, even I'm beginning to wonder what the deal is here.  Also, I'd be pretty shocked if it eventually was Jacques Lemaire, who hasn't been quiet about being available.  As more time passes, the more I think Lou is looking at someone else entirely.   No idea who though, I'm really thinking out loud here.

By the way, I will not comment about Sergei Zubov.  I will, however, say that I have updated the Claude Lemieux post with links to videos of some great playoff goals that he's scored for New Jersey.  I know I should have done that when I was writing it and it wasn't until I was thinking about it earlier today (yeah, I think about ILWT away from it, I know) that I realized that.  And while you're here,  I would also recommend checking out this analysis I did where I concluded the Devils have been the second best team in the NHL since 1993-94.   Not just because it went up during the holiday weekend or because it has charts and records of every other team since 1993-94; but because Devils fans need to recognize that our favorite team has been doing more than just pretty well for quite a long time.