The New Jersey Devils will be opening up their training camp this week and they had released their training camp roster this morning. They have also combined their rookies in with their veterans, so there is no separation on my chart between the two. The Devils were a busy team in the off-season, with more matters than just the Ilya Kovalchuk contract fiasco. They were able to acquire some new faces on top of that move and help shore up some gaps in the defense. I think with some of the defensive improvements, it will definitely make Martin Brodeur's stock rise a little, likely giving them a few more wins to play with.
| Forwards | Defense | Goalies |
| Ilya Kovalchuk | Andy Greene | Martin Brodeur |
| Zach Parise | Henrik Tallinder | Johan Hedberg |
| Tomas Zajac | Bryce Salvador | |
| Jamie Langenbrunner | Anton Volchenkov | |
| Patrik Elias | Colin White | |
| Jason Arnott | Anssi Salmela | |
| Brian Rolston | Mark Fraser | |
| Dainius Zubrus | ||
| David Clarkson | ||
| Rod Pelley | ||
| Vladimir Zharkov | ||
| Pierre Letourneau-Leblond | ||
| Patrick Davis | Tyler Eckford | Jeff Frazee |
| Tim Sestito | Matt Corrente | Dave Caruso |
| Nick Palmieri | Rob Davison | Maxime Clermont |
| J-S Berube | Eric Gelinas | Mike McKenna |
| Kevin Cormier | Dan Kelly | Shane Owen |
| Stephen Gionta | Harry Young | Scott Wedgewood |
| Adam Henrique | Mark Fayne | |
| Jacob Josefson | Olivier Magnan-Grenier | |
| David McIntyre | Tyler Miller | |
| Nathan Perkovich | Chris Murray | |
| Mattias Tedenby | Matt Taormina | |
| Alexander Vasyunov | Alexander Urbom | |
| Chad Wiseman | ||
| Kory Nagy | ||
| Louis Robitaille | ||
| Brad Mills | ||
| Michael Swift | ||
| Matt Anderson | ||
| Trevor Kell | ||
| Thomas Nesbitt | ||
| Marcus Nilson | ||
| Myles Stoesz | ||
| Darcy Zajac |
With the Kovalchuk contract taking up more cap room than initially hoped, the Devils are now in a bit of a scramble mode to find some extra space. With 12 forwards, seven defense, two goalies and a pair of buyouts on their books, the Devils are sitting with an annual cap hit of $63.1 million, well above the cap ceiling of $59.4 million. There has been plenty of speculation as to who might be the unlucky castaway from this line-up, but I think the Devils are going to be taking what they have into camp and making a more informed decision from there.
The Devils are going to be a popular team at the draft this year, with scoring talents like Kovalchuk and Zach Parise likely going early, while Brodeur may also get a 1st round selection, with the expectation that the Devils will win some games. This may also be a pretty good year for some younger talent to emerge for the Devils, looking at Mattias Tedenby or Jacob Josefson to step up and fill a scoring role, likely down the middle on the 2nd line. You don't normally think of scoring when you think about New Jersey, but this team might sway your notions in the opposite direction.
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