Devils In Need

The New Jersey Devils have been left with some holes to fill losing Scott Gomez and Brian Rafalski to free agency of late. On Tuesday, the Devils signed Russian defender, Vitali Vishnevski, to a 3-year deal that will pay him $5.4 million.

Last season, Vishnevski played 67 games and registered 13 points, including 3 goals, which put him 512th on the pool list, 127th among defensemen. If there's a full 82 games played, Vishnevski should appear on a team's radar, as his point production isn't too bad.

Patrik Elias	Brian Gionta	Zach Parise *
Jamie Langenbrunner	Dainius Zubrus	Tomas Zajac
Sergei Brylin	John Madden	Jay Pandolfo
David Clarkson	Mike Rupp	Cam Janssen *

Karel Rachunek	Paul Martin *
Vitali Vishnevski	Colin White
Andy Greene	Richard Matvichuk

Martin Brodeur

Kevin Weekes

Now, they haven't managed to actually replace what they've lost as of yet. Acquisitions like Rachunek and Vishnevski don't quite go as far as replacing Rafalski and they Dainius Zubrus isn't quite the same as Scott Gomez, so the Devils have really fallen off the map a bit. Fortunately, they still have the best ranked player in the league in Martin Brodeur, so they do have a lot to build from.

Cap-wise, the Devils are barely cracking the $30-million mark, which is a far cry from the days when they were struggling to stay below the cap. The Devils are not brimming with top level prospects... years of finishing high in the standings will do that to a team... and the level of free agents out there is dwindling rapidly, so the Devils may have some struggles this year. It's pretty safe to say, the Devils will only go as far as their scoring will take them, since Brodeur is pretty much a rock in net.


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