Devils Sit Back

The Devils are another team that has done very little to improve their team from the open market on the immediate face of the team. They managed to add defenseman Cory Murphy and back-up goalie Yann Danis to new 1-year deals, but that seems to be all that's changed in New Jersey at the moment.

There was one signing that did spark an eyebrow or two to raise. Ilkka Pikkarainen was signed from Europe to a 1-year deal and there is an understanding that he'll be ready to make the jump into the line-up immediately, but that remains to be seen.

I would be looking for Matt Halischuk to make the jump to the bigs this season, finally, as the Devils will be looking for another key centre to take on plenty of responsibility.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Zach Parise	Paul Martin	Martin Brodeur
Patrik Elias	Johnny Oduya	Yann Danis
Jamie Langenbrunner	Colin White
Tomas Zajac	Cory Murphy
Dainius Zubrus	Bryce Salvador
David Clarkson	Mike Mottau
Brian Rolston	Andy Greene
Jay Pandolfo

The Devils will likely be looking to fill up their depth positions at forward before the start of training camp and they should have plenty of room for it. They are currently sitting at 17 players (see above) at a salary cap hit of $48.5 million. If Pikkarainen and Halischuk were to make the jump, their numbers are not detrimental to any other signings or additions, which means really good things for the Jersey camp.

The Devils, thanks to their signing of Tomas Zajac on Wednesday, have no more RFAs left to sign this summer.