The New Jersey Devils star forward, Ilya Kovalchuk, recently retired from the NHL. While Kovalchuk went to play in Russia his former team has some big holes to fill. The Devils, who ha a lot of trouble scoring goals last season lost two of their top scoters in Kovalchuk and David Clarkson who signed with the Maple Leafs this offseason, need to find someone to help replace Kovalchuk and Clarkson's goal-scoring. The team recently signed injury-prone Ryan Clowe who scored 3, yes three goals for the New York Rangers last year. The other free-agent the Devils signed is the aging Michael Ryder. Ryder is an underachieving winger who most recently played for the Stars in one of his worst seasons. Since it looks like free agency won't be the answer to the Devils scoring woes, who could replace Kovalchuk? The answer, two rising stars, Thomas Vanek and Damien Brunner. Vanek played in Buffalo last season and would need to be traded for, and Brunner played in Detroit alongside future hall-of-famers Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg he would need to be signed as an unrestricted free-agent.
Since Brunner will likely be the replacement the Devils can only hope that the 27 year-old can take a giant leap and assume second line even possibly first line winger this season. Another possible signing could be 41 year-old Jaromir Jagr. Even though Jagr has a great 1.21 points per game rate, Jagr is gettin old and his play in last year's Stanley Cup Finals against the Chicago BlackHawks is certainly showing his age. Jagr certainly was a great player but not anymore. The Devils future is looking bleak; they have no first round pick in next years NHL Entry draft, because of Kovalchuk's massive contract. If the Devils have one thing they do have cap-space now that Kovalchuk is not on the team. Hopefuly, for the good of the organization Lou Lamoriello can figure something out, knowing the Devils organization...he will.
Jake Baresich
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