I don't think Gomez will stay a Devil, before they signed him, they has $70,000 left in cap room, and he got arbitrated $5 million. You do the math. Either he is gonna have to go, or 1 or more of his teammates.

 

I think 'The Eagle' will only be playing about 40 or 50 games this year. Florida also picked up Alex Auld from Vancouver last year who was their #1. At Belfour's age, he isn't able to play 65+ games anymore without injuring himself, but he still has the potential to be a good goalie. Thus, if he and Auld split the time between the pipes, and Florida runs a team with 2 #1 goalies, they should be able to let Eddy do what he does best, to the best of his abilities, without getting injured. All the while, getting Auld the experience he needs to become a full time first string goalie for when Eddy retires (likely at the end of next season).

 

Mogilny and Malakhov, both signed before the lockout and one retired, the other grossly overpaid, are counting for $7.1 of the Devil's cap. NJ is getting hurt badly by contracts signed pre-lockout which were good then, but terrible now (Rafalski at $4.2 mil? ). Sure would be nice to have reverse arbitration for dead weight players.

They don't have Gionta under contract yet (if Gomez got $5 mil, Gionta should get $4-5 mil if he can't get a new deal). Paul Martin and Dave Hale are also RFAs who should command around $1.1-1.3 mil salaries. They signed Jordan Parise to be their backup Goalie (and potential successor of Marty) but I don't know for what (probably $750k).

They have 7 defensemen (including Martin and Hale) so one is expendable; probably Matvichuck or McGillis if anyone is desparate for mediocre slow D-men.

All told... The Devils have about $52 million tied up. They need to dump $8 mil. The ideal way would be to trade Malakhov and a 3rd rounder to Washington or Pittsburgh (both under the cap minimum) for a 4th rounder... Same with Mogilny... Trade Gomer for a 1st rounder and a 2nd line center in the $2.5-3 mil range. That should get them to $44 mil, costing them Gomer and a slight drop in draft value.

 

Belfour would be a decent backup for 10-15 games. Anyone expecting him to go out and win 20 games is a fool.

 

That's probably why he's only making $750,000 compared to the $4.56 mil he made last season

 

I suspect Florida is hoping Auld will win them 25 games.

 

Jason Williams re-signed with the Detroit Red Wings

 

And the Devils took Gomez's arbitration ruling and signed him at $5 mil for the year.

 

Hasek signed on with the Wings for 1 more year

 

Who is his backup? Just trying to figure out who'll be doing the duty in the playoffs after Hasek gives up on the season after 25 games.