Picturing Parise as a Sabre

That the Devils would have quite a bit of interest in Enroth. Yes, or no?

While I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing Parise in a Sabres uniform this year it doesn’t seem very plausible.

Despite the Kovulchuk signing, I still see Parise as the face of the Devils franchise and with Brouduer possibly only having a few good years left in him I can’t imagine they would be willing to sell their star player and fan favorite. With their recent pickup of a pair of quality d-men, I would guess they try to free up some cap space by dropping someone like Bryce Salvador (2.90 cap hit) or maybe Dainius Zubrus (3.40 cap hit). Jason Arnott (4.5 cap hit) also becomes a free agent next year which will open more space for a Parise resigning.

As for acquiring Parise, I wouldn’t be willing to make a giant offer for a player with one year left on his contract so an extension would need to be part of the deal. I wouldn’t mind a RFA offer, but I doubt it would come very cheap.

1) Yes, yes it would. So would Zubrus’ $3.4m cap hit. I know which one I’d bet on getting traded first.

While true it would put them under the cap by about $150k, they’d still have to replace his spot on the roster and find a 13th forward, which doesn’t work out even if both spots are filled at league minimum $500k deals. Plus, it still leaves zero room for moves during the year if they’re needed.

That means someone else will have to go also. If trading Zach alone would solve everything, I might be able to see an argument for it (it’d still have to be a pretty good one), but since no matter how it’s done it’s going to take the movement of at least two players, I see very little possibility of Parise being one of them.

2) No, he’s still the best one.

3) They’re losing a 3rd rounder, which they’ve notoriously done poorly with in the past, and a (likely late) first rounder during any of the next four years they choose. Losing them is rough, but it’s not at all crippling. Recouping them will not be a priority.

That being said, many of his other high priced players have too many years at too many dollars left on their contracts and would be more difficult to move.

Most of the players with NTC/NMCs are part of the core (Volchenkov, Brodeur, Elias, Kovalchuk), were just recently acquired (Arnott, Hedberg), or are on a bargain contract (Langenbrunner) and wouldn’t be moved anyway. Arnott, Hedberg and Langenbrunner (combined $8.8m) only have one year left on their deals and will be coming off the books just in time for Parise’s raise.

The lone contract that fits your description is Rolston’s. His is definitely hand-cuffing the team, and there is some hope that a deal might be worked out to have him picked up on re-entry waivers.

Why this trade won’t work: Do the Devils really want to trade away a player that could help them contend for the Atlantic Division if not the Eastern Conference or Stanley Cup?

The answer is an emphatic no. The team is quite obviously in ‘win-now’ mode, so trading a top 10 forward, and the ‘1’ in the proverbial ‘1-2 punch’ for some prospects that are either unnecessary (the team has a glut at LW) or similar to what they already have and picks they aren’t concerned with recouping would be counter-productive to their goal to win another Cup for Marty while the fast-closing window is still open.

The Devils are already $3.5m over the cap having signed only 21 players. Add two more, and the fact that some of their most expensive contracts are tied to players like Rolston and Elias who have no trade contracts.

And they can’t cull their lesser paid players because these people will still need to be replaced.

With Tedenby down at the farm, they’ve got a future LW coming through and put simply trading Parise for value in terms of prospects and draft picks makes sense especially as they now have the Russian signed for the rest of his career.

As for Parise and Vanek, there is no reason to think that at some point we might look to move Vanek.

We will see Parise in a Sabres jersey the day monkeys fly out of my butt…