Who Should the Devils Trade/Waive to Dump Salary?

With the deadline approaching fast (3:00 PM Wednesday), the Devils are running out of time to dump salary and get under the cap.  So far they have yet to make any moves, and nobody is reporting any rumors of possible trades (except for Eklund, so like I said, nobody).  Speculation is on the rise, however, by fans and reporters alike.  Allow me to offer my two cents worth about who the Devils should move.

I think the Devils should trade/waive Dainius Zubrus.  Don't get me wrong.  I like the guy.  I really loved watching the Parise-Zajac-Zubrus line when Lemaire decided to put them together and in my opinion he was the best Devils skater in the playoffs this past year.  But it's a numbers game.

Zubrus is a forward.  A very versatile forward, but a forward nonetheless.  And that's important because the defense has looked pretty shaky in the preseason.  A lot of people, I think, would rather waive Colin White than get rid of Zubrus.  But with Salvador out with a concussion, would people really want to lose another solid defenseman on top of that?  And that's exactly what White is at this point: solid.  He would most likely anchor the third pair (Greene-Volchenkov, Tallinder-Urbom/young player, White-?).  If you take White out of the D, you're left with three rookies/young guys as the bottom three defensemen.  Considering how defense is the hardest position to learn, I don't think that's smart at all.  So, yes, at this point, Zubrus is slightly more expendable than White.

While the defense for the Devils isn't exactly the deepest pond in the park, they lack hardly any talent at forward.  Their top-six is stacked, no matter how you set the lines (Parise, Zajac, Kovalchuk, Elias, Arnott, Langenbrunner).  Their bottom-six (where Zubrus would likely play) isn't too shabby either, all things considered.  It would be much easier to replace Zubrus with prospects in the system than it would be to replace White.

Zubrus also has a cap hit of $3.4 million.  No matter how you spin it, he's overpaid, though not a waste.  However, there's guys like Bill Guerin that are still looking for teams and probably won't cost more than $1 million.  Adam Mair is definitely one of those guys, who is currently with the team as a tryout and, like Zubrus, can play all three forward positions.

Some people agree with the idea that it would be better for the team to trade a forward than a defenseman, yet they think it should be more valuable players, because the Devils could get more for them.  Let me ask this: Are you really willing to give up Jamie Langenbrunner, Travis Zajac, or David Clarkson (Lou would be on drugs if he traded Zajac) instead of Zubrus because the Devils would get a first or second round draft pick instead of a fifth or sixth rounder?

I know that Langenbrunner is pretty much the favorite to use as a scapegoat all around the Devils' fanbase, but the guy is the captain and has never had a bad word spoken about his leadership.  He also comes at $2.8 million cap hit for the 60 points he can put up.  You can't honestly sit there and tell me you think a 30-40 point Zubrus on the third line is better than a 50-60 point Langenbrunner in the top-six.

I think it's pretty obvious why Zajac shouldn't be traded but just one more thing concerning both Langenbrunner and Clarkson: they're both right wings.  If one of the two is traded, you're left with Kovalchuk playing right wing and one of either Langenbrunner or Clarkson as definite rightwings.  And then who do we have?  Zubrus and Pelley on the third and fourth lines?  Or maybe prospects such as Nick Palmieri, Vladimir Zharkov, or Matt Corrente get called up to play right wing.

So, in conclusion, it's not that I don't think Zubrus is a useless and overpaid waste of space; it's that due to the positional depth on this team, Zubrus is the most expendable.  Also, I'm aware that other moves would need to be made at some point, depending on if Salvador gets placed on LTIR or not.  But Zubrus is my prime candidate to be moved.