New Jersey Devils moving on without Zach Parise leading the squad -NHL Update
New Jersey Devils certainly did not gain as much as they lost this offseason with the biggest disappointment being the loss of captain, Zach Parise, who signed on with Minnesota Wild to a 13-year, $98 million contract.
Obviously, it was a heart breaking situation for New Jersey as they lost their 17th overall draft pick of the 2003 National Hockey League (NHL) Entry Draft along with a 30-plus goal scoring player.
But fortunately, there were a few things that kept their hopes high. One was Martin Broduer deciding to stay on the squad and leading the goaltending side along with all other players returning to keep the team afloat.
"I think the fact we're not only returning all our defensemen, but returning the number of players we are in general is great," head coach, Peter DeBoer, said. "These players know the expectations here and how we want to play. Maybe it allows us to get into
the details of the game and other areas earlier on where we couldn't last year because of starting from square one."
Lou Lamoriello did not have an easy offseason and even harder free agency but kept working hard as he signed players like Steve Bernier, Ryan Carter and Stephen Gionta. He also picked up Bryce Salvador, Peter Harrold and Mark Fayne.
Zach Parise was not the only contributing factor for New Jersey and the Devils know that very well. It has without a doubt, always been a team effort and now has fans waiting for that announcement on who the new captain will be.
Many have their fingers pointed towards Ilya Kovalchuk, but there can be no definitive answer just yet.
"I can tell you I'm very comfortable with our leadership group," DeBoer said. "I said that even when Zach was here wearing the 'C'. This wasn't a one-man job, and there are a lot of candidates [to be named captain]."
Financial constraints can be termed to be the reason why New Jersey was not able to re-sign Zach Parise to a contract of his choice, but now with all that said and done, Devils will just have to move on and continue fighting to be the great team that they
are.
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