Now seeing the Devils have 22 signed players and around 2 mil left in cap space I believe Lou is going to have to trade some players away for cap space and roster spots if he intends to keep improving the Devils (especially on defense). Here are some teams that have roster spot and cap flexibility. TheDevils will probably take younger players (minors) or picks in return (unless it's a big trade involving a offensive defenseman). I'll list the teams with the amount of players they have signed, their cap space and their important RFA's or UFA's that they have.
Atlanta - They have 14 players signed and have 31mil in cap space, RFA - Lehtonen. They offered Campbell the most money but lost out. Will have a hard time recuiting UFA's to go there.
Buffalo - They have 17 players signed and have 14 mil in cap space. RFA's - Bernier and Paille. If they sign those two then I'm not sure how much more they be willing to bring in.
Carolina - They have 15 players signed and have 15mil in cap space. RFA's - Pitkanen, Seidenberg and Larose. There in the same boat as Buffalo.
Columbus - They have 15 players signed and 31mil cap space. RFA's - Fritshe, Umberger and LecLaire. All three will be resigned and they might still have enough space to do something big.
Colorado - They have 15 players signed and have 15 mil in cap space -RFA's - Svatos and Wolski. They both will be back but what do they do with their UFA's in Sakic and Forsberg? Maybe if one or both leave they might be incline to do something.
LA Kings - They have 13 players signed and 30 mil in cap space. RFA's O'Sullivan and Stoll with the later definitely coming back. They also have Blake and Nagy as UFA's but maybe only Blake would becoming back. They also need a goalie but have plenty of spots and cap space to make a few moves.
Nashville - They have 18 players signed and 14mil in cap space. RFA's - Klein and Koistinen. They might not make a big slash in free agency but might look through the trade route instead.
Minnesota - They have 14 players signed and 18 mil in cap space. RFA's Bouchard, Veilleux and Foster. They look like they want to bring in at least one big free agent but if they lose out maybe they look for a trade instead.
Islanders - They have 16 players signed and 20 mil cap space. RFA's - Bergenheim. It looks like Satan and Fedotenko might be leaving and like Atlanta, will have a hard time convincing UFA's to go there unless they are way overpayed (Streit).
Phoenix - They have 15 players signed and 20 mil in cap space. RFA's - Jones, M.Hossa, Perrault and Carcillo. They just got Jokinen so they'll be looking to bring in others to play with him.
Vancouver - They have 17 players signed and 18 mil in cap space. RFA's - none but they have UFA's in Naslund, Morrison and Miller. They seem to want to make a big splash (10 mil a year to Sundin) in the free agent market but if the big ones shut them out they seem to always be in contact with the Devils (especially ine rumor mills).
My opinon is that the Devils will have to do a salary dump (Vishnevski, White, Gionta) to either to sign more free agents or pick up somebody else's salary dump (Schneider - ANA).
