Devils place Brian Rolston on waivers, Salmela to play against Phoenix, Lamoriello admits being too patient

In a small act of desperation to try to get under the NHL's salary cap, the struggling New Jersey Devils have placed struggling forward Brian Rolston on waivers. If Rolston is claimed, the Devils would rid themselves of $5.025 Million dollars in yearly salary, but if not, Rolston is expected to play tomorrow against Phoenix. If Rolston were assigned to the minors, his salary would still count against the cap, because he is over the age of 35, but if recalled on re-entry waivers and claimed, the Devils would only pay half of his salary. It is unlikely he would get claimed, but Lou Lamoriello would not specify what would happen beyond him clearing waivers tomorrow at noon if nobody picks him up.

Lou Lamoriello admitted being too overly patient and somehow thought the team would get out of its funk sooner, but failed miserably and are falling too far behind in the race for the 8th and final playoff spot. It seems as if Lou Lamoriello has started the process of trying to make the team better, but it will be a slow process due to the numbers in trade-able player contracts. They are currently 18 points out with no looming hope of at least starting to win games. The Devils in my mind will miss the playoffs, but they can make the fans somehow happy and start winning games. As I mentioned it is only a matter of time before MacLean gets the axe, when it happens nobody know though Lou somehow is still standing by the coach, but the fans are not. Number of days off between games will not factor into Lou's decision to fire the coach, so whether its less than a day, 24 hours, 3 days, a week, it will make no difference to Lou.

Defenseman Anssi Salmela will make his return to the Devils line-up tomorrow night against Phoenix. He will wear #29, the same number he wore last year. Salmela is coming off a torn ACL and Meniscus and had off-season surgery to repair the knee. He will be paired with Anton Volchenkov. Salmela is a puck mover, but not a great puck mover. He is expected to somewhat help the Devils struggling power play. The Devils also recalled center Tim Sestito for a second time. It is expected that center Jacob Josefson will soon return as well by the end of the month.