Louie Lams may have finally found his man.

The New Jersey Devils today announced the hiring on Brent Sutter, who replaces Lams behind the bench as head coach for the boys.

Yesterday, Sutter was relieved of his duties with his former team, the Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League.

Brent will be the fourth Sutter to hold a head coaching position in the NHL, following brothers Brian (St. Louis, Boston, Calgary, Chicago), Darryl (Chicago, San Jose, Calgary), and Duane (Florida). Darryl currently holds a position as general manager of the Flames.

PATRICIA SAYS: Should be interesting. The boys certainly won’t take a more offensive approach towards the game with Sutter at the bench, but if he can keep our weak defense looking more like cheddar cheese rather than swiss cheese, I’ll be content.

NOTES: The Devils have signed winger Noah Clarke to a contract. In 13 games with the Los Angeles Kings last season, Clarke registered two goals and skated at a minus-six. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.

As previously reported on 2MA, the Devils officially announced the re-signing of bruiser Cam Janssen. The (literal) Ranger Ryan Hollweg killer re-upped with the team for three years. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The NHL has released the 2007-08 schedule. Hooray!

The Devils open up the season on a nine game road trip, starting in Tampa Bay, hitting the Bolts and then heading to Florida before making an appearance in Ottawa. They’ll close out the trip with a stop at each Atlantic division rival. Yay for early-season implications!

It should also be noted that home games will start at 7 PM ET this season rather than 7:30 PM, as had previously been the start time at the Meadowlands.

2007-08 NEW JERSEY DEVILS REGULAR SEASON SCHEDULE

Our very own 2 Man Advantage has been nominated for a couple awards over at the Blogger’s Choice Awards (link opens in new window.) We’re currently up for “Best Sports Blog,” “Best Blog of All Time,” “Best Blog Design,” and “Best Humor Blog.”

Very awesome.

If you guys love the site and would like to see me smile, head on over to the site and give your vote.

Or not. It’s cool either way.

Thanks for the recognition though!

 

I will not beat around the bush, frustration has been the name of the game this summer for me when it comes to the Devils. I expected Lou to name a head coach long before the Free Agency Open Market got here and every day that he continues to delay with this, the more frustrated I get. The reason for this frustration is that I firmly believe whoever coaches this team should have had some input into whether or not Scott Gomez and Brian Rafalski were important to the direction that he wanted to take the team. Since there is no head coach for this team, that descion rested completely on Lou’s shoulders. I am not saying that you would completely rely on the coaches word about resigning these guys but you need to take these players and the direction the new coach wants to take the team into consideration. At the end of the day it became a money issue and the future head coach may inherit a team he’s not happy with.

My thoughs on the transactions that took place so far:

The Departed:

Scott Gomez - I think we can all collectively agree that we knew this was coming. We knew there would be no #23 with the name Gomez on the back come October. For some reason Scott thought he was worth a lot of money, a lot more than the New Jersey Devils were will to pay and I guess from Scott’s point of view, he was right. I personally think New York completely over paid for him and have once again set a dangerous precident for salary sizes going forward. It doesn’t make sense to me how 13 goals and 47 assists equals the dollar amount he has been given but then again I have only read the book “Moneyball” once in my life, maybe I need to read Glenn Sathers version of it. Will I miss Scott, at times I am sure I will, he had great speed and on the days that he wanted to, he would create some great oppurtunities for his teamates. It will be interesting to watch him respond to the Garden’s booing when he decides to not show up for a stretch of games as we all know he will do.

Brian Rafalski - Again, I am puzzled at the amount of money Detroit threw
at him. I might be a little crazy here but I for one did NOT want Rafalski to return to NJ. In 2005, Lou made it known he had every intention to let Rafalski walk and concentrate on bring Niedermayer back long term. When Niedermayer decided to go help his brother taste championship glory, Lou hit the panic button and brough Rafalski back as the #1 D-man. Rafalski in my mind was a very weak #1 and constantly did things to frustrate me as a fan. Will Brian work in Detroit? I think he will work very well in Detroit, as he did in NJ during the 2000 to 2004 years. Why?? Like those years, he certainly wil not be relied upon as the #1 D-man in Detroit and can get back to certain basics that made him successful early on in NJ.

Brad Lukowich - This one hurt in my opinion. I’ve always felt that the Devils have a certain look and feel. While our rivals across the river like to throw money at the flashiest guys out there, I’ve always thought the Devils were about those guys who would grind out goals and fight tooth and nail for points and their place on the team. Lukowhich was exactly that kind of player. He gave his all and put his heart into the game while he was here and I will miss him.

Scott Clemmensen - What can you say about a goalie that never really got fair playing time. He wrote an article the Hockey News last season about how he didn’t really feel like an NHL goalie due to the lack of minutes. He worried which team would even be interested in him since he never got a chance to show what he was made of. Now he’s off to Toronto and while it is a 2-way contract, I do hope to see him get some time with the Leafs to prove his talent. I only wonder if he will sit down with Tucker and Kaberle and rehash the Cam Janssen hit…

The Arrivals:

Dainius Zubrus - According to his stats, Zubrus look as if he will produce 20+ goals and 30+ assists. He doesn’t strike me as the kind of player who will pass off the puck instead of ripping it on net so I feel he is certainly an upgrade for our offense. I only question where he fits in when it comes to the lines.

Karl Rachunek - Not my favorite signing but its certainly better than the McGillis and Malakhov signing a few years back.

Kevin Weekes - He was injury prone last season with the Rangers but I can honestly say, Kevin Weekes was a goalie I hated facing. It felt like he always had the Devils number when he played against them so I guess Lou went with the advice of “If you can’t beat him, get him to join your team.” Wonder if Mr. Weekes doesn’t mind the possibility of counting the number of starts on one hand? Honestly, it doesn’t matter who your #2 is when Marty is your #1.

Vitaly Vishnevski - To me this is just another average D-man. Stats on this guy certainly aren’t wonderful and I certainly hope Lou doesn’t stop here.

While I am satisfied with the offensive possibilities this team possesses at the present time, I have to say that if I were Marty Brodeur, I would not be feeling to confident with the defense that will be playing in front of me. As it looks right now, our #1 D-man duties will fall on Colin “I Take Lousy Penalties” White or Paul Martin. With news that Souray isn’t really close to signing any contract, I have to hope that the offensive firepower will outweigh the defensive short comings. I worry that the Rangers, Flyers and Penguins will be true playoff contenders and can four teams from the Atlantic Division make the playoffs two years in a row?

Just my two cents…

Well look at that, turns out there was never a deal in place for the Devils to obtain Sheldon Souray.

According to the now-infamous NHL Line, the blogger who had been constantly updating about a “done deal” between Souray and the Devils had either had communication breakdowns with his “source” or was the victim of a prank.

So, in short — it was, in fact, a pile of poo.

Big hit for that site’s credibility, eh? Ah well.

Any Souray rumors will no longer be posted here, nor will we write anything based upon NHL Line observations. Even if the site still has some credibility from it’s other writers, it unfortunately took way too big a blow and is too liable for repeat pranks and bad information.

The New Jersey Devils continue to stockpile defensemen, signing blueliner Vitaly Vishnevski to a three-year contract which will pay him $1.4-million next season.

He will receive $2-million in each of the following two seasons.

Vishnevski split last season between the Atlanta Thrashers and Nashville Predators, appearing in 67 games and posting three goals and ten assists for 13 points.

The 27-year-old Ukrainian was originally selected fifth overall in the 1998 Entry Draft.

UPDATE: [9:01 PM ET, JULY 9] I would like to apologize to Jason at the NHL Line for my comments on his site. I mistook something I thought he had written in his comments section, bashing the fans and readers of his site as “having no life” and “wasting their time by sitting in front of a computer all day.”

Turns out, well, that wasn’t Jason.

Yes, I am woman enough to admit my mistake, (and not many of us are willing to admit any fault whatsoever!) so, well, again…sorry.

Rest in Peace, Souray Saga. You shall not be missed.

[6:45 PM ET, DAY 3] Oh-kay, still no word here. NHL Line (link opens in new window) is reporting that Sheldon Souray has finally reached an agreement with the Devils. That was a couple hours ago. We’re still waiting.

I’m going to go until midnight on this one. If we still don’t hear a formal announcement, I’m dismissing this report and will stop updating The Souray Saga.

Stay tuned…until midnight, at least.

[2:31 PM ET, DAY 3] Now we’re hearing that if there is no announcement today, we are to assume Souray will sign with the Islanders. Wow. This sounds, uh, kind of hard to believe at this point.

[2:10 PM ET, DAY 3] NHL Line (link opens in new window) says Souray-to-Devils is all but done now as Andy Sutton appears to be off to the Island.

[11:34 PM ET, DAY 2] NHL Line (link opens in new window) is now reporting that Souray should sign a contract on Friday. We’ll see. I’ll keep on this story, but it’s quite tiresome trying to sift through the facts and truths from the make-believe and rumors. Hopefully we’ll get an answer tomorrow — I sure as heck am ready for this saga to be over.

[9:35 PM ET, DAY 2] Yeah, so, this so-called report suggested Souray would be a Devil within 4-5 hours.

That was at about 2:30.

It’s been over seven hours now.

I’m calling bull-poopy on this report, folks. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I fear it shall not happen.

Thoughts?

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Weekes will earn about $700,000 a season.

In 14 games with the New York Rangers last season, Weekes, 32, went 4-6-2 with a 3.39 goals against average.

He sat out the remaining two months of the season with a leg injury.

Brad Lukowich is the latest Devil to leave New Jersey.

2MA’s favorite player has bolted (get it?) back to the Tampa Bay Lightning, signing a three-year contract.

I, for one am very disappointed.

Three Devils gone now. One not very surprising, one more or less surprising, and one outright disappointing in the eyes of this here fan.

You fill in the blanks.

Rad Brad, we will certainly miss you here at 2 Man Advantage. You may have been a whipping boy, but you were our whipping boy. You proved to be a capable defender, and you proved to be just as lovable as you are offensively challenged.

Regardless, however, we will especially miss your heroics against Philadelphia, and your infrequent bone crunching hits.

May you succeed in the NHL…except when you’re facing the Devils.

Bye.

_____

He will earn an average of $3.4-million a season.

Zubrus split last season with the Washington Capitals and Buffalo Sabres, registering 24 goals and 36 assists for 60 points.

Best of yet, the 6′4″ 225 pound Lithuanian plays at center, effectively replacing recently departed Scott Gomez.

Oh, and he’s 29.