No Super Line

It was a big summer for the Devils. They signed Henrik Tallinder, Anton Volchenkov, Jason Arnott and John Hedberg. Oh, and course, Ilya Kovalchuk. You may or may not be aware of the to-do concerning the Kovalchuk signing, but the bottom line is this: One of the premier goal scorers in the NHL re-signed with the Devils after a mid-season trade for 15 years, $100 million. In doing so, the team is currently over the salary cap by approximately $2-3 million and needs to get under by the beginning of the season. Someone is going to lose their spot on the team. Rumors continue to fly as to who that player will be, but as of today, September 28, the team has made no moves to get under the salary cap. As such, I have tried to stay away from talking about the Devils as I don't have complete information about what this team is going to look like come opening day.

This being said, I do want to address one thing. I don't think the idea of having a Super Line of Zach Parise, Travis Zajac and Kovalchuk is a good idea. I know, I know, it sounds amazing. I mean, Parise and Kovalchuk on one line? That is an amazing idea. But here's the thing - on a team that lacks offense, do we really want one super line or do we want a little more balance?

The obvious choice to me is balance. If new Coach John MacLean keeps the ZZ Pops line of Parise, Zajac and Jamie Langenbrunner together than they can have a second line of Patrick Elias, Arnott and Kovalchuk. To me, that is a huge upgrade over Elias-Arnott-Langenbrunner. Don't get me wrong - those three are quality players, but each is only good for 20-25 goals. With Kovalchuk on the line it is probable that they could see an increase of 5-10 goals each. Then if you Parise and Kovalchuk each with 40 goals and Langenbrunner/Elias/Arnott with 25-30 each we are on to something.

It's no secret - we need goals. Especially come playoff time. In the last two playoffs we have averaged 1.8 and 2.1 goals a game, well down from the regular season average of 2.6 and 2.9 respectively. In neither year did we have more than one strong line. So when they didn't perform, we didn't score any goals. And guess what happened? We lost.

Playing Kovalchuk on the same line as Parise and Zajac in the preseason is a good experiment. I'm sure they will see time together on the Power Play and late in games if they are down a goal. But to keep them together for the entire season is not a good idea. We need some scoring depth if we want to make it past the first round for the first time since 2006-07.