Veteran forward Brian Rolston will undergo surgery to repair a sports hernia, and will be out four-to -six weeks. President and general manager Lou Lamoriello made the announcement after New Jersey’s 1-0 victory over the Buffal Sabres Wednesday night in overtime, their only victory to date."It's unfortunate because I thought Brian had a very good training camp," Devils coach John MacLean said. "He had a lot of jump and was playing really well. It's just an unfortunate situation."
Rolston, 37, was third best on the team in goals (20) and fifth in total points (37), and quite honestly is primed for an even better year with a much better cast around him.
While Rolston is a valued part of the Devils’ team, the news does have a positive twist for the franchise in the short term.
Lou Lamoriello is one of the most intelligent hockey minds in the business, but it appears as though the Kovalchuk saga threw Lou off of his game as the cash depleted Devils have been having more than their fair share of cap related issues. There are no cap dollars left, and with injury to Anton Volchenkov and a suspension to Luc Letourneau-Leblond the Devils only managed to ice 15 skaters in Monday night’s loss to Pittsburgh and 16 skaters in Wednesday’s victory over the Sabres.
"It's not something we like to see," Devils' president and general manager Lou Lamoriello told NorthJersey.com. "But it is what it is today. That's the way it will be."
Friday was a different story for the Devils as they were finally able to get a full roster back on the bench. Brian Rolston’s $5 million cap hit has now gone to injured reserve, making way (financially) for depth players to finally be called up from the AHL, and replace the three missing players in Rolston, Volchenkov, and Leblond.
The Devils are a far cry from being worry free. Anssi Salmela, Bryce Salvadore, and Mark Fraser all remain on injured reserve for roughly four weeks as well, and with six NHL players ready to come back (at some point) taking a collective $13.8 million cap dollars from a generally dried up cap budget, giant questions loom as to the immediate future of more than a couple of players. Something is going to have to give. Within the Collective Bargaining Agreement there is a rule stipulating a minimum/maximum roster size, a rule that’s been broken twice in four games by Lou’s Devils.
According to article 16.4 of the collective bargaining agreement: "Except in case of emergency, there shall be no reduction of the required minimum Playing Rosters of the Clubs, below eighteen (18) skaters and two (2) goaltenders."
As the article clarifies, the exception is in case of emergency, and the Devils are not in an emergency. To this point, the NHL has not gone as far as supplementary punishment, but if the Devils’ don’t figure things out fast; I’m sure there will be.
"Emergencies have historically included games missed due to player injury, games missed due to player suspension and games missed due to roster/cap situations. This is not an unprecedented situation. It has happened before, both pre- and post-lockout," NHL Deputy commissioner Bill Daly told TSN.
He also played guest on NHL Live, the XM Satellite Radio program and admitted that while it’s not been of major concern yet, there is a high level of importance for the management group to get things right. The NHL doesn’t seem to be as concerned with the byproduct of a shortened bench, but instead the larger amounts of ice-time potentially being harmful to players in terms of injury.
The most recent account of a consistently shortened bench was when Calgary played out the final five games of the 2008-09 season short on players due to a catastrophic amount of injuries. In their case they lost three of five games, conceding the Northwest Division title to the Vancouver Canucks. The Devils, too, have felt the effects having won only one game in four attempts to the day.
Brian Rolston will be a big loss for the team going ahead, but the team is built strong in terms of their rising players and off-season acquisitions. The looming question though is at what cost will the Devils pay to restructure this Cup contentious team into a salary efficient one, and will they remain as strong once it is all said and done?
Jacob Josefson, Matt Corrente, and Tim Sestito have been called up from Albany to replace the fallen soldiers as New Jersey takes on the powerful Boston Bruins tonight.
If you’re a Devils fan, stay on notice because I don’t see how things can’t change in terms of personnel in three or four weeks’ time.
- Kendall Grubbs
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