Time to trade Elias???

We have to get under the cap. If Elias is defintely going to walk after this season, Lou has to dump him. May have to wait until he has proven he is well and can play again.

Could we get Bobby Ryan, a Jersey boy, and another prospect for Elias? Hell, the Ducks have the Niedermayers, how about reuniting Elias with Sykora? Let them trade for Jason Arnott. ;)

Without Patty, we look like this:

Brylin--Gomez--Mogilny (Suglobov)
Friesen-Parise-- Gionta
Madden--Kozlov--Langenbrunner
Langdon--Rasmussen--Marshall
Pandolfo or Oliwa

Rafalski--McGillis/Hale/Stevens
Matvichuk<-->Martin
Malakhov--White
Brown


Marty
Ahonen or Clemmensen


Comments please. Thank you. :D

We have to get under the cap. If Elias is defintely going to walk after this season, Lou has to dump him. May have to wait until he has proven he is well and can play again.

Could we get Bobby Ryan, a Jersey boy, and another prospect for Elias? Hell, the Ducks have the Niedermayers, how about reuniting Elias with Sykora? Let them trade for Jason Arnott. ;)

Without Patty, we look like this:

Brylin--Gomez--Mogilny (Suglobov)
Friesen-Parise-- Gionta
Madden--Kozlov--Langenbrunner
Langdon--Rasmussen--Marshall
Pandolfo or Oliwa

Rafalski--McGillis/Hale/Stevens
Matvichuk<-->Martin
Malakhov--White
Brown


Marty
Ahonen or Clemmensen


Comments please. Thank you. :D

No, no, and no....he is the best offensive player on the team and he's not even 30 years old yet....no.

Absolutly not. Elias is far from a sure thing to walk next season. Lou will offer what is necessary to keep him long term.

The guy is arguably the best LW in the NHL.

Absolutely not...

Where did you get the idea that Elias is gonna walk after this season? The comments coming from his agent sounded like he wanted to stay in NJ and that they would open discussions about a contract extention with Lou in January. Lou will do what it takes to keep him in NJ.

Although I would've liked to have seen Elias locked up to a long-term deal, it's probably better for the Devils right now that he only accepted his QO. Any extension he would have gotten would most certainly have come at the expense of the Devils taking a larger cap hit for him this season.

trade Elias?

stupid! I don't believe this. Elias loves NY arean and he will stay.

If anyone is walking it's Gomez. Trade Elias would be the worst mistake Lou could make. Elias is the corner stone of the offense.

You'd be crazy to trade Elias. The guy is awesome, and still young.

We have to get under the cap. If Elias is defintely going to walk after this season, Lou has to dump him. May have to wait until he has proven he is well and can play again.

Could we get Bobby Ryan, a Jersey boy, and another prospect for Elias? Hell, the Ducks have the Niedermayers, how about reuniting Elias with Sykora? Let them trade for Jason Arnott.

Without Patty, we look like this:

Brylin--Gomez--Mogilny (Suglobov)
Friesen-Parise-- Gionta
Madden--Kozlov--Langenbrunner
Langdon--Rasmussen--Marshall
Pandolfo or Oliwa

Rafalski--McGillis/Hale/Stevens
Matvichuk<-->Martin
Malakhov--White
Brown

...

Comments please.The idea of trading Elias is bad, and I wonder where you're coming up with the "definitely going to walk after this season" stuff.

I don't like the looks of your defensive pairings because you have Rafalski on the left, which is ideally a spot for a defensive-defenseman on the top two pairings (examples Scott Stevens and Colin White.)

But what really irks me is that you have moved John Madden to left wing and put Viktor Kozlov at center of the MADDEN LINE! What the hell are you thinking? Do you actually ever watch the Devils? Have you ever seen Kozlov play center in the defensive zone?

Also, I really like Sergei Brylin, but he's not a first line forward. He's fine on the second line here and there, but he's third or fourth liner.

This team would score almost no goals. Mogilny would be the only guy on the first line who could. I can just here the opposing goalie telling his defensemen to both cover Mogilny, let Brylin or Gomez take the shot.

Elias' trade value would be low this yr due to the fact that he'll be back in December at the earliest and you can't expect him to be anywhere close to 100% after 1/12 yrs off of hockey and all the strenght that the Hepititas has zapped from him.

On the flip side he also won't get as high of offers in a UFA market next summer for the very same reason but Elias is one of the best LWer's in the game and NJ need to lock him up longterm before next yr because if a guy hits UFA you know he'll listen to all offers out there.

Aleksander Suglobov needs to prove he can play responsible defense in the NHL, before the Devils consider moving him up to the first line.

Everything I've read from Patrik Elias to date indicates he's happy playing in NJ and wants to stay here in the future. Remember his declaration to the media before the last season started that he would return to the point-a-game player (following 2 straight years of declining offensive production) which he made good on? He has also expressed an interest in shouldering more of a leadership role with the club which management generally wants to see elite players hungry for when you consider his quotes and way more inspired play after he eventually moved past the difficult loss of Sykora and Arnott. Elias' first year playing with Scott Gomez under Pat Burns revealed that the two of them had horrible chemistry. A season later and the two of them are tearing up the league along with Brian Gionta of all players on the right side. Keep Elias in the fold long-term.

how about NO

don't **** yourself but NO!

Trade Gomez cause he's gone next year.

Trade Gomez cause he's gone next year.Gomez will be an RFA next summer, not an UFA.

If you're trading Elias for picks and/or prospects, the only way you're making the playoffs is if Brodeur has 20+ shutouts.

Trade Elias.....................are you high?

I think along with Brodeur, he's one of the 2 guys on this team I'd never trade, unless it was a Lindros type deal. NO! :thumbd:

Trade Gomez cause he's gone next year.
Why are Devils fans sure that Gomez will leave?

Nice to get so many responses! I do NOT want to trade Patty Elias. I would only trade him if I knew for certain that he will leave the team after this season.

If Lou can't lock him up for the next 4 or 5 years, we should be able to get some good value for him even if he is a "rent-a-player" for some other team.

We lost Niedermayer and got nothing back. Because of the cap limit, we had to let a good player like Jan Hrdina go. I rather get a warm body in the form of a current player, prospect, or draft pick, than thin air!!!

My line combos were just off the top of my head. I would like to see Madden moved to wing so that he can shoot more and hopefully score more. He is not a playmaker. I have no problem with Madden and Pandolfo staying together. We can put Gionta or Langenbrunner on the right side and hope that they can get some goals when they go up against the other team's top line.

Brylin is not a first line left wing, but he played well with Gomez and Almo back in 2000, so why not try that line combo again?

I know Rafalski is a right defenseman. I tend to put the right defensemen first and the left defenseman, who are usually the more defensive-minded d-man, next. I think Paul Martin and Richard Matvichuk could make a good pair. I am undecided as to which side would be best for Martin and Matvichuk.

Malakhov and White were a good pairing back in 2000, but that is a long time ago. I think that Dan McGillis is better on the right side, but I will leave it up to Larry Robinson as to who he should be paired with and what side he should play. Larry knows a little more about hockey than I do. ;)

BTW, who is Lou going to move to get under the cap? Kozlov has talent. I want to give him at least half a season before we dump him. And what do we do with Oliwa? I think he is a bit superfluous but I may be wrong.

Take care. :D

I don't see Elias leaving Jersey, not by trade nor by UFA. He's the kind of player that's worth moving other peices around in order to keep. He's a top 5 winger in the league. IIRC, a couple weeks ago Elias was pretty impressed that NJ was offering him a contract, even though he'll be out of the lineup for a good chunk of the beginning of the season. He said "Lou didn't have to do that" or something along those lines. A little respect can go a long way.

It's hard to predict if Elias will resign with NJ without knowing what kind of deal Lou offered him and how close it was to what Elias was demanding.

It doesn't matter, Elias is virtually untradable until he's healthy and Lou will have to cut payroll to get Elias back on the ice. And Lou has never traded a future FA at the trade deadline just because he would 'walk' at the end of the season.

The last time Lou made a mistake by not offering enough money was when he let Mogilny go. He won't do that again, and to be even more optimistic, Elias is more of a Devil than Mogs will ever be. He was developed in the system, and Lou will reward him. The only way Elias leaves is if he wants to leave. Lou will be top bidder.