Can't see the wisdom in making another expensive acquisition while NJ have to re-sign Hischier and Hall. These two are going to cost close to $20M if they're signed long term...

I get you have 10m coming off the cap between Simmonds and Greene, but with all the players you need to resign next year, you'll be cutting it VERY close. depends on the year that Hall has. If he repeats his PPG pace from the last two seasons, you are looking at 5-6m of that cap taken by just him.

You also have Zajac off in two and Schneider (3) will probably be exposed to Seattle. Ray has navigated pretty well so far. I think they brought in a well-known cap guy too. With the prospects pool starting to fill up well, it makes this big signings more tolerable.

Going against my prospect point:
I'd like to see if maybe they swap a Mcleod and a D man (Vats or maybe Jacobs) for Anathasiou from Det. He's a left shooting winger who is RFA next year, has played C so if 86 needs some marinating before being the #2C maybe AA is that kind of guy. This team is going to be pretty damn quick, AA would only add to it.

What if they put Zacha at 2C again with Hughes/ Gusev on the wings? Hughes doesn't have to start at center, Zacha was close to 50% last year in faceoffs, Zacha can balance out Hughe's/ Gusev's speed and offense with his size and defensive abilities, and the Devils find out if Zacha can step up his game when given great players to play with.

Worst case scenario Zacha he doesn't perform and the Devils more on from him or demote him to 4C; best case Zacha and Hughes play great together and Zacha can move to LW when Hughes is ready for to play center.

Its a good way to see if hes up to it as you say!