[panoo]

The proverbial rock and a hard place is where the New Jersey Devils find themselves in their situation with Scott Gomez after winning $5 million in his arbitration hearing.

According to the Star-Ledger Staff, New Jersey Devils GM Lou Lamoriello now must decide what to do with Gomez.

The three options Lamoriello has are:

1. Walk away from the decision
2. Sign Gomez and then trade him as the Devils don't have room under the salary cap.
3. Sign Gomez and try to trade other players to fall under the cap.

"I'm sure we're going to have to make some moves," Lamoriello told the Star-Ledger. "I have no reaction to the ruling. We know what the process is. We accept the ruling and we go from here. We'll do everything we can to keep our team together."

The Devils are already over the $44 million salary cap and still need to re-sign Brian Gionta, Paul Martin and David Hale.

 

[panoo]

I think I would go for #2. Sign Gomez and then trade him as the Devils don't have room under the salary cap.

I'm sure some team out there wants him???

I don't think he's worth the money, but who am I????

 

[oilers]

i like #2..... cauz the thing u said is write and he is not worth of $5 million... thats a complete wastage

 

[BE-LEAF-ABLE]

3. Sign Gomez and try to trade other players to fall under the cap.

It looks like New Jersey went with the option I would have chosen. Keep him and trade other players. He's their top line centerman. I'm not sure who their 2nd line centerman is, but Madden and Parise are next behind Gomez, but would Madden be able to pick up the slack offencively and make the plays that Gomez does? What about Parise? Would putting him on the top line right now be the best thing that they can do? I'm not sure about that.

With Elias and Gionta returning to the team, keeping Gomez in the mix wouldn't hurt. They'll lose a few forwards... or not, but they need to keep their best players on the team and build around them, and Gomez is 26 years old if I'm not mistaken.

Option #2 still is possible though. I know Ottawa did that with Hossa last season and landed Heatley