Based on how things look today, it looks like the Devils are more likely to receive just a 3rd round pick in this deal and not the automatic upgrade to a second rounder. There are no guarantees, and obviously Dallas can turn it around. But if they continue to collapse, the pick that was more or less guaranteed to be a low second round pick is now looking more like a mid-3rd rounder. If Dallas does in fact miss the playoffs, I doubt that they would want to resign Jamie. I believe the two ways that it becomes a 2nd rounder are if Dallas wins a playoff round or if they resign Langenbrunner. If they miss the playoffs, it would be like trading a 2nd round pick for Jamie and a 3rd round pick. Based on their downslide, I don't think Dallas would resign him.

My understanding is that if a player is in the last year of his contract which was signed prior to him turning 35, the team has the ability to send him down to the minors and not have his salary cap hit count for that entire year (just as Darius Kasparitis and Wade Redden were sent to the minors by the Rangers over the past few years). Is this correct? Would the Devils be able to free up more cap space next season by sending down Colin White, Bryce Salvador, and even (hypothetically of course) Martin Brodeur? Just a thought as there seems to be a lot of concern about not having the cap space to resign Parise, but sending White and Salvador down would free up close to 6 million in itself. What are your thoughts?

Not that it is hard to figure out, but NHL.com posted the potential playoff matchups in the first round: 

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=524619

The Devils can end up playing Montreal, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, or Ottawa. Team records against these teams (respectively) are 3-1 (including a OT win), 1-4-1 (OT loss),  3-2-1 (SO win and loss), 3-0-1 (SO win, OT loss), and 3-1. Who would you rather see the Devils play? Also, since the Devils have the tiebreaker on Pittsburgh, they have a slight influence on where Pittsburgh and even Buffalo. Pittsburgh has the same 5 potential opponents and Buffalo has 4, since they cannot get bumped to the 4th spot and play Ottawa. who would you rather see these two teams play in order to give the Devils the best chance to move forward?