In Lou We Trust

Well, well, well. After I made a big point of it for the Devils to call up Nicklas Bergfors yesterday, the Devils did as I thought they should and called him up. There's more to it than that, though. As Gulitti reports, Pierre-Luc Latourneau-Leblond cracked his orbital bone, and so the Devils called up Bergfors and Matthew Halischuk.

While they are clearly excited to play, especially Halischuk who will make his NHL debut tomorrow night, I do feel bad for Rod Pelley. He played 58 games with the team last season and showed signs of being a capable defensive center. Given that the more recently injured Devils are wingers (Leblond, Jamie Langenbrunner), it makes sense for wingers to be called right up. I have no problem with Halischuk being called up for a few games. Still, that he got passed over in spite having shown his talents with New Jersey as recently as last season is definitely not good news. Maybe if a center goes down, and I really hope not - I don't want to see any more injuries for a while, he'll get a call up. Regardless, I hope for the best for Bergfors and Halischuk tomorrow night.

Incidentally, Jared Ramsden at Hockey's Future just published a big update regarding who's who in the Devils' system of prospects. Petr Vrana, as well as Bergfors and Halischuk are rated highly as prospective forwards. It's quite an astute analysis as Vrana earned a spot on the NHL roster through training camp and the further call-ups now include Bergfors and Halischuk. It's very informative for those of you wondering how the young guys are doing and how things look for the future. It does look stronger than it was, say, back in 2005. The lack of a solid goaltending prospect in the system still remains, but that can be rectified in short order with a free agent signing or perhaps selecting one in the 2009 Entry Draft.

Not for nothing, but at the very least, the call-ups will drag the average age of the current Devils roster down a bit. James Mirtle found that the Devils are pretty old, with the third oldest team (based on average age) in the league. Only Anaheim and Detroit are ahead and break the 30 year plateau. That's actually not some bad company to keep with as both teams have been fairly successful in recent years. Also, based on what he found out today, that the Devils may stand to gain a few pounds, particularly on defense. OK, it doesn't have too much to do with Bergfors or Halischuk. It's just some interesting demographic information.