Breathe easy, Devils and hockey fans. All is right with the world this Monday morning, as we awoke to the news that Martin Brodeur will remain a New Jersey Devil. Brodeur, who tested free agency for all of a day, managed to use that as a bit of a negotiating point with the Devils. Two years at $4.5 million per is a bit of a pay decrease for the 40 year old netminder, but pay and age never really were the points here, were they? 

No, Devils fans were rightfully worried that they wouldn't have a top quality starter next season, and Brodeur proved in the Stanley Cup playoffs that age ain't nothin' but a number. Any team would have been thrilled to have a quality netminder playing like he's in the prime of his career when he's at the twilight of it, but Brodeur and the fans couldn't imagine him doing an awkward farewell tour of a few seasons in a jersey that, let's face it, he doesn't belong in. Why dedicate your whole career to one team so much that you're synonymous with them only to dump them over a few bucks? Did anyone expect Brodeur to do that?

This is the most trying Devils off-season in years, with the potential for their two faces of the franchise to walk away. Brodeur, who has been with the team since he was 19 years old, has known nothing else but the Devils organization. You get set in your ways, you get comfortable, and you come to call a place home. Does this mean that the younger Zach Parise doesn't feel the same way? Of course not, but you have to admit that it seemed more of a foregone conclusion that Brodeur would re-sign than Parise. For Devils fans, hopefully this is a step towards keeping their captain.

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LeBron James was arguably the greatest free agent to ever test the open market in professional sports. A player nearing the apex of a generational career available to all suitors. But a poorly executed public relations event that will go down in infamy as The Decision tarnished his stellar reputation.

It was not the fact that he actually left his home town in order to chase rings in South Beach, it was the way he went about it that bothered so many people. A public humiliation for the city of Cleveland as their prodigal son left in search of greener pastures.

Is Justin Schultz at risk of committing a similar mistake?

People have their opinions whenever the annual Hockey Hall of Fame class is announced. There are annual favorites who get overlooked (Fred Shero and Pat Burns come to mind), as well as personal heroes that fans would love to see in the hall. No one's ever 100% happy about the end result, but this year I generally noticed a lot less angst than usual regarding the class. Pavel Bure, Adam Oates, Mats Sundin, and Joe Sakic will all be entering the Hall in November.

It was assumed that Brendan Shanahan would supplant one of thse four. After all, Shanny's won three Stanley Cups to Bure, Oates, and Sundin's combined none. Hes' won a gold medal. He's played in eight all star games. He has 656 goals and 1354 points. The man looks outstanding in a suit and understands the purpose of no sax.  Sure, Oates, Bure, and Sundin have been eligible for a while, but Shanny's resume should outshine them all thanks to those three rings that he has.

Some teams were happy with how their 2012 NHL Draft went. Some teams were content but wish things could have gone a bit better. Then there's the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Blue Jackets were so unhappy with how things went at the Draft that they fired four of their scouts hours after the Draft wrapped up.

In what seems to be the current trend in NHL trades, for the second time in two days brothers have been united in playing for the same team. While yesterday there was little surprise in Jordan Staal being traded to the Carolina Hurricanes to play with his brother Eric, few expected Luke and Brayden Schenn to both be members of the Philadelphia Flyers at the end of the second day of the draft.

When you're working with two unpredictable GMs like Brian Burke and Paul Holmgren, stuff happens. One year after the trades that saw Jeff Carter and Mike Richards leave the Flyers after signing long term contracts, James Van Riemsdyk was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Luke Schenn straight up. JVR signed a six year, $25.5 million contract at the end of last August, but just because the player intends to be with the Flyers long term doesn't mean that the team intends the same thing. The Flyers needed a blue liner with Chris Pronger still out, and this points to Pronger not returning any time soon. Schenn was disappointing in Toronto because he never lived up to the hype; hopefully a change in scenery will do him some good.

JVR was injured often last year, scoring only 11 goals in 43 games played. The former second overall draft pick has shown that he's easily a 30-40 point guy when healthy, something that Toronto should be happy to have. Schenn, the former fifth overall pick, is good for about 20 points from the blue line, but has been plagued by inconsistencies and wound up with a -6 rating last season.

One thing that this does appear to do effectively is take the Flyers out of the Rick Nash or Bobby Ryan trade rumors. JVR would more than likely had been a centerpiece of one, and by dealing him to Toronto, the Flyers have placed defensive needs over some offensive firepower.

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During the NHL season, there is always some excitement surrounding Pittsburgh. This offseason proved to be the same as the Penguins were the host of the 2012 NHL Draft. In less than 8 total hours, the draft came and went as each team tried their best to secure their future.

Despite the numerous rumors surrounding the top two picks in the draft, there were no major trades that shook the draft order for the teams that needed the most help. The Edmonton Oilers selected in what many believed to be the best player in right winger Nail Yakupov, while the Columbus Blue Jackets picked the sure bet in defenseman Ryan Murray. It wasn't until after the first five picks that the draft started to get interesting.

It's an annual tradition: the NHL Awards are held in Las Vegas, Twitter time lines everywhere explode with sarcasm, and then awards are handed out that no one agrees with. This year, however, the awards were generally spot-in and the sarcasm was left mostly for Nickelback and whoever the poor guy was that wrote the jokes for the presenters.

It is always odd to watch the NHL Awards. As Adrian Dater accurately points out for Sports Illustrated, Vegas is just not an appropriate venue. You have a bunch of people who have been taught since childhood that the crest on the front is more important than the name on the back shoved into the limelight. The thought of getting on-stage and accepting an award is like kryptonite to most of these guys, and then you plunk them down in the party capital of the United States. Watching the footage from the Awards Party the night before the actual awards show, you get a sense of how much most of these guys just don't belong there (for example, Ken Hitchcock was rocking a flannel shirt). Is it fun to go out and party? Absolutely! Were fans privy to watching them do so as awkwardly as possible? Hell yes!

Nashville GM David Poile has finally admitted what most of us already suspected by revealing that star defenseman Ryan Suter intends to test the open market on July 1st. The statement, as seen on Pro Hockey Talk, indicates that Nashville is still optimistic that they will be able to retain Suter's services but will have to do so after the defenseman explores other options. 

That noise you might hear is the sound of the Nashville front office collectively holding their breath.

Is the 2012 edition of the NHL Draft the weakest class in recent memory? It is according to one Eastern Conference executive that asked to remain anonymous in a recent article from the Toronto Sun. The topic, one that is pretty controversial, opens up plenty of questions about the upcoming NHL Draft set to begin on June 22nd, 2012. 

The NHL is not the only sports league with struggling franchises by any means, but Gary Bettman seems hell-bound and determined to make them the league with the most unique method of dealing with those franchises. Already the owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, who they may or may not be selling to Jerry Reinsdorf this summer, the NHL might also be temporarily taking over the New Jersey Devils as well.

Team owner Jeff Vanderbeek, despite owning one of the top franchises in the league, has been losing massive amounts of money for various reasons on the Devils. He's been late paying on the team's $77 million in debt, and to help resolve that he states that he's close to finding another investor to help him take on the team. Devils fans have no reason to doubt Vanderbeek's intentions nor desire to get another investor; however, in the sluggish economy the league has decided it's better safe than sorry, especially since Vanderbeek's been having financial problems for the entire season. They're working on a back-up plan, according to the New York Post: they're going to take the team over.