Devils Practice Saturday with New Additions | NOTEBOOK

The Devils practiced ahead of a Sunday afternoon game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Trade Deadline acquisitions Cody Glass (#12), Dennis Cholowski (#44), and Daniel Sprong (#10) all were on the ice for their first practice. All expected and healthy players participated as well.

New Jersey announced some transactions Saturday. Defenseman Seamus Casey was assigned to Utica and with the transaction processed prior to 3 p.m. ET yesterday, he will be available to Utica for the rest of the year, including playoffs. Newly acquired forward Daniel Sprong was recalled from the Comets as well. Read more on Saturday's transactions here.

Below is your notebook with the latest info, updates, interviews, videos and more from the practice session!

Working on the Weekend

After a Friday night game, it was back to work for the Devils Saturday afternoon. New Jersey is looking to get back into the win column and bring their newest players up to speed quickly. It's a sprint to the finish for the Devils who have five games in their next nine days and 18 games in the final 39 days of the regular season.

With several new players, lines and d-pairings looked different at Saturday's practice. Here was the Devils workflow:

Getting Adjusted

For Cody Glass, Daniel Sprong, Dennis Cholowski, and Brian Dumoulin, Saturday was their first official practice with the Devils. Dumoulin has a slight advantage after playing in New Jersey's game Friday night; however, all players are starting to adjust to the Devils systems and learn their new team. Based off of line rushes and d-pairings at Saturday's practice, all four new players are expected to lineup for the Devils Sunday afternoon. As a result, they were thrown into the thick of it - watching video, going to meetings, and talking with coaches to prepare.

"I've had a bunch of video sessions today, so it's been a lot of things just coming at me really quick," Glass shared. "I think I've been handling it well. But at the same time you want to get into a game, you want to feel it, you want to be able to battle with the team so I'm looking forward to it."

"You're just playing at that point," Cholowski said about just jumping into a new team. "With new systems, I just went over a bunch of them, kind of getting used to them, and really just playing the first few games."

For Glass and Cholowski, the locker room had some familiar faces, starting with each other. They played junior hockey together and are once again teammates now in the NHL. Glass was also with assistant coach Ryan McGill and Paul Cotter in Vegas and was on a prospects team with Nico Hischier. Cholowski knew fellow acquisitions Glass and Daniel Sprong ahead of today, and shared that he is familiar with plenty of faces in the Devils locker room.

"Cody (Glass) and I sit next to each other (in the locker room) and we're on the same line so we're talking, getting to know each other, so it's been fun," Sprong explained. "Good practice today, high pace, and the guy's have been great. I think just coming in new, fresh start, kind of a carte blanche, just playing my game and hopefully we start off good tomorrow."

What They Bring

Each of Friday's acquistions discussed what they hope to bring to their new team following practice:

Glass: "I feel like I was more in a defensive role with Pittsburgh, which is what I'm ok with. But at the same time here (in New Jersey) we play fast and every time (I've) played New Jersey it's always fast, offensive hockey. So if I can play within that system, and help this team win, I'm going to do my best to do so."

Sprong: "I get an opportunity here to prove a lot, a lot of things that I didn't do in the beginning of the year, and just make a good first impression and try to bring my game and build off what these guys have been doing all year."

Cholowski: "I'm excited, just (do) whatever they ask me, try to play solid, be good defensively and join the offense whenever I can but be steady back there. Do whatever I can to help the team."

Friday's News and Notables

It was a packed day Friday between the NHL's Trade Deadline and the Devils game against the Winnipeg Jets. When it comes to the Trade Deadline, New Jersey added depth adding Cody Glass, Brian Dumoulin, Shane LaChance, Daniel Sprong, Dennis Cholowski, Marc McLaughlin, and Jonathan Gruden. For more on Friday's Trade Deadline, click here.

In addition, defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic re-signed with the Devils, keeping him in New Jersey for the next five seasons. Kovacevic would have been an unrestricted free agent this summer; however, this keeps a solid part of New Jersey's d-core locked in.

Following the Devils deals at the deadline, President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Tom Fitzgerald discussed the additions and more in a press avaiability. During which he shared that defenseman "Dougie (Hamilton) is going to be out an extended time and (Jonas) Siegenthaler will be out for the remainder of the (regular) season.”

“We had a goal to try to add to the team, certain positions. We tried hard on certain players. Some players were traded for big-time assets and some re-signed with their teams, especially on the wing,” Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald said. “You readjust and look at what we can do to help this team improve. We thought that the bottom-6 area was something we could try to add some speed, some size and a little more depth.”

Read more about Fitzgerald's moves here!