Do you honestly believe the Devils can take either of those players back in return with their salary? If the Devils have to part with Gomez because of salary A PLAYER LIKE SPEZZA OR STAAL WILL NOT BE COMING IN RETURN (Not to mention that no one in their right minds would to Staal for Gomez). If you want to trade Rafalski then fine, I hope you would be happy missing the playoffs. Of Gomez, Gionta, and Rafalski, I would Gomez is least likely to be signed long term even though he CLEARLY is the best player out of the three. However, this is the salary cap era, players will not always be able to stick with their teams. If Lou somehow does manage to clear space, and only gets a one year deal out of this he runs the risk of losing him for nothing this year.
Not to mention that if 29 other teams know that New Jersey is in a bind with the cap and are not going to just "help out" by offering their gem center. In a perfect world, Lamoriello gets Malakov, McGillis, and Mogilny off the cap, but I just think its unlikely that he can get all three off. He might be able to get off one, and maybe even two, but I seriously doubt all three.
Too much, I think he makes roughly 5 million