"Devils captain Zach Parise, the NHL's most-coveted trade deadline "rental" candidate, said he hopes the team doesn't go down the payroll-cutting road if the league advances Jeff Vanderbeek's ownership group with an infusion of money, as reported in The Post's Business section today.

"You hear about teams that, no matter what, they're not going to spend to the cap," Parise told The Post. "That's just the way they are.

"It's hard to be competitive if you're not going to, if you can't spend as much as these other teams.

"So if there's a change, you hope that part won't change, because we've always been a salary cap team.""