Taking advantage of last summer’s adjustment to the collective-bargaining agreement, the Devils yesterday asked waivers on defenseman Alex Brooks, who could return from a trip to the minors without clearing those punitive re-entry waivers.

Brooks has sat the Devils’ last six games, a string in which they went from winners of four straight to winners once in that half-dozen. He accompanied the team as idle injury insurance on its five-game road trip, in which it lost its last four in its western swing.

If he clears, last year’s Albany captain can be sent to Lowell within 30 days. Players with limited recent NHL experience were exempted last summer from re-entry waivers for recall. A team losing a call-up on re-entry waivers must pay half the player’s salary, and have that half count against its salary cap, even as he plays for another NHL team.

The Devils host Pittsburgh on Friday, hoping to snap their four-game losing streak.