They are playing for the Stanley Cup, but there are other issues at stake, ones they don’t think about now, but know are there. These Devils are also trying out for next year’s team, or for the Atlanta Thrashers.

Their comeback to square their first-round series with the Penguins has been highlighted by Sergei Brylin’s impressive performance coming out of the press box. Yet Brylin may be among the Devils left exposed for the Thrashers in June’s expansion draft.

“I’m not thinking about that right now. We’ll see what happens,” Brylin said. “If I do my job, good things are going to happen to me.”

Brylin scored the final goal of the Devils’ Stanley Cup winning game in 1995, and all things looked rosy for the marvelous skater with the big heart. Elsewhere, he’d be a regular, and power play man. With the Devils, he has never played more than 50 games in a season, limited to 47 this year.

But that figure makes Brylin eligible to be among the two 40-game forwards the Devils must expose to Atlanta in June. With the Devils certain to protect Petr Sykora, Bobby Holik, Brian Rolston, Jason Arnott, Patrik Elias, Randy McKay and Denis Pederson, only two slots remain for Jay Pandolfo, Vadim Sharifijanov, Sergei Nemchinov, Krzysztof Oliwa and Brylin.

As soon as the playoffs end, expect Lou Lamoriello to begin dealing some of those five forwards for draft picks. Calgary was scouting the Devils in Pittsburgh, just for that purpose, and Brylin is high on the Flames’ list.

He is giving Lamoriello pause, sparking the team in the past two games aligned with Holik and McKay. He is tied for second in team scoring with two goals and an assist in two games, while the others at the top (Holik leads with four assists) have all played four games.

“I’m 25 years old and I’m getting older. I have years in front of me, but the thing is, I was 20 years old two days ago. Now I’m 25. So I’ve got to do something before I’m 35 and it’s over,” Brylin said.