New Jersey Devils and Metropolitan Riveters at the Olympics
The PyeongChang Olympics are underway, and the hockey round robin will start soon. Even though the NHL is sitting this one out, there’s still plenty of recognizable names in the men’s tournament, and the women’s tournament looks to be a bigger highlight than ever. That doesn’t mean New Jersey Devils fans won’t see some familiar faces.
Even though Devils fans won’t see their favorite players competing on the Olympic stage, there’s still enough players who have passed through the system to keep fans engaged outside of national loyalty. There’s also several former – and one current – Metropolitan Riveters on the team. With the women’s tournament looking like a bigger attraction – combined with the Rivs being owned by Devils, even if the Devils sometimes forgets that – they will be included on this list.
The rules for inclusion on this list are simple:
- They must have played at least one game for the New Jersey Devils, any of their AHL or ECHL affiliates, or the New York/Metropolitan Riveters
- They must be part of an Olympic roster, either as a player or as management
Without further ado, here are some names Devils and Riveters faithful might recognize.
Brian Gionta
National Team: USA
Position: Foward
Years With Devils: 1998-2009
Current Team: Free agent
Without question the biggest name on Team USA, Brian Gionta is also one of the best Devils players of all time. Though only 5’7, he is known for his hard nosed play and leadership skills.
He was one third of the EGG Line with Scott Gomez and Patrik Elias, to this day one of the best offensive lines the Devils franchise has ever assembled. He still holds the Devils franchise record for most goals in a season with 48.
Gionta won the Cup with the New Jersey Devils in 2003. He’s also one of the only male players on this list with prior Olympic experience, having played for Team USA in 2006.
He left the Devils in 2009 to sign with the Canadiens and was a big part of their surprising playoff run in 2010. He acted as a Captin for seven years between his time in Montreal and Buffalo. After his contract with the Sabres expired in 2017, he held off on signing a new contract to remain eligible for the Olympics. He is now the captain of Team USA.
Brian O’Neill
National Team: USA
Position: Forward
Years With Devils: 2015-16
Current Team: Jokerit, KHL
Brian O’Neill was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Yale by the LA Kings. He played for their AHL affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs, for three seasons. O’Neill broke out in his third year, leading the league in scoring with 80 points in 71 games, and scoring 20 points in 19 playoffs games. He was named AHL MVP and helped the Monarchs win the 2015 Calder Cup.
O’Neill attended training camp with the LA Kings that fall, but couldn’t crack the roster. He was traded to the Devils for a seventh round pick, conditional on him being re-signed. He started the season with New Jersey, but it didn’t last.
O’Neill was a bust at the NHL level, scoring two points – both assists – in 22 games before getting sent to Albany for the rest of the season. He left North America at season’s end.
The seventh rounder the Devils retained was used to draft Jocktan Chainey, a name that I 100% was believe was Kesyer Soze’d by Ray Shero after they ran out of players to draft.
Bobby Butler
National Team: USA
Position: Forward
Years With Devils: 2012-13
Current Team: Milwaukee Admirals, AHL
The first Devil to wear 9 since Zach Parise bolted, Butler is definition of a journeyman. He’s played for eight organizations since his pro debut in 2010, doing well in the minors but never sticking around at the NHL.
Butler started his pro career with the Senators, where he had a successful rookie campaign split between Ottawa and Binghamton. He was rewarded with a two year one way contract, but a dropoff in play saw him get bought out after one year. He then joined New Jersey on a two way contract.
Butler started the lockout season in Albany, putting up 27 points in 37 games. He was called up once the NHL season started but only managed 2 points in 14 games. The Devils waived him and Nashville claimed him.
He spent the next few seasons bouncing around the AHL and Europe, putting up solid numbers but never cracking the NHL for much time afterwards.
Ryan Gunderson
National Team: USA
Position: Defense
Years With Devils: 2007-09
Current Team: Brynäs IF, SHL
Ryan Gunderson joined the ECHL right out of college and quickly became one of the league’s best offensive defensemen.
After a brief spell elsewhere, he signed his first full pro contact with the Trenton Devils. He scored 46 points in 72 games and earned a three game stint with the Lowell Devils. His next season was even better, scoring 58 points, and his 53 assists. That remains a franchise record for the Trenton Titans/Devils until their shuttering.
He spent next season with Houston in the AHL before going overseas. He has played the majority of his professional career in Sweden, with stops in Finland and Belarus.
Amanda Kessel
National Team: USA
Position: Forward
Years With Riveters: 2016-Present
Current Team: Metropolitan Riveters
Far and away the most talented player on this list, Amanda Kessel – known as #BestKessel among Riveters faithful – is carving out a career among the all time elite women’s hockey player.
Kessel’s entire career is full of ridiculous stats, dating back to before her time with the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the USA National Team. The best example: in the 2012-13 season, she scored an unthinkable 101 points in 46 games. That is not a typo. She won the Patty Kazmaier Award as the best female collegiate hockey player in the US that season.
Concussion problems sidelined her for nearly two years, but she made it back for the last few games of his college career. She signed with the New York Riveters after the season, inking the highest paying contract in the league.
Kessel missed the start of the season with an injury and only played 8 of a possible 18 regular season games. Even with this handicap, she finished 8th in the league in scoring with 18 points – again, in 8 games.
Her commitments to the Olympic team prevented her from rejoining the Riveters this season.
She was also one of the faces of the successful boycott against USA Hockey that led to the women’s team getting the support they needed.
She even made an appearance at the NHL All Star Game this year with other members of the US Women’s Hockey Team. If they could only invite one Kessel, at least the got #BestKessel.
Marc-Andre Gragnani
National Team: Canada
Position: Defense
Years With Devils: 2015-16
Current Team: HC Dinamo Minsk, KHL
Marc-Andre Gragnani spent most of his career in the Buffalo Sabres organization, bouncing up and down between Buffalo and Portland. He was successful in the AHL, but was a regular healthy scratch or depth defensemen in the NHL.
Gragnani was sent to Vancouver as part of the Zack Kassian trade, but fell out of favor with coach Alain Vigneault and was released at the end of the season. He spent the next season in the Hurricanes system before going overseas for two season. Gragnani returned to America in 2015 and signed with the Devils. He spent almost all of the year in Albany, scoring 31 points in 57 games. All told, Gragnani skated in New Jersey for four scoreless games. He then went back overseas, and he currently plays in the KHL.
Karl Stollery
National Team: Canada
Position: Defense
Years With Devils: 2016-17
Current Team: Dinamo Riga, KHL
Karl Stollery is a career minor leaguer who made his name with the Lake Erie Monsters. He’s a bit undersized but plays a physical game. He was a fixture on the Lake Erie blueline for years, getting called up sporadically but never lasting. He later spent a few years in the Sharks system before signing with the Devils.
Stollery appeared in 11 games for the Devils, scoring 3 points – the only points of his NHL career. He’s mostly remembered for his controversial boarding call.
All told, he played seven years of pro hockey in North America and appeared in 23 NHL games. He signed overseas at season’s end.
Ryan Zapolski
National Team: USA
Position: Goalie
Years With Devils: 2011
Current Team: Jokerit, KHL
Ryan Zapolski is the projected starting goalie for Team USA. He was a journeyman in the ECHL before becoming the league’s best goalie with the South Carolina Stingrays. Looking for a more steady starting job, Zapolski left for Europe. He’s considered one of the best US-born goalies outside North America, and is currently one of the best goalies in the KHL.
He also, for the duration of one hockey game, played in the New Jersey Devils system.
Zapolski signed a contract with the Kalamazoo Wings in 2011, the Devils’ ECHL affiliate at the time. It was his second pro game ever, and his first pro regular season game. He earned win, stopping 27 of 29 shots. He never appeared for the K-Wings again, and signed with the Toledo Walleye a few weeks later.
It’s brief, it’s tenuous, but one game for a minor league affiliate of the Devils is enough to make this list
Nana Fujimoto
National Team: Japan
Position: Goalie
Years With Riveters: 2015-16
Current Team: Vortex Sapporo, Women’s Japan Ice Hockey League
Fujimoto was the first starting goaltender in Riveters’ history, and it’s not uncommon to find Rivs fans wearing her jersey to this day.
A goaltending prodigy who briefly walked away from the game, Fujimoto has been a mainstay of the Japanese national team, and a big reason why they’re regular contenders at international tournaments. Fujimoto gained international attention at the 2015 IIHF Women’s World Championship, where she was named the tournament’s best goalie.
In the summer of 2015, Fujimoto joined the Riveters. She quickly became a fan favorite and represented the team at the first ever NWHL All Star Game. Injuries hampered her late in the season
She left the Riveters at the end of the season due to her commitments to the Japanese national team. She also has one of the best goaltending masks in the world right now, which sounds like editorializing but look at that picture and tell us different.
Vojtech Mozik
National Team: Czech Republic
Position: Defense
Years With Devils: 2015-17
Current Team: HC Vityaz, KHL
Vojtech Mozik played a few seasons of pro hockey in the Czech Republic before making it to North America. He was originally linked to the Rangers before getting signed by the New Jersey Devils. He found comfort at Devils training camp in fellow countrymen Patrik Elias, Pavel Zacha, and Jiri Tlusty. Mozik developed a reputation as a solid two-way defenseman, scoring 39 points in 118 games during his two seasons in Albany. He even managed to make it up to New Jersey for seven games. Though he played well and had some NHL upside, he opted to return overseas and sign with HC Vityaz in the KHL.
Michael Swift
National Team: South Korea
Position: Forward
Years With Devils: 2008-11
Current Team: High1, ALIH
Swift is one of several players on the South Korean team lacking any Korean heritage. He’s from Ontario but played for High1 of Asia League Ice Hockey since 2011 and is a naturalized South Korean citizen.
Swift had a moderately successful junior career, but went undrafted. Undersized at 5’9 and 175 lbs, not much was expected of him at a major league level. He signed with the Devils in 2008 and played with the Lowell/Albany Devils franchise for two and a half seasons before getting traded to the Sharks.
At the end of the 2010-11 season, Swift signed with High1 and has been one of the league’s biggest stars. He’s played for the South Korean national team since 2013, and he’ll be a big part of making sure the host country looks respectable in front of an international audience.
Ludmila Belyakova
National Team: Olympic Athletes from Russia
Position: Forward
Years With Riveters: 2015-16
Current Team: HC Tornado, Russia Women’s Hockey League
Ludmila Belyakova (whose first name can and often is spelled in no less than three ways) was one of the first big international acquisitions for the then-new NWHL. A mainstay of the Russian international team, she signed with the New York Riveters after international camp.
She was given limited ice team, despite being an excellent possession player, and her misuse is cited by critics of coach Chad Wiseman’s systems to this day. There was also issues with the language barrier. She was not provided with a translator, which was a source of minor controversy at season’s end. Despite these obstacles, she scored 10 points in 15 games
She was not offered a new contract at years’ end, nor could she find any takers from the NWHL’s other three teams.
Belyakova is still beloved by current and former Rivs players, even getting a shoutout from Jenny Scrivens on Twitter the other day. She never became the star she was meant to be in America, but remains immensely popular in Russia.
Ilya Kovalchuk
National Team: Olympic Athletes from Russia
Position: Forward
Years With Devils: 2010-13
Current Team: SKA Saint Petersburgh, KHL
We went to great lengths to find a picture of him where he looked sad.
Zdeno Ciger
National Team: Slovakia
Position: Coach
Years With Devils: 1988-93
Zdeno Ciger was picked by the Devils in the third round, 54th overall, in the 1988 draft. He played a few midly productive seasons in New Jersey before getting traded to the Oilers for Bernie Nicholls.
The joke at the time was “good to know that you can still get a Ciger for a Nicholls.”
Ciger rounded out his game in Edmonton before returning to Slovakia and played (with the exception of one season) the rest of his career in his home country. Today, he coaches the Slovakian nation team.
Sean Burke
National Team: Canada
Position: General Manager
Years With Devils: Drafted 1985-91
Sean Burke was briefly franchise goalie for the New Jersey Devils. Hot off the starting role for Team Canada in the 1988 Olympics, Burke joined the Devils and won 10 of his first 13 games. His play over the next few years was instrumental in turning New Jersey from a “Mickey Mouse club” into genuine contenders. He played so well that he was namechecked in an episode of General Hospital. No, really. Ken Daneyko was there when it happened.
Burke sat out the 1991-92 season in a contract dispute, starting again for Team Canada in the 1992 Olympics and winning silver.
Burke was traded to the Hartford Whalers in the 1992 offseason for Bobby Holik and a draft pick that became Jay Pandolfo – both key players during the Devils’ Cup years. He was the starting goalie for the Whalers and later the Hurricanes for six years. He had some tumultuous years in the late 90s, where declining play and a history of domestic violence nearly grounded everything to a halt. Burke eventually found his game again with the Phoenix Coyotes, where he became a Hart and Vezina finalist again.
After retirement, he spent time in the Coyotes front office, and was linked to the Maple Leafs before joining the Habs’ scouting team. He’s now the general manager for the Canadian Olympic team.
Martin Brodeur
National Team: Canada
Position: Management team member
Years With Devils: Drafted 1990-2014
A man who needs no introduction around these parts. The face of the franchise. The Martin Brodeur was part of the management team that assembled Team Canada’s men’s hockey roster. A fitting end to this slideshow.