5 Players Who’ve Played Their Last Games With New Jersey Devils

Kurtis Gabriel

Kurtis Gabriel is a player you have to root for. That is, until he takes a bad penalty that puts your team down a man. He’s always fighting for teammates, and backing up his man. However, more often than not he’s actually fighting putting the Devils behind on the bench, forcing his teammates to make up that ice time. He’s a fun player for a bit, but he’s not a long-term guy.

He’s the type of player you really want to root for. He fights for LGBTQ rights with a simple rainbow tape on his stick. That seems small, but it makes a big difference when athletes acknowledge these things. It’s great to have those types of players, but at the end of the day the on-ice product is what matters more.

In 22 games with the Devils this season, he had 59 penalty minutes and scored two goals. Those aren’t the best splits. What’s even crazier is he took seven shots in 22 games. Players run into more shots than that. He was way, way, way too focused on parts of the game that don’t exist anymore. If he wanted to fight a guy, that would be his singular focus for his entire shift, and it took him out of plays.

Gabriel was fun to root for when the Devils were decimated by injuries, but he gave out a scary hit or two that was borderline for today’s NHL. He took a one-game suspension in early March for a hit on Nolan Patrick. These types of players are hard to rely on. Tom Wilson is in a similar situation where he’s one hit away from spending his hockey life in purgatory. Even if John Hynes can help Gabriel focus on his other talents, it wouldn’t be worth it.