5 New Jersey Devils Legends That Would Have Been Better Off Staying Here

The New Jersey Devils have a long history of stars leaving for “greener” pastures. More times than not, it didn’t work out for them.

For years, the joke has been the New Jersey Devils make stars out of players for them to make money elsewhere. It’s not always about the Devils being cheap, per se. They showed with contracts for players like Scott Stevens, Ilya Kovalchuk and Nico Hischier that they are willing to pay big for insane talent. There are a few examples where a player found a team willing to pay out the nose, and the Devils and Lou Lamoriello/Ray Shero just didn’t see the value in going for that type of overpay.

There’s a laundry list of players who left, but the list of people who succeeded when they left is not very high. The one player who absolutely succeeded when they left was Scott Niedermayer. He went to go play with his brother on the Anaheim Ducks after spending a year on the shelf due to the 2004 NHL Lockout. They ended up winning a Stanley Cup together.

Heck, even Martin Brodeur himself, the greatest goaltender of all time and the best player in Devils history, tried to leave for greener pastures. In December of 2014, Brodeur decided to sign with the St. Louis Blues in December of 2014 when Brian Elliott went down with an injury. He was fine. (Go look at his game log, he had two bad performances, two great ones and two mediocre ones. He was fine.)

So, which situations went the absolute worst for players that left New Jersey? There’s a lot to choose from. Whether it’s because of legacy, or for the betterment of their career, these five players would have been better off just staying in New Jersey.