Bobby Holik
So, here’s where the argument of “better off” tends to take a turn, but we’re talking about on-the-ice performance only. Obviously, Holik is happy that the New York Rangers paid him $45 million over five years in 2002. Nobody else was going to pay him $9 million per season, so there’s no way he could say no to leaving the Devils for their biggest rival.
Things seemed to sour between the Devils and Holik starting with arbitration in 2001. The negotiator gave Holik a one-year, $3.5 million evaluation. When Holik signed with the Rangers, he said he gave the Devils more than one chance to sign him to a long-term deal. He said it was a 13-month process, which shows he wasn’t happy with how the Devils went about the negotiating process. Still, the Devils were never going to come close to making him the highest paid player on the team.
Holik would only play two seasons with the New York Rangers. He never really hit the heights he had in New Jersey, but he was already on the wrong side of 30 when he signed that contract. His second season saw him get 56 points and almost 100 PIMs, showing the tough-guy persona they Rangers paid for. Still, right after that was the 2004 Lockout, and the Rangers used their compliance buyout to send Holik packing.
The reason the Rangers signed Holik was to become relevant again. In two seasons at Madison Square Garden, he never played a playoff game. He might not have been terrible in New York, but he failed at his goal and the team’s goal, leading to them to cut him unceremoniously.
If he stayed with the Devils, he would at least have one more Stanley Cup Championship, with the Devils winning in 2003. His style still fit what the Devils were looking for, so the Devils could have paired him with John Madden and Jay Pandolfo. Who would be center wouldn’t matter much, but imagine having those three just destroying people as a bottom-six line.
Holik’s career did end up coming back to New Jersey, but he was a shell of himself. He ended up being a healthy scratch by the end of the 2008-09 season. If Holik had the same exact career, only spending it entirely with the Devils, he’d be second in the team’s history in points with 727. He’d most likely have number 16 hanging in the rafters.