New Jersey Devils: 5 Blockbuster Trades That Almost Happened

Historically, the New Jersey Devils have always utilized the trade route to obtain foundational talent. We all know about the organization’s most significant and memorable trades, like the Tom Kurvers deal that got New Jersey the 1st-round pick they used to draft Scott Niedermayer, or more recent transactions like the infamous “One for One” swap that brought Taylor Hall to the franchise. For better or worse, the ramifications of these trades have left their marks on the organization. Some pivotal building blocks that helped the Devils win championships came through trades, while others set the team back for years.

When delving into this particular aspect of New Jersey Devils history, what’s more interesting are the trades that didn’t occur, and how the team’s timeline could have changed if those particular deals ever came to fruition. From nearly trading a future Conn Smythe winner to other “one-for-one” scenarios, the Devils organization would probably look a lot different today if any of these five trades actually happened.

Lamoriello Nearly Traded a Future Conn Smythe Winner to St. Louis

Touted as one of the league’s all-time agitators, right wing Claude Lemieux holds a place in a lot of New Jersey Devils fan’s hearts for his Conn Smythe-winning role on the 1995 Stanley Cup squad. The months leading up to their unlikely championship weren’t nearly as glamorous. The team struggled mightily early on in the lockout-shortened 1994-95 regular season, making the playoffs by six points and finishing just four games over .500 (22-18-8).

Several Devils players underperformed offensively that season, seeing the team go from finishing second (1993-94) to 13th (1994-95) in goals scored. Lemieux especially underachieved in this category. His offensive productivity was declining in recent years, having scored over 100 goals through his first three seasons in New Jersey (1990-1993) to just 24 in his last two (1993-1995). Not only was Lemieux up for a contract renewal that summer, but his widely-known antics were getting under the skin of his own teammates and coaching staff.

The assortment of circumstances almost led to General Manager Lou Lamoriello trading Lemieux to the St. Louis Blues for center Craig Janney. It’s a name few Devils fans may even remember, but Janney was considered one of the league’s top playmakers at the time, having collected over 280 assists and 360 points the four seasons prior.

Janney wound up getting dealt to the San Jose Sharks, while Lamoriello pursued other avenues to bulk up his roster for the playoffs. New Jersey probably would have been perceived as the winning team if that deal went through, but knowing how events panned out, the Devils probably don’t win their first Stanley Cup if Lamoriello made that trade. Lemieux would go on to score 13 goals for the New Jersey Devils during their championship run, resulting in him being the 1995 Conn Smythe Trophy recipient.

The Devils Originally Targeted Mark Messier At The 2000 Trade Deadline

Acquiring winger Alexander Mogilny from the Vancouver Canucks was Lamoriello’s biggest move of the 2000 trade deadline, but his initial target was apparently someone entirely different. The thought of Mark Messier in a Devils jersey is difficult to grasp, but this scenario almost became a reality.

Lamoriello and then-Canucks General Manager Brian Burke nearly had a deal in place that would send Messier to the New Jersey Devils in exchange for young forwards Denis Pederson, Brendan Morrison, along with a 1st or 2nd-round pick. The deal never came to fruition, with New Jersey instead acquiring Mogilny. A combination of the Devils working out a new contract with Messier and discrepancy over what draft pick New Jersey would include in their package appeared to prevent the trade’s completion.

Had those snags been sorted out, Messier may have remained in New Jersey well beyond the 2000 playoffs, possibly deferring or preventing his second stint with the New York Rangers from even happening. Things obviously worked out for the Devils, who went on to win their second Stanley Cup, and make another Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 2001 with Mogilny on their team.

Nonetheless, accounts like this make you wonder if acquiring Messier instead of Mogilny would have still given New Jersey the right formula to capture their 2000 championship, and possibly even put them over the top again the following year.

Teemu Selanne Pulled the Plug on a Blockbuster

Lou Lamoriello’s instincts were spot-on at the 2003 trade deadline, when he apparently worked the phones to try and land his team an established scoring threat. Right wing Teemu Selanne was coveted by Lamoriello for years. He supposedly tried previously acquiring Selanne before the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim traded him to the San Jose Sharks in 2001.

According to the New York Post’s Mark Everson, Lamoriello tried acquiring several players at the 2003 trade deadline, from Teemu Selanne to Jarome Iginla and Miroslav Satan. Lamoriello’s talks with then-Sharks General Manager Dean Lombardi apparently went beyond Selanne. Lamoriello also inquired about veteran forward Vincent Damphousse, along with names like Marco Sturm and Mike Ricci. Both teams appeared to have agreed on a multi-player deal that was sending Scott Gomez and defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky to San Jose for Selanne, Sturm, and Ricci.

The trade couldn’t be completed however, because Selanne refused to waive his no-trade clause.

Although Lamoriello failed to make a big splash at the 2003 trade deadline, his biggest trade wound up being for Grant Marshall, who would score that pivotal triple overtime goal in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Again, New Jersey Devils fans would have been ecstatic if this trade actually happened at the time, but how would that deal have changed history?

The Devils Almost Pulled Off Another One-For-One

Although Taylor Hall didn’t usher in a newfound era of prosperity like the New Jersey Devils had hoped, the infamous one-for-one trade that brought him to the Garden State will forever be remembered. Nearly a decade before the Hall/Larsson swap occurred, Lamoriello almost completed a one-for-one of his own that could have had a profound effect on the organization.

The 2006-2007 season was Scott Gomez’s last with the New Jersey Devils. Lamoriello—whose inability to retain top unrestricted free agents was well-documented—knew the prospect of losing Gomez for nothing that summer was very real, and explored potential trade scenarios early in the season. Around the same time, Detroit Red Wings General Manager Ken Holland faced an identical predicament with center Pavel Datsyuk, who was also slated to become a UFA in July.

The two general managers at least had discussions regarding a potential swap of their team’s centers. Both were similar in age, making little progress on signing extensions with their respective teams, and produced near identical numbers in 2005-2006, so this deal would have made sense at the time. It’s possible other pieces could have been thrown in, but even if the deal wasn’t exactly one-for-one, Gomez and Datsyuk would have been the trade’s centerpieces.

Datsyuk eventually signed a long-term extension with Detroit, while Gomez inked a seven-year contract with the New York Rangers on July 1. Even if this deal transpired, would Lamoriello, knowing his ineptness of being able to re-sign his top UFAs, have been able to re-sign Datsyuk? If so, not only could this have been one of the most lopsided trades in NHL history, but Datsyuk would have spent the next several years playing with Patrik Elias, Jamie Langenbrunner, and a young Zach Parise.

Imagine what that forward core could have accomplished?