Weird New Jersey Devils History: Imagining Patrik Elias In Another Jersey

Try to picture Patrik Elias in any other uniform. It’s hard, right? Even something innocuous, like a Blues jersey or a Wild uniform, which… maybe those two aren’t the best examples for New Jersey Devils fans but the point is made. Try something harder: picture him in a Rangers uniform. Imagine him skating with his back to Henrik Lundqvist instead of trying to score on him.

Here’s the thing: it almost happened.

2005-06 was a weird year for the NHL. The lockout was over, new rules were in place, and scoring was up. The vile trapezoid has been painted on the ice for the first time. The Devils had another solid regular season – even after Scott Stevens retired and Scott Niedermeyer left – winning the Atlantic Division. They swept the Rangers in the first round before falling to the Hurricanes – eventual Cup winners, though nobody remembers that – in the next round.

It was also a weird year for Patrik Elias. He played the lockout year in Russia, where he contracted hepatitis A after eating tainted food. The disease nearly killed him and there was a real chance he’d never play hockey again. Thankfully he recovered, but that included a grueling 10 months of rehab.

Elias missed the first half of the season before making his debut in January of 2006. He was a big part of the team’s latter half success, in which he scored 45 points in 38 games. He finished the season as the fifth-highest scorer on the team. His playoff performance was even better – in nine games, he led the team in scoring with six goals and 10 assists for 16 points.

Then, in a season with various unthinkable things occurred, the impossible almost happened. Heading into free agency, Lou Lamoriello arranged a meeting with Elias. Lou told Elias that he knew the forward would get big offers and the Devils couldn’t afford him, “so thank you and all the best.” It’s hard to know whether he’s talking about team finances or cap hit, but the result is the same

This part is largely speculation, but Lou also had reason to believe the Devils might be fine upfront without Elias. This isn’t a knock on his talent, it’s just an examination of what it looked like then and what the future held. The classic forward core was largely intact, but two promising rookies named Zach Parise and Travis Zajac looked ready to break out next year. Understandably, the team might pass on one player, even one of the team’s best players, when there’s at two potential replacements.

The 2006 free-agent class was pretty deep, but most of the other forwards were either aging veterans like Brenden Shanahan or useful depth guys like Mike Grier. The biggest prizes at forward were guys like Marc Savard, Jason Arnott, and Elias.

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(Eagle-eyed readers will note that every name in that last paragraph has a connection to the Devils – three former players, one coach, and salary cap paper transaction.)

Elias fully expected to leave town that summer and had three main suitors: the Los Angeles Kings, the Montreal Canadiens, and the New York Rangers. The Kings had narrowly missed the playoffs the last season but were plausibly one or two good forwards away. The Habs weren’t an offensive powerhouse and could use someone upfront.

The Rangers, however, had something more important than either of them: the most money and the biggest offer. Multiple accounts describe the deal as $42 million in total, with six years at $7 million a season. It was a great offer, and Elias and the Rangers even had a verbal agreement in place on July 1st.

There was one hangup.

The offer was generous and Elias likely would have been a star across the Hudson, but Elias wanted either a no-trade or a no-movement clause – an understandable choice in a trade-happy market. Glenn Sather wouldn’t offer one.

Unwilling to commit without it, Elias called Lou directly. He mentioned the teams he met with but still wanted to know if they could work out a deal to keep in him New Jersey. Lou said he’d see what they could do and hung up. Elias has told the particulars of what happens next in different ways at different times – once saying his agent called back with a deal, once saying Lou himself called back – but the result is the same: within 15 minutes of calling back, he had a new contract with the Devils.

The new contract was for $42 million over seven years – a million less per year but with more security and a no-trade clause. Patrik Elias would remain a career Devil.

The Kings ended up signing Rob Blake, whose numbers declined but was valuable enough to become Captain for a few seasons. The Habs signed Sergei Samsonov, who bombed in Montreal and was waived before the season ended. Elias remained productive for years to come and even went on another Cup run.

Sather, irked by the fact that one of Lou’s guys reneged on a contract, had no issues signing Scott Gomez to a big contract one year later. The mid-2000s were weird.