The New Jersey Devils have a long history of smart moves. The undrafted free agents brought great players for a bottom basement price.
Undrafted free agents are always one of the most interesting parts of the NHL. Young players come out of nowhere, sign deals with teams on a whim, and some of them turn into legitimate players. Others actually turn into stars. The New Jersey Devils have gotten lucky in the past with who they picked up off the street.
There have been Hall of Famers that went undrafted like Ed Belfour, Adam Oates, Martin St. Louis, and former Devils’ legend Peter Stastny. There are current NHL All-Stars like Sergei Bobrovsky, Tyler Johnson, and Mark Giordano. Despite being so rare, the NHL undrafted free agent holds a very important place in the league. The champion Tampa Bay Lightning had Barclay Goodrow, the aforementioned Johnson, and Yanni Gourde all with a role in helping them lift Lord Stanley’s Cup.
Speaking of lifting Stanley Cups, the Devils had some very good players on those Stanley Cup teams who were never drafted. In fact, undrafted players helped the Devils in every era of its history. From the time they wore red and green to the most recent captain in team history, there are undrafted players everywhere.
Undrafted players come from all over. Some are European players that were overlooked in the development process, others were Canadian players who developed very late in the process, and then there are the American players who made major jumps in production in their junior or senior years of college. Either way, they are worth the risk because there’s nothing to lose for GMs. If they flame out, at least they are an AHL body. However, these five players proved to be much more than that.
To weed out some of the possibilities, all these players started their careers with the New Jersey Devils, and they had to have done something significant with the franchise.