New Jersey Devils: 5 Greatest Undrafted Free Agents Ever
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.
5. Greg Adams
It’s highly doubtful very many of you reading this even know who Greg Adams is. He played for a couple of seasons in the 80s before leaving for a journeyman’s career. However, he was an important part of a few seasons before the Devils made the playoffs in 1988. In 1985-86, he scored a career-high 77 points, which included 35 goals. He followed it up with 20 goals the next season before he became a free agent.
The Devils signed him out of the University of Northern Arizona when he led the country in scoring in September of 1986. Back then, he got his picture in the New York Times after the news. It wasn’t very often the Devils were getting any coverage, but getting a name from college hockey sure helped. The Devils were reportedly one of the few teams that scouted him, showing early in his career that Lou Lamoriello was making sure he knew where all the talent was.
Adams had a few good seasons before he was one of the key pieces in the Patrik Sundstrom trade. It was a decent trade for both sides, but the Canucks definitely got the better player and added Kirk McLean as well. Adams ended up scoring 369 points with the Vancouver Canucks. Sundstrom had a decent few years, but it ended so terribly. At least he has the Devils in the record books (he has the record for most points in a playoff game).
Back to Adams. He only had three seasons with the Devils, but he was good for two of them and really good for one. He had a very isolated impact, but it provided a boost to a team desperate for secondary scoring. It would be interesting to see what he would become if he was never traded.
4. David Clarkson
David Clarkson is definitely a name that Devils fans remember. The Devils watched him grow from an AHL longshot to a 30-goal scorer. Less than two years after signing, he made his NHL debut in 2007. He scored four points in seven games and earned himself a spot on the 2007 playoff roster. He made the roster for the 2007-08 season, and never saw the AHL again.
Clarkson played 426 games in New Jersey, scoring 170 points over seven seasons. He was known as a tough guy, often ending up with more than 100 penalty minutes when he was with the Devils. He was a fighter who could net the occasional goal. Clarkson felt like a new version of Bobby Holik. The Devils got him for free.
Clarkson, of course, signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2013 offseason. His career fell off the rails after that. However, his career with the Devils was the stuff of legends. Going from undrafted to a $5 million man is nothing to scoff at. He was very important to the 2012 Devils in the regular season, helping them get that pivotal six seed in a very competitive Eastern Conference. He only scored three goals in the 2012 playoffs, but every single one of them was a game-winning goal. His career is one that Devils fans will never forget.
3. Brian Rafalski
Brian Rafalski’s career goes a lot like the previous two selections. He was very good during his time with the Devils, but he eventually moved on to another team. Rafalski was the best defenseman in the post-Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer era. He was a scoring machine for the Devils, putting up 311 points in seven seasons in New Jersey.
Rafalski was an important part of the Devils run to the 2000 and 2003 Stanley Cups. He dominated at every level after signing with the Devils in 1999. He had seven goals and 11 assists in the 2001 Stanley Cup Playoffs, a team many fans believe is the best Devils team ever. He was the Most Outstanding Defenseman at the famed 2010 Olympic Games as part of Team USA. He won another Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings.
The journey of Rafalski to the NHL is one of the best. He spent four years at the University of Wisconsin. After that, he still wasn’t able to get an NHL look because of his small stature. He went to Europe to extend his career, signing with Brynas IF (the same team Jesper Boqvist once played for). There, Lamoriello saw a player who could immediately impact what was a very talented Devils team. He was right, and Rafalski might be one of the best moves of Lamoriello’s career.
2. John Madden
John Madden is a fan favorite who had a bigger impact on the Devils than some might remember. Madden is still the only Devils player to win the Selke Trophy as the best defensive forward in the NHL. His immediate impact always came on the penalty kill. In college, he broke the record while at the University of Michigan for shorthanded goals in a season (10). He took that skill and ended up winning three Stanley Cups with the Devils and eventually the Chicago Blackhawks.
Madden was eligible for the draft in 1993, but like everyone else, he was passed over by every single team. He ended up playing more games than 264 players “drafted” ahead of him. Only 24 players in the 1993 NHL Draft had more games than Madden.
Lamoriello apparently noticed Madden when he was scouting his 2nd-round pick, Brendan Morrison. Lou eventually signed Madden, and the start of a decade with the Devils began. He spent two seasons with the Albany River Rats before becoming an NHL regular.
He ended up playing the final game of his career against the Devils as a member of the Florida Panthers. They lost in Game 7 of the first round in the 2012 playoffs. It was a 13-year career that almost never was, but he left his mark. He ended his season with 17 shorthanded goals.
1. Andy Greene
The New Jersey Devils’ latest captain was traded this trade deadline to the New York Islanders after 14 years in the Garden State. Andy Greene was fiercely loyal to the Devils at a time when it could have been real easy to jump ship. Greene was with Travis Zajac as the last connection to the former Devils who made the playoffs every season. Now, the Devils are one of the weaker teams in the league, and the drop in production from Greene did not help.
Greene spent his college hockey career at Miami (Ohio) University. He spent one season in the AHL after signing with the Devils, but it was clear by the next season he was ready to be an NHL regular. In his first season in the NHL, Greene was on an Atlantic Division winning Devils team, giving him crucial experience in his first year.
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Greene is on top of a list that includes some really good players. He beat everyone out for his longevity for the Devils. He crossed over two generations of Devils, playing with Brian Gionta and Jack Hughes. The fact the Devils got a player so valuable for free out of college is awesome. He was a 100-point player in college, and Lamoriello saw that Greene could help the Devils transition into the next generation. Now, as his career comes into its twilight, he is clearly the best undrafted free agent to ever play for the Devils.