5 Players Who Returned To New Jersey Devils (And How It Went)
There are rumors swirling right now that the New Jersey Devils might consider a reunion with Kyle Palmieri now that the New York Islanders season is spiraling out of control. While the Devils have had a rough stretch, it’s nothing like what the Islanders, who were one win away from making the Stanley Cup Final last season, are going through right now.
Whether a return of Palmieri is a good idea or not is anyone’s guess. He’s having a rough season, but we’ve seen players struggle outside of the Devils locker room before then return to have success. We’ve also seen Devils players return and it goes horribly wrong. That’s the risk teams take when they are bringing back players in the twilight of their career.
How did former New Jersey Devils players do when they returned to the Garden State?
Lou Lamoriello was famous for bringing former players back into the fold when they got either cheaper or more available. He knew what he was getting out of a lot of these players, and it made sense to him to bring players back who knew what they were getting into. Sometimes they were players he drafted that left for bigger money elsewhere, and other times it was Lou who traded a player away to try and get a bigger asset. No matter how painful the divorce was, it always seemed like the door was left open for the Devils to bring back former players.
Lamoriello is now trying to right the ship on Long Island, but the Devils habit of bringing back former players is alive and well. Blake Coleman confirmed to us earlier this season that the Devils were one of the finalists for his services. When it’s the right player, the Devils are more than willing to roll out the red carpet for a reunion.
Claude Lemieux
Claude Lemieux was crucial to the early great years of the New Jersey Devils. He won a Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens, and then he brought that experience to New Jersey in 1990, right when things were starting to get good. He would play the next five seasons with the Devils, and he was impossibly good in the 1995 postseason. He scored 13 goals on his way to the Conn Smythe award as the playoff MVP. It was clear he was something special for the Devils.
Then a few months later, the Devils traded Lemieux to the Colorado Avalanche. Lemieux was unhappy with his contract with the Devils which he signed the season before. He went as far as to challenge Lou Lamoriello in arbitration, claiming his contract was invalid. An arbitrator sided with the Devils, but Lou agreed to trade Lemieux before the start of the season.
It worked out for Lemieux, who went on to win the Stanley Cup with the Avalanche that season. There was bad blood between the two parties, but the Devils got back multiple time 30-goal scorer Steve Thomas. He had a ho-hum career with the Devils, scoring 28 goals in his first season but facing some serious injury problems in years two and three in New Jersey.
Then, the impossible happened. The Devils traded for Lemieux to return in 1999. The New York Post article from the breaking news story literally starts “pigs must fly”. Lamoriello brought Lemieux back to help the team win the Stanley Cup. They sent Brian Rolston to the Avalanche and they were able to swap 1st-round picks in the 2000 NHL Draft.
Lemieux helped the Devils win another Stanley Cup in 2000 after the trade. Lamoriello knew what the team was missing, and while Lemieux didn’t end up scoring 13 goals like he did in 1995, he did play an X factor for a team that was as skilled as any in New Jersey. Lemieux would sign with the Phoenix Coyotes in the offseason, but his return to New Jersey was undoubtedly a success.
Brendan Shanahan
The return of Brendan Shanahan was even more surprising than the return of Lemieux. He signed an offer sheet to leave what was the lowly Devils back in 1991. Shanahan was about to become a superstar. He was a second-overall pick who was still just 23 years old and already had a 30 and 29-goal season under his belt.
The Devils saw Shanahan sign an offer sheet with the St. Louis Blues. The rest is history, and it built the future of this franchise in New Jersey. Lamoriello demanded Scott Stevens from the Blues, who the team just signed to an offer sheet the season before. It was a fight in the courts, Stevens refused to report to the Devils, he eventually did play for New Jersey, and he continued his Hall of Fame career and won three Stanley Cups.
Shanahan would be traded a few years later for Chris Pronger, finally giving the Blues the superstar defenseman they were looking for. The Hartford Whalers then traded Shanahan to the Red Wings where he became an NHL legend. Shanahan would spend the next nine years in Detroit. He won Stanley Cups, and he solidified a spot in the Hall of Fame. He then signed with the New York Rangers during the twilight of his career, and he had a couple of productive seasons.
Shanahan was reportedly waiting for a contract offer from the Rangers when the Devils came calling in January 2009. Lamoriello wanted a veteran presence on a team with aspirations. Shanahan signed a deal, and he played the last 34 games of his career with the team that drafted him second overall more than two decades prior. He liked it so much, he decided to re-sign with the Devils that offseason, but weirdly the two sides decided to part ways after Shanahan played for preseason games with the Devils. He ended up scoring on one of the last shifts he ever played on NHL ice. One might not call it a successful signing since the Devils lost in the first round in very disappointing fashion, but it’s not like the signing was bad.
Bobby Holik
Do the Devils ever have a player leave in just normal fashion? Bobby Holik left the Devils to sign a massive deal with the New York Rangers. Glen Sather gave Holik a five-year deal worth a total of $45 million dollars. For perspective, back in 2002, Bobby Holik was making more per season than Jack Hughes will. He makes more than anyone on the current Devils other than P.K. Subban, who had matching average annual values.
It was a terrible contract, but it was a contract a desperate Rangers team felt like it needed to make. Not only do they get a fabulous two-way center, but they take him away from their biggest rival at the time.
We all know how it worked out. It’s sarcastically celebrated by Rangers fans the same way the Bobby Bonilla contract is celebrated on July 1st. He was eventually bought out, and Holik was looking for a way to salvage his career. After the 2004-05 NHL Lockout, he signed with the Atlanta Thrashers. He spent three years there, and he was a fine player for them.
The Devils signed Holik and Brian Rolston on the same day in 2008. They were bringing back reinforcements to try and make a run to the Stanley Cup. It didn’t really work, as the Devils lost in brutal fashion to the Carolina Hurricanes in the playoffs. Holik was eventually considered a healthy scratch towards the end of the season, and he retired as soon as the season was over. He just wasn’t close to the same player, and the Devils found better production elsewhere.
Scott Gomez
There is just this weird curse about players who leave the Devils to sign massive contracts with the New York Rangers. Scott Gomez is the poster boy for this, although things got a lot worse after he was traded to the Montreal Canadiens. Gomez never saw the success he had with the New Jersey Devils. He was one of the great distributors in the league, as he would regularly hit 70 points despite never really scoring more than 15 goals (outside of the ridiculous 33 goal 2005-06 season).
Gomez bounced around between the Florida Panthers and San Jose Sharks after leaving the Canadiens, but it was still very mediocre results. Then, he signed with the Devils in the middle of the 2014-15 season. Lamoriello called an only friend to give the Devils some depth that December.
Gomez was pretty good for a team that needed scoring help on the bottom six. He scored seven goals, the most he had in a season since the 2010-11 season. He put up 34 points in 58 games. The Devils seemed like they had a good thing going with Gomez. It was an important return, as Gomez redeemed himself in the eyes of the New Jersey Devils fanbase.
He would go on to play a few more seasons in and out of the minor leagues, but his last good season came with the Devils.
Alexander Mogilny
The New Jersey Devils love superstars who are towards the end of their careers. Alexander Mogilny was another one. However, let’s look at how Mogilny came to the Devils in the first place. The Devils needed another scorer on their way to the 2000 Stanley Cup. They added Claude Lemieux in the offseason, but they wanted someone who could really put the puck in the net. They traded Brendan Morrison, who was unhappy in New Jersey, and Denis Pederson for Mogilny.
The Devils obviously had the “A” Line that season. Scott Gomez was having a good season on the second line, but outside of those four, there was a serious lack of scoring. The Devils brought Mogilny in, and he was fine the first year and great the next.
Mogilny signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2001 offseason. That seemed to be that. Then, the Devils agreed to bring Mogilny back before the 2005-06 season. The Devils wanted to get back to Cup contention after the lockout.
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Mogilny was a shell of his former self. His hip problems made him a lot less effective. He actually got sent to the AHL to help the Devils with cap space. He became the player who scored the most goals to go to the AHL. He went on long-term injured reserve in his second season with the Devils, and that was the end of a great career.