New Jersey Devils: Five Worst Lou Lamoriello Re-Acquisitions

4: Brian Rolston

Brian Rolston has an interesting part in New Jersey Devils history. He was drafted in the first round of the 1991 draft, 11th overall. Making his debut with the club in the lockout-shortened 1995 season, the year the Devils won their first Stanley Cup Championship. He would play 40 out of the 48 games in the season at just 21 years old. He had a solid rookie year, amassing 18 points while contributing two goals in seven playoff games.

The next few years, he carved out a regular spot in the lineup for himself. Then, in the 1999-2000 season, Lamoriello traded Rolston to the Colorado Avalanche for a returning Claude Lemieux(who will be on the best re-acquisitions list). He would play for the Avalanche for one year before being sent to Boston for Ray Bourque, who would come to haunt the Devils in the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals. He would have a short stint in Minnesota before becoming a free agent.

In 2008, the 35-year-old Rolston signed with the Devils as a free agent to a four-year, $20 million contract. To summarize his second stint with the Devils: oof. Relatively new in the cap era, the Devils would regret the contract almost immediately. Rolston only scored 20 goals once in the three years he remained in New Jersey. When the Devils needed production from Rolston, he was nowhere to be found. A $5 million AAV player never getting more than 40 points in a season was rough.

Lamoriello decided to cut bait and flipped him to the New York Islanders in a one-for-one trade for Trent Hunter in July of 2011. Hunter was bought out four days later and then signed with the Los Angeles Kings, who would eventually beat the Devils in the Stanley Cup Finals later that year. So, in the end, Rolston brought two championships to New Jersey and had them lose two as well.