50 Greatest New Jersey Devils Players of All Time: Numbers 40-31

Greatest New Jersey Devils player of all time: 32. Brendan Shanahan

This one might be name value, or it could be that he brought one of the top players on this list to New Jersey, but Brendan Shanahan actually had an interesting, albeit short, career with the Devils. In total, Shanahan played five seasons with the Devils. He left in 1991, signing an offer sheet with the St. Louis Blues. It was a banner day for the Devils, as it turned into Scott Stevens.

Shanahan was the Devils’ second-overall pick in the 1987 NHL Draft. He took some time to get acclimated to the NHL. He was in and out of the lineup in 1987-88, which happened to be the first season the Devils made the playoffs. The next season, he got a lot better. Shanahan posted 50 points in 68 games.

Shanahan quickly became one of the few great young players in the league. He was just under a point per game in his third NHL season. Four years into his career, he had 281 games under his belt, 214 points, and he was primed to be a first-line player. Then, as he fought with the Devils and Lou Lamoriello about money, he found a team to pay him $1.25 million per season.

Shanahan had a Hall-of-Fame career with the Blues and Detroit Red Wings, but he found his way back to the Devils in the end. He spend his last 34 games in New Jersey, as Lamoriello gave him a call in the middle of the 2008-09 season to add a forward due to injuries. He re-signed with the Devils that offseason, but he ended up parting ways before the season started and retired that November.