50 Greatest New Jersey Devils Players of All Time: Numbers 30-21

Greatest New Jersey Devils player of all time: 28. Cory Schneider

This might be another controversial ranking. Cory Schneider’s time in New Jersey seemed brief, but he was actually the Devils netminder for seven seasons. He was dominant for three seasons. We’re talking about Vezina Trophy consideration-type of dominance. Despite the Devils being a pretty terrible team, he finished sixth in Vezina Trophy voting in 2016.

Schneider came over from the Vancouver Canucks in the famous NHL Draft-day trade in 2014. The draft was in New Jersey, and the Devils were about to pick ninth overall. Instead, Gary Bettman told the crowd they would be interested in his announcement. The Devils sent that pick to the Canucks straight up for Schneider. The pick ended up being Bo Horvat, and there are a lot of opinions about that.

However, Schneider was one of the best in the league in his first three years as the succession plan to Martin Brodeur. In his first season as the full-time Devils starter, Schneider played 69 games and was third in the league in goals saved above average.

Schneider slowly fell off in 2016-17, but he was still a fine starting goalie until 2017-18, when hip injuries caught up to him. Before that, Schneider had the best save percentage of all time. The Devils clearly made a mistake leaning on Schneider when the team wasn’t good. Still, we got to see him be that dominant Schneider one last time, doing his best to carry the Devils in the 2018 postseason. It was only a few games, but Schneider kept the Devils in games against a dominant Tampa Bay Lightning team. He never regained that form, and he was eventually bought out. Yet, we look back fondly on his time in New Jersey.