Former New Jersey Devils Captain Makes Hall of Fame

The New Jersey Devils have a long history of great leadership. Scott Stevens is their most famous captain. He’s a Hall of Famer in every sense of the word, and his number is in the rafters of the Prudential Center. Even now, the Devils have a great captain in Nico Hischier. In all, there were 12 captains over 40 years of Devils hockey. One of the most memorable captains was Jamie Langenbrunner.

On Friday, the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame announced Jamie Langenbrunner as one of its new inductees. He joins former Kings great Dustin Brown, executive Brian Burke, women’s star Katie King Crowley, and official Brian Murphy as inductees representing the 2023 class.

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The Devils acquired Jamie Langenbrunner in March of 2002 in the deal that was headlined by Jason Arnott and Joe Nieuwendyk. The Devils broke the “A” Line up to find a new direction. It led to the 2003 Stanley Cup championship. It was Langenbrunner’s second Stanley Cup championship, joining the 1999 title he won with the Dallas Stars.

While he played parts of nine seasons in New Jersey, Langenbrunner was just Devils captain for three and a half years, but it felt like so much more. He was traded back to the Stars in 2011 for a third-round pick. That pick ended up being used to select Blake Coleman.

The Devils got a ton out of Langenbrunner during his time. He was a scorer, a middle-six puck stopper, a penalty killer, and a power-play specialist all in one. Whatever the Devils needed on any given night, Langenbrunner found a way to fit that role.

Of course, what’s more important to this particular Hall of Fame is Langenbrunner’s contributions to American hockey. The Minnesota native played two seasons for Team USA at the World Juniors Championship (1994 and 1995). He would go on to represent the U.S. at the Olympics twice, captaining the team in 2010.

Of course, that 2010 team was the iconic team that saw fellow Devil Zach Parise score a goal with seconds left to send the gold medal game into overtime. We won’t talk about what happened next, but it was the closest the Americans came to a gold medal since 1980 in Lake Placid when they sealed the deal.

Langenbrunner joins Brian Gionta, Brian Rafalski, Bill Guerin, Lou Lamoriello, Doc Emrick, and Stan Fischler as some of the most popular hockey players and personalities with Devils ties in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. There will be more, with Zach Parise and hopefully Jack Hughes representing the red, white, and blue in the game of hockey.