The New Jersey Devils have been big believers in taking chances on veteran players. Sometimes the moves work really well and the Devils find a long-term solution at a position, but other times, the impact to the Devils is very short term. There are dozens of examples who went on to eventually leave the NHL, like Andreas Johnsson, Jacob Josefson, and Matias Tedenby.
Others kept milling around the NHL, but they might have fallen under the radar for Devils fans. Most of the time, we don't remember they are still in the league until the eventually score against us. It just seems like a right of passage that former Devils end up putting the puck in the net against this team.
We wanted to go around the league and pinpoint the names that really stuck out to us. Which former Devils' players have stuck around the league, sometimes many years after their Devils career ended?
Marcus Johansson
Current Team: Minnesota Wild
Marcus Johansson was such a smart move on paper by then-GM Ray Shero. He had so much upside and hadn't hit his ceiling in Washington. He did have an injury history, but he was coming off a season where he played 82 games. There was reason to think he could find his way with a bigger role in New Jersey.
It did not work out that way. Johansson missed three-quarters of the 2017-18 season, putting up just 14 points. He was almost an afterthought in 2018-19, but he put up 12 goals and 27 points in 48 games for the Devils. They were bad, and they traded him to the Boston Bruins near the 2019 trade deadline. The Devils used the picks in the Johansson trade to draft Nikita Okhotiuk in 2019 and Ethan Edwards. If Edwards works out, this could be a big win for the Devils.
Since New Jersey, Johansson has played for Boston, Buffalo (no recollection of this), Washington again, Minnesota, Seattle (again, no recollection), and now Minnesota again. Somehow, he's only 34 years old. He feels like he should be 40+ with all these teams he's played for.