2024-25 New Jersey Devils Season Opener Countdown: #22 Claude Lemieux and #21 Randy McKay

The 2024-25 New Jersey Devils season opens very soon. On October 4, the Devils will fight the Buffalo Sabres in Prague, Czechia. To prepare for the season, we're doing a daily piece countdown of the number of Devil’s sweaters and moments in Devil’s franchise history. Now, we will look at two guys who played a big part in the 1995 Cup: Claude Lemieux and Randy McKay.

Claude Lemieux

Regarding the 1995 Stanley Cup team, the one guy with a lot of credit for that run is right-wing Claude Lemieux. Once he started as a Montreal Canadien, he struggled to find his game in the first few years. But once the 1985-86 playoffs started, things began to change for him, and he became a key piece as he scored 16 points en route to the Canadiens 23rd Stanley Cup.

Lemieux would average 55-60 points per season in the next three seasons. But after a 17-point season in 1989-90, Serge Savard and Lou Lamoriello made a trade on September 4th, 1990, which gave the Devils Claude Lemieux in exchange for Sylvian Turgeon. Lemieux immediately impacted the Devils when he scored 47 points in his first season as a Devil. His next two seasons improved, as he would score 68 points in the 1991-92 season, and in the 1992-93 season, he would reach 81 points, with 30 goals and 51 assists, the highest in his career. Despite the next two seasons showing some decline in numbers, the 1995 playoffs showcased Lemieux's greatness around this time. In the 20 games that helped win the Stanley Cup, he scored 13 goals, his career highest.

Everyone remembers Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Philadelphia Flyers, where he scored the game-winning goal with 45 seconds left to go in the game, which scored and scored an insurance goal in Game 6 to help the Devils reach their first Stanley Cup Final. In Game 1, Lemieux scored the game-winning goal three minutes into the 3rd period. Lemieux would score in Game 3, win his 2nd Stanley Cup, and earn his first and only Conn Smyth trophy. In the offseason, Lemieux would sign with the Colorado Avalanche and win his 3rd Stanley Cup with them in that season.

Lemieux would stay with the Avalanche until November 3rd, 1999, when he was traded back to the Devils in exchange for Brian Rolston. In the next 70 games, he would score 38 points. In the 2000 Stanley Cup Playoffs, in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Philadelphia Flyers, trying to come back down 3-1 in the series, Lemieux would score the big goal in game 6 to break the ice in the 3rd period, as the Devils came back to win the series in game seven and earn his 4th and final Stanley Cup of his career. For the rest of his career, he would spend time with the Phoenix Coyotes and Dallas Stars and even came out of retirement in 2007 to play with the San Jose Sharks before retiring again at the end of the season at age 43.

Randy McKay

Randy McKay began in Detroit from 1988-91. However, McKay couldn’t stand out on the roster, filled with good pieces like Sergei Fedorov and Captain Steve Yzerman. In September of 1991, Lamoriello was interested in McKay and was able to win him over, thanks to arbitration. Thanks in large part to the Devils roster having more depth and talent to work around, McKay’s numbers improved as he had 33 points in his first season as a Devil in the 1991-92 season. However, McKay's numbers began to dip due to the immense talent at the right-wing position in the following years, as he had a solid 22 and 27-point season from 1992-94. However, when the 1994-95 team started their Stanley Cup run, he was a massive part of it. McKay would score 12 points, which was the most points in his playoff career.

In Round 1 of the playoffs against the Boston Bruins, McKay would score the OT winner in Game 4, which gave the Devils a 3-1 series lead in which the Devils finished the Bruins off in Game 5 in Boston, as well as put the Devils up 3-1 in game six against the Flyers in the Eastern Conference Finals. McKay would score in game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final. After winning the Cup, McKay continued to have a solid season, averaging 40 points, with his career-high being 47 points in the 1997-98 season. McKay would earn his second Stanley Cup with the Devils.

The following year, when the Devils tried to repeat, he did have his moments, like scoring the OT winner in game two against the Maple Leafs and helping the Devils force a game seven by scoring a goal in Game 6, which gave the Devils a 2-1 lead.After the season, McKay played for two more teams, one in the Dallas Stars, which the Devils traded him away to, which I mentioned about Jason Arnott in the previous piece, and would play for the Montreal Canadiens as well in the 2002-03 season, but would retire at age 36. However, his memories of his two cups, which helped shape the Devils into who they were as a franchise, will always be remembered by generations of fans.