2024-25 New Jersey Devils Season Opener Countdown: #34 John Vanbiesbrouck, #33 Ryan Graves, and #32 Steve Thomas

The 2024-25 New Jersey Devils season opens very soon. On October 4, the Devils will fight the Buffalo Sabres in Prague, Czechia. To get ready for the season, we're doing a daily piece countdown of all the numbers of the Devils sweaters and moments in Devils franchise history. The following few players are former goalie John Vanbeisbrouck, former defenseman Ryan Graves, and former forward Steve Thomas.

John Vanbiesbrouck

John Vanbiesbrouck had a very long career in the NHL as a goaltender. He was a decent goalie when he began with the New York Rangers in the late 80s and early 90s for 11 seasons. In Vanbiesbrouck’s 1985-86 season, he earned his only Vezina trophy with 31 wins, a save percentage of .887, and a 3.33 GAA. Entering that year’s playoffs, he went 8-8 and lost the divisional finals to the Montreal Canadiens.

However, entering the 1989-90 season and following, his stats began to plummet. While he still had talent, he had inconsistent seasons. Seeing that Mike Richter was an upcoming goalie with a lot of talent, Neil Smith had to move Vanbiesbrouck, and the 1993 Expansion Draft, which saw the newly formed Florida Panthers, was a perfect place. Vanbiesbrouck would be the first pick taken by the Panthers, and in his first season in Florida, his stats were not great, with a 21-25-11 season. However, that season, he was named an all-star to the 1994 All-Star Game. In his 3rd season in Florida, in the 1995-96 season, Vanbiesbrouck had a good season of 26-20, and thanks in large parts to his team in the playoffs, he went to his only  Stanley Cup Finals that season, only to be swept by the upstarting Colorado Avalanche 4 games. He would sign with the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1998 offseason after two more seasons in Florida. At age 35, he would have his two best seasons in years with Philadelphia from 1998-2000, going 52-33-26 with a .904 save percentage and 2.20 GAA.

Vanbiesbrouck tried to keep his stretch going at age 37 by being traded to the New York Islanders in the 2000 NHL Draft; however, it was clear by this point that his talent was gone, with a 10-25 record and 3.04 GAA in just 44 games. At the 2001 trade deadline, Lou Lamoriello decided to acquire Vanbiesbrouck and traded Chris Terreri, who was also struggling.  

Vanbiesbrouck, in his only four games with the Devils that season, won every game, including a shutout on March 23rd, 2001 against the Vancouver Canucks at home, while helping the Devils to win 13 straight games, which was a franchise record at the time. While he wouldn't play in the 2001 playoffs, he did get to experience the Stanley Cup Finals with the Devils; he wouldn’t get a chance to raise the Cup because the Devils lost to the Colorado Avalanche in seven games.

After the Final ended, Vanbiesbrouck would initially announce his retirement, only to be brought back for the 2001-02 season, where he went 2-3 in 5 games, and would announce his second retirement in May of 2002.

Ryan Graves

Ryan Graves is a defenseman who was taken in the 2013 NHL Draft by the New York Rangers. Several years later, he would find himself with the Colorado Avalanche toward the beginning of the 2018-19 season, where he got 5 points in 26 games. The following season, Graves’s numbers improved to 26 points and a +40.

After one more season in Colorado, Tom Fitzgerald wanted to improve his defense after the disastrous 2020-21 season, so he traded for Ryan Graves in exchange for Mikhail Maltseiv and a draft pick. In Graves’s first season in New Jersey, he played 75 games, scoring 28 points, while missing time in November due to a collision against the Bruins.

He improved in his second and last season in New Jersey despite the points saying otherwise. He played better defensively and had his moments, like his buzzer-beater goal on Valentine’s Day 2023 against the Blue Jackets. After the playoffs, Graves left New Jersey and signed a 6-year deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins. In Pittsburgh, Graves only put 11 points in 70 games in his first season there. Grave’s absence was a big problem for last year’s Devils team, so they must hope their new defensive guys play better this season.

Steve Thomas

Steve Thomas was a very reliable player throughout his NHL career. In his tenures with the Maple Leafs and Blackhawks, he averaged more than 50 points a season. When he became an Islander at the 1999 trade deadline, he improved to an average of 70+ points for three of the four seasons he played. After the 1994-95 season ended him with 75 points, Lou Lamorriello, wanting to upgrade the team after they had just won the cup, acquired him on October 3rd, 1995. However, in a very questionable move, he gave the Islanders the reigning Conn Smyth trophy winner, Claude Lemieux. Thomas’s first season as a Devil was excellent, scoring 61 points in 81 games. However, in his next two seasons, Thomas’s numbers began to decline with a 34-point season, then 24 points in the 1997-98 season.

Once the 1998 offseason began, he signed with his former team, the Maple Leafs, and in his first season back with them, he scored 73 points. Thomas’s final five seasons in the NHL saw him play with the Blackhawks for a second time and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim; he did have a memorable moment in the 2003 Stanley Cup Final where, in game 4, he scored the overtime winner to tie the series at 2. Thomas would spend the final season of his career with the Red Wings in the 2003-04 season, scoring 22 points.