Devils Roster History in Brief

by Alamoth on Jul 25, 2011 4:38 PM EDT

Inspired by a great article over at Fear the Fin (which you can read here: http://www.fearthefin.com/2011/7/25/2291903/history-of-the-sharks-roster), I did some digging into the current Devils roster to see how we got to where we are today. Sure, as die-hard fans we're all familiar with how we traded down with Calgary in the 1990 draft to acquire Martin Brodeur 20th overall (in exchange for draft picks that became Trevor Kidd and Vesa Viitakoski) but there are some fascinating things in our family tree, including two players on the roster who are ancestors of other players!

To begin, the first thing that jumped out at me was the enormous number of UFA signing we have, including both Unrestricted and the Undrafted variety. The following players were all signed as free agents:

That's 11 free agent signings on a roster with 26 players (undoubtedly some of these names may end up in Albany). Ignore the fact that Brian Rolston and Cam Janssen were originally drafted by New Jersey. Their current stays in New Jersey are a direct result of Free Agency.

After the 11 Free Agents we have three players who came to New Jersey via trading activity. This is where we get our first form of family tree anachronisms with Bryce Salvador, who was acquired in exchange for Cam Janssen who was the 117th overall pick in 2002. Dave Steckel was also the product of a trade, for Jason Arnott last season, as you should all be aware. Then there's the Ilya Kovalchuk trade. Sure, he signed as a Free Agent, and we've all been well versed in just what was given up to acquire Kovalchuk. I'm not going to get into the details on that one, but it's worth reiterating that Kovalchuk cost more than most of the roster combined. The total damage comes to six draft picks (all in the first three rounds) and Johnny Oduya (who was a free agent signing). On the bright side, one of those six draft picks, the one which became Patrice Cormier, was our first round pick in 2008, which became Patrice Cormier and Mattias Tedenby (via trades with Washington and St. Louis). I'll get into that in a bit.

Now we come to what we all hold dear, the Devils' farm system. A large number of the players on New Jersey's roster were drafted by the Devils in the NHL Entry Draft throughout the years. The following players were all signed with the Devils own draft picks (allotted by the NHL):

Patrik Elias (51st Overall, 1994)
Travis Zajac (20th Overall, 2004)
Mark Fayne (155th Overall, 2005)
Mark Fraser (84th Overall, 2005)

That's only four players on a roster of 26 who were drafted with the Devils original picks. Lou Lamoreillo likes to use his draft picks as trade material very often. Eight players on the current roster, drafted by New Jersey, were drafted with other team's picks:

Jacob Josefson (20th Overall, 2009 via CGY for 23rd and 84th Overall 2009)
Mattias Tedenby (24th Overall, 2008 via MIN for 23rd Overall 2008 via WSH for 21st Overall 2008)
Nick Palmieri (79th Overall, 2007 via CGY for David Hale)
Vladimir Zharkov (77th Overall, 2006 via STL for 25th Overall 2006)
Zach Parise (17th Overall, 2003 via EDM for 22nd and 68th Overall 2003)
Colin White (43rd Overall, 1996 via TBL for Corey Schwab 200th Overall in 1990)
Matt Corrente (30th Overall, 2006 via STL for 25th Overall 2006)
Martin Brodeur (20th Overall, 1990 via CGY for 11th Overall and 32nd Overall)

As a final note before I go I want to mention the most fascinating thing I discovered. Nick Palmieri, as mentioned above was acquired via Calgary's draft pick in 2007. The Devils acquired that pick in exchange for David Hale. David Hale was drafted by the Devils with the 22nd overall pick in 2000. That pick was acquired from Colorado in the trade that sent Brian Rolston to Colorado and brought Claude Lemieux back to New Jersey. Brian Rolston was drafted 11th overall in 1991 by the New Jersey Devils. So the 11th overall pick in 1991 eventually resulted today in Nick Palmieri being a Devil (and I suppose partially Brian Rolston as well).

I just wanted to share that with everyone on a slow off-season Monday.

All FanPosts and FanShots are the respective work of the author and not representative of the writers or other users of In Lou We Trust.

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Comments

Well done. I found this to be quite interesting. It’s also evidence that even "minor" deals that involve additional picks in the deal can occasionally provide a player of use.

Devils in my heart! Devils in my mind! Devils in my eyes! Devils until I die!
In Lou We Trust - The New Jersey Devils SBN Blog

by John Fischer on Jul 25, 2011 5:19 PM EDT reply actions

I’ve always been impressed with the value our scouting department and management get out of our draft picks. There are two things I want to explore a bit further with this.

The first is whether or not you can evaluate the relative value of a trade that doesn’t involve players. It might seem obvious in some cases. You could compare Martin Brodeur to Trevor Kidd and say that the Devils got a better value out of that trade. That doesn’t really consider the possibility that Trevor Kidd (or Felix Potvin who was also available at that pick) could have backstopped the Devils to three Stanley Cups.

The second is how this practice compares to other GM practices. Looking at the Shark’s roster history you see very few free agent signings. I think only nine free agent signings affect their current roster. The Devils’ roster history has 14 free agent signings, which is 50% more than San Jose. At the same time, there are fewer player-for-player trades in the Devils’ roster history, with only a handful of players coming as the direct or indirect result of this sort of trade.

by Alamoth on Jul 26, 2011 9:15 AM EDT up reply actions

Interesting stuff…

by Skuba7 on Jul 25, 2011 5:23 PM EDT reply actions

great article.

Joshd12
Brock University
BA. Sports Management, 2014
BA. Recreation and Leisure Studies, 2011

by joshd12 on Jul 25, 2011 7:21 PM EDT reply actions

nice article… we seem to be in a stalemate for a little longer for new moves etc… good timing

by 5th Shift on Jul 25, 2011 7:48 PM EDT reply actions

Ilya Kovalchuk

I meant to get into this above, and I may make another Fan Post just to discuss this topic, but the roots of the Ilya Kovalchuk acquisition in 2010 run fairly deep, tracing their way back to 2005, five years before the blockbuster trade that brought the Russian Sniper to New Jersey. Here’s how it all goes down, in chronological order:

2005: NJD Draft Niclas Bergfors with their NHL allotted 1st Round Pick
2006: NJD Sign UFA Johnny Oduya
2008: NJD Trade 1st Round Pick to WSH for 1st Round and 2nd Round Pick
2008: NJD Draft Patrice Cormier with WSH 2nd Round Pick
2010: NJD Trade Bergfors, Oduya, Cormier and their 2010 1st Round Pick to ATL for Ilya Kovalchuk and Anssi Salmela

Just from this perspective, the Devils have spent one UFA, two 1st Round draft picks and one 2nd Round draft pick to obtain Ilya Kovalchuk and Anssi Salmela. In addition however, the 1st Round pick acquired from WSH in 2008, which is peripheral to this history, was traded to MIN for their 1st Round pick and then used to draft Mattias Tedenby.

Let’s look at all those draft picks we used real quick:
2005 1st Round Pick: Niclas Bergfors, Drafted by NJD, Traded to ATL
2008 1st Round Pick: Anton Gustaffson, Drafted by WSH with NJD pick, Non-NHL Player
2008 2nd Round Pick: Patrice Cormier, Drafted by NJD, Traded to ATL
2010 1st Round Pick: Kevin Hayes, Drafted by CHI with NJD pick (via ATL), NCAA Player

Think about this for a little bit. Lou Lamoreillo turned a bottom pair NHL Defenseman (Oduya), a Prospect Forward (Bergfors), a 4th Line Forward (Cormier), a complete bust (Gustaffson) and an NCAA prospect (Hayes) into an NHL All-Star (Kovalchuk), a Prospect Forward (Tedenby) and a bust (Salmela). For arguments sake let’s net out Tedenby and Bergfors against each other and Gustaffson and Salmela against each other. That essentially gives us Ilya Kovalchuk on one side and Johnny Oduya and Kevin Hayes on the other. That’s one NHL All-Star for one bottom four defender and an NCAA prospect.

We all know now that this deal would end up costing the Devils an additional two draft picks, but those picks are forfeited so they don’t become potential for another team. It’s detrimental to New Jersey for sure, but you can’t really value it against anything else. All-in-all, from this point of view I think you have to be thrilled at how Lou orchestrated the Kovalchuk trade with the resources available to him.

by Alamoth on Jul 26, 2011 11:11 AM EDT reply actions

If you look at Atlanta’s side of the equation this trade may look a little more interesting. Atlanta acquired Kovalchuk with the 1st overall pick in 2001. Anssi Salmela was acquired by Atlanta in a trade with the Devils for Nicals Havelid. Havelid was acquired by Atlanta in a trade in 2004 with Anaheim in exchange for Kurtis Foster. Foster ended up in Atlanta in 2001 as part of a trade with Calgary along with Jeff Cowan in exchange for Petr Buzek. Buzek was drafted by Atlanta in the expansion draft in 1999 and was even an NHL All-Star in 2000 before eventually returning to the Czech Republic in 2003.

So on Atlanta’s side we have the 4th pick of the 1999 Expansion Draft and the 1st pick of the 2001 Entry Draft. On the Devils’ side we have the 23rd pick of the 2005 Entry Draft, the 21st and 54th picks of the 2008 Entry Draft, and the 24th pick of the 2010 Entry Draft. From this point of view, the deal may look better for Atlanta. They give up one 1st-overall pick and a high expansion pick in exchange for 3 1st round picks and one late 2nd round pick plus a free agent signing (hard to factor Oduya into the equation).

This may just go to show how steep the talent curve is from the first overall pick to picks that go late in the first round. Players like Kovalchuk, Crosby and Ovechkin are leaps and bounds better than guys like Bergfors, Tedenby and probably Kevin Hayes as well.

by Alamoth on Jul 26, 2011 11:20 AM EDT up reply actions