Scott Niedermayer was a generational talent. He was a huge part of three Cup winners, and probably should have won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2003. Outside of Martin Brodeur, he is the only Devil ever to win a major NHL award (he captured the Norris in 2004).

I can understand the anger over the manner of his departure — especially considering he deferred his FA decision to the point where there wasn’t a whole lot left on the open market to replace him once he bolted. That shouldn’t take away from how magnificent a player he was and what he accomplished in a Devils’ uniform. There’s also no particular reason to “wait until other Devils get their number retired” (specifically, Brodeur and Elias). Will it really matter five or ten years from now which numbers got retired in which order? Won’t it be “enough” that Niedermayer had to wait more than a year after retiring, whereas I imagine Elias and Brodeur will have their numbers retired a few short months after they retire?

The next time I see my friend whose tickets I get to share now and again, I’m going to ask if he has that game…. and if so, I mean to be there. If so, I might even take my #27 jersey out from behind its protective gear to wear to the game instead of the Brodeur jersey I normally wear to games — I have a game-worn, autographed Niedermayer NJ captain’s jersey from the HockeyFightsCancer auction circa 2004, from the first night that Nieds wore the “C” after Scott Stevens got concussed. The passage of time has dulled my anger…. that, and Scott Gomez’s departure to the Rangers by way of UFA after he spent a season declaring loudly and often that he would never sign with the Blueshirts. I’m ready to forgive and forget, and I hope most Devils’ fans feel the same way.

….

As for John MacLean, I don’t view him in the same light as Niedermayer and Stevens, Brodeur and Elias. He doesn’t sit on that kind of pedestal, because outside of his franchise records (which shortly will no longer be his), he doesn’t invoke any particular nostalgia in me beyond the goal that got the franchise into the 1988 playoffs.

(And don’t get me started on Kenny Daneyko, who was a very nice player but not worthy of a jersey retirement IMO. I’ve posed the argument in many other threads that Daneyko belongs in a “Ring of Honor” group, as opposed to the elite who get their number retired for all time.)