Devils 2021 All-Time Team

[Classic Devil]

Last summer was a rough one, so I missed doing this for the first time in a while. This is my traditional, only marginally participated in Devils All-Time Team Challenge. I think I did this for the first time back in 2007 (which was the first year we could have a full 23 man roster), but I may actually have done it before then... can't remember anymore.

Usually we get about three submissions a year, including mine... hoping we can beat that this year!

It's basically a puzzle challenge: make the best roster you can out of players in Devils' team history.

But there are a few rules to make this harder than it might immediately seem:

(1) You're selecting players by season. So, for instance, you can take Patrik Elias' 2000-2001 season. But you can only take one player per season. If you take Elias 2000-2001, you cannot take Mogilny 2000-2001; the 2000-2001 team only gets one player to represent it.

(2) You can only select a player once. So, if you take Elias 2000-2001, you can't have Elias 2005-2006 also.

(3) You cannot have two players wearing the same number. If you take Bruce Driver, you cannot also take Scott Gomez (each gets assigned #23). For players who wore more than one number in Devils history, they're assigned the one they wore for longer (so, if you're taking Rolston, he wears #14, which he wore for 7 seasons, and not #12, which he wore for 3 seasons, regardless of which season you're taking him for).

You can otherwise make selections based on any criteria you want. You can choose players based off their regular season performances, or playoff performances; you can focus on choosing only long-time Devils or go for best single-season performances . Whatever feels right to you, go ahead and run with it.

Also choose a head coach and two assistant coaches. No restrictions on these, you can pick anyone from the team's history.

Once you have your team selected, assemble a lineup (lines and pairings, reserve forwards and defense) and post!

Suggestions:
I'm providing something to make this a little easier this year. Because I'm a nerd and do this challenge for fun in my free time, I've put together a Microsoft Excel file complete with all the players I think are genuine candidates for the team. (If you think there are players that should be added to this list, just tell me and I'd be happy to incorporate them.) The list is based on the statistics found at NHL Stats, History, Scores, & Records | Hockey-Reference.com, and takes adjusted scoring and goal contributions, to make it easier to compare statistics across eras. Every row is a player-year, with their number and position, so if you're trying to sort through all the options for a given number, player, or season, the excel file should make it easy.

Start by picking players who are going to be represented on basically every team: Brodeur, Stevens, Elias, Niedermayer have lots of good years to pick from and no competition for their numbers (Peter Stastny notwithstanding). Then pick between #9s (Parise/Muller/Hall), #23s (Gomez/Driver), #17s (Sykora/Kovalchuk/Sundstrom), #15s (Langenbrunner/MacLean), etc; these numbers are all also likely to get representation.

Click to read more...

 

[AfroThunder396]

Threw this together in about 45 minutes so please be gentle with me, I'll likely come back and do some revisions later. A few notes:

-Every time I do this I'm struck at the gap between wingers vs centers, and even more so the gap between left defense vs right defense.
-I really wanted to get Jagr on this team, which messed up a few other selections
-Biggest omission is likely Greene, but it's easy to forget that he was really a bit of a late bloomer. Outside of 2010 he didn't really do much his first ~6 years in the league, and by 2018 he was already starting to break down. All of his best years there was someone else better, so instead I took Paul Martin who certainly didn't have the longevity but I'd argue had a better peak.
-Zidlicky is probably my weakest choice and it wasn't even his best year, but I really didn't want to take 5 LHD. Again, RHD is alarmingly thin even without me taking Gomez over Driver. Also Rafalski and Severson have the same number soooo.....
-Question for the old timers - is there any one pre-1987 worth taking? Since I didn't take Greene I looked at Joe Cirella for #6 and his stats seem fine (1984 particularly), but I never watched him play so I didn't feel comfortable taking him.

#2 Marek Zidlicky 2012-13
#3 Ken Daneyko 1991-92
#4 Scott Stevens 1993-94
#7 Paul Martin 2008-09
#9 Taylor Hall 2017-18
#11 Brendan Shanahan 1990-91
#14 Brian Gionta 2005-06
#15 John MacLean 1987-88
#16 Bobby Holik 1998-99
#17 Ilya Kovalchuk 2011-12
#19 Travis Zajac 2009-10
#23 Scott Gomez 2007-08
#25 Jason Arnott 1999-00
#26 Patrik Elias 2005-06
#27 Scott Niedermayer 2003-04
#28 Brian Rafalski 2006-07
#30 Martin Brodeur 1996-97
#35 Cory Schneider 2014-15
#68 Jaromir Jagr 2013-14
#89 Alexander Mogilny 2000-01

Elias-Arnott-Mogilny
Hall-Gomez-Gionta
Kovalchuk-Zajac-MacLean
Shanahan-Holik-Jagr

Stevens-Rafalski
Niedermayer-Daneyko
Martin-Zidlicky

Brodeur-Schneider

Extra: #10 Aaron Broten (1986-87), #21 Randy McKay (1997-98), #22 Claude Lemieux (1992-93), #24 Ty Smith (2020-21), #29 Mackenzie Blackwood (2019-20), #44 Stephane Richer (1994-95).

Not eligible because of overlapping numbers: #9 Zach Parise, #9 Kirk Muller, #11 John Madden, #15 Jamie Langenbrunner, #17 Patrik Sundstrom, #23 Bruce Driver, #28 Damon Severson

Possible candidates but there was a better performer their year: #6 Andy Greene (2009-10, 2013-14, 2014-15), #13 Nico Hischier (2017-18)

 

[Billdo]

Zacha-Zacha-Zacha
Zacha-Zacha-Zacha
Zacha-Zacha-Zacha
Zacha-Josefsson-Tedenby

Matt Corrente-Xavier Bernard
Adrian Foster-Kurtis Foster
Olivier Magnan-Warsofsky

Jeremy Brodeur
Anthony Brodeur

 

[Blackjack]

Zacha-Zacha-Zacha
Zacha-Zacha-Zacha
Zacha-Zacha-Zacha
Zacha-Josefsson-Tedenby

Matt Corrente-Xavier Bernard
Adrian Foster-Kurtis Foster
Olivier Magnan-Warsofsky

Jeremy Brodeur
Anthony Brodeur

No P3L? Ridiculous

 

[MartyOwns]

pihlman voros bergfors
nagy romano boucher
tedenby cormier halischuk
ryznar vrana danton

demarchi-zimmerman
fraser-corrente
young-helgeson

ahonen
frazee

 

[Lou is God]

pihlman voros bergfors
nagy romano boucher
tedenby cormier halischuk
ryznar vrana danton

demarchi-zimmerman
fraser-corrente
young-helgeson

ahonen
frazee

Urbom should be on this list.

 

[Blackjack]

This has always sort of overwhelmed me so I've never submitted one before, but to make it easier I started with @AfroThunder396 list and made adjustments:

Swapped in Adam Larsson ('15-'16) for Ken Daneyko, giving me 3 right hand shots on defense. Really wanted to include Langenbrunner's 69 point season so bumped Paul Martin's season back to 2006-2007, and moved Rafalski to 2001-2002 (pretty much the only way to make use of that wretched season).

#2 Marek Zidlicky 2012-13
#5 Adam Larsson 2015-2016
#4 Scott Stevens 1993-94
#7 Paul Martin 2006-2007
#9 Taylor Hall 2017-18
#11 Brendan Shanahan 1990-91
#14 Brian Gionta 2005-06
#15 Jamie Langenbrunner 2008-2009
#16 Bobby Holik 1998-99
#17 Ilya Kovalchuk 2011-12
#19 Travis Zajac 2009-10
#23 Scott Gomez 2007-08
#25 Jason Arnott 1999-00
#26 Patrik Elias 2005-06
#27 Scott Niedermayer 2003-04
#28 Brian Rafalski 2001-2002
#30 Martin Brodeur 1996-97
#35 Cory Schneider 2014-15
#68 Jaromir Jagr 2013-14
#89 Alexander Mogilny 2000-01

Elias-Arnott-Mogilny
Hall-Gomez-Gionta
Kovalchuk-Zajac-Langenbrunner
Shanahan-Holik-Jagr

Stevens-Rafalski
Niedermayer-Larsson
Martin-Zidlicky

Brodeur-Schneider

 

[AfroThunder396]

If you look at all right-handed defensemen in Devils history ('82-'21) and sort by games played, you get this impressive list of names:

1.) Brian Rafalski
2.) Joe Cirella
------500 games
3.) Damon Severson
------400 games
4.) Bob Lorimer
------300 games
5.) Adam Larsson
6.) Mark Fayne
7.) Marek Zidlicky
------200 games
8.) Ben Lovejoy
9.) Sami Vatanen
10.) Phil Russell
11.) Jason Smith
12.) Steve Santini
13.) PK Subban
14.) Peter Harrold
-------100 games
15.) Rob Palmer


28 defensemen have played +200 games for the Devils, 21 of them have been left handed.

 

[My3Sons]

No P3L? Ridiculous

No Lovejoy on the team and you lead with P3L? What is wrong with you?

 

[njdevils1982]

If you look at all right-handed defensemen in Devils history ('82-'21) and sort by games played, you get this impressive list of names:

1.) Brian Rafalski
2.) Joe Cirella
------500 games
3.) Damon Severson
------400 games
4.) Bob Lorimer
------300 games
5.) Adam Larsson
6.) Mark Fayne
7.) Marek Zidlicky
------200 games
8.) Ben Lovejoy
9.) Sami Vatanen
10.) Phil Russell
11.) Jason Smith
12.) Steve Santini
13.) PK Subban
14.) Peter Harrold
-------100 games
15.) Rob Palmer


28 defensemen have played +200 games for the Devils, 21 of them have been left handed.

it would be simply irresistible to not add rob palmer to the team

 

[AfroThunder396]

My old college room mate texted me out of the blue about a year ago. We kinda lost touch and handn't really talked in the past ~6 years because life got in the way. He knows I'm a huge Devils fan, and he grew up around Albany so he went to quite a few River Rats games as a kid.

Anyways, he randomly goes "Do you know Pierre Leblond from the Devils?" And immediately I remember the game against Washington in 2010 where we got destroyed 7-2 in like the first week of the season and he got an instigator penalty for jumping Marcus Johansson (lol) with like 4 minutes left in the game. I think I remember Volchenkov breaking his nose and/or losing some teeth after a puck hit his visor in the same game.

So I say "Yeah, of course I remember him." And my room mate goes "Dude I work with him, he's a realtor at Coldwell Banker. He's been trying to convince me he's an NHL player and I didn't believe him." And I was just kind of flabbergasted at what I heard, what a blast from the past. I hadn't thought about this player since he got waived.

During the winter the boys at the office have pond hockey games whenever they can, so my old room mate gets to play pick up games with PL3. Apparently he's a really funny guy. My room mate does graphic design for them and made him his own custom logo for his business cards.

So if any of you in the central New York area are interested in buying a house be sure to let your boy know.

 

[Better Call Sal]

My old college room mate texted me out of the blue about a year ago. We kinda lost touch and handn't really talked in the past ~6 years because life got in the way. He knows I'm a huge Devils fan, and he grew up around Albany so he went to quite a few River Rats games as a kid.

Anyways, he randomly goes "Do you know Pierre Leblond from the Devils?" And immediately I remember the game against Washington in 2010 where we got destroyed 7-2 in like the first week of the season and he got an instigator penalty for jumping Marcus Johansson (lol) with like 4 minutes left in the game. I think I remember Volchenkov breaking his nose and/or losing some teeth after a puck hit his visor in the same game.

So I say "Yeah, of course I remember him." And my room mate goes "Dude I work with him, he's a realtor at Coldwell Banker. He's been trying to convince me he's an NHL player and I didn't believe him." And I was just kind of flabbergasted at what I heard, what a blast from the past. I hadn't thought about this player since he got waived.

During the winter the boys at the office have pond hockey games whenever they can, so my old room mate gets to play pick up games with PL3. Apparently he's a really funny guy. My room mate does graphic design for them and made him his own custom logo for his business cards.

So if any of you in the central New York area are interested in buying a house be sure to let your boy know.

That is amazing.

So of course, I had to look this up:

Pierre-Luc Letourneau Leblond of Coldwell Banker Prime Properties

I'm in mortgages, maybe he needs a mortgage guy.

 

[GameSeven]

Never done one of these in past years, so here goes:

Elias-Arnott-MacLean
Parise-Zajac-Gionta
Kovalchuk-Gomez-Lemieux
Palmieri-Holik-Jagr

Stevens-Rafalski
Daneyko-Niedermayer
Martin-Kurvers

Brodeur
Schneider

I went well into the weeds with some of the extras, but as long as the seasons and numbers were available, I figured some honorable mention for either standout seasons (Semak, Butcher, etc.) or honorable NJD alumns (Greene, Richer)

And as I say that, I regret not being able to find a season for Sarge, with his career spanning some of NJD's very best.

 

[Classic Devil]

I decided to totally break my usual mold, and took Gomez instead of Driver. I've never done this before, I always prioritize having strength on the back end over quality at center...

Made a few other changes too. I prioritized playoff performance, so took Steven's Conn Smythe year instead of his 1993-1994, and took Brodeur's 2002-2003 instead of any of his Vezina years. I also took Kovalchuk's 2011-2012 instead of Salvador's (my usual pick from that year).

I think defense is a little weak, but Greene can look after Cirella, or you can put Kasatonov on the bottom pairing instead. I also love the mix of physicality, defense, and offense up and down the lineup. And that second line is going to score goals. Lots and lots of goals.

Classic Devil's 2021 All-Time Team

#26 Patrik Elias [Alternate] (2000-2001) - #9 Kirk Muller (1987-1988) - #22 Claude Lemieux (1992-1993)
#17 Ilya Kovalchuk (2011-2012) - #23 Scott Gomez (2005-2006) - #15 John MacLean (1988-1989)
#11 Brendan Shanahan (1989-1990) - #16 Bobby Holik (1998-1999) - #21 Randy McKay [Alternate] (1997-1998)
#10 Aaron Broten (1986-1987) - #19 Travis Zajac (2008-2009) - #44 Stephane Richer (1994-1995)
#93 Doug Gilmour (1996-1997) - #13 Nico Hischier (2017-2018)

#4 Scott Stevens [Captain] (1999-2000) - #28 Brian Rafalski (2006-2007)
#3 Ken Daneyko (1993-1994) - #27 Scott Niedermayer (2003-2004)
#6 Andy Greene (2009-2010) - #2 Joe Cirella (1983-1984)
#7 Alexei Kasatonov (1990-1991)

#30 Martin Brodeur (2002-2003)
#35 Cory Schneider (2014-2015)

Coach: Pat Burns
Assistant: Larry Robinson
Assistant: Viaschlav Festisov

​

Hey, Dougie Hamilton... if you want to blow the doors off this year, that'd be great, I've got a nice vacancy at RHD waiting for you...

 

[Classic Devil]

If you look at all right-handed defensemen in Devils history ('82-'21) and sort by games played, you get this impressive list of names:

1.) Brian Rafalski
2.) Joe Cirella
------500 games
3.) Damon Severson
------400 games
4.) Bob Lorimer
------300 games
5.) Adam Larsson
6.) Mark Fayne
7.) Marek Zidlicky
------200 games
8.) Ben Lovejoy
9.) Sami Vatanen
10.) Phil Russell
11.) Jason Smith
12.) Steve Santini
13.) PK Subban
14.) Peter Harrold
-------100 games
15.) Rob Palmer


28 defensemen have played +200 games for the Devils, 21 of them have been left handed.

Yeah, Cirella often makes it onto my teams almost by default. Which isn't really fair, he was a damn good defenseman, if a little wobbly defensively.

 

[MartyOwns]

i find the lack of lyle odelein in here very disturbing

 

[Guttersniped]

Zacha-Zacha-Zacha
Zacha-Zacha-Zacha
Zacha-Zacha-Zacha
Zacha-Josefsson-Tedenby

Matt Corrente-Xavier Bernard
Adrian Foster-Kurtis Foster
Olivier Magnan-Warsofsky

Jeremy Brodeur
Anthony Brodeur

GM Chris Lamoriello
Assistant GM Chris Shero
Dir of Scouting Jeremy Conte
Head Scout Geoff Stevens

 

[Eggtimer]

Unless I missed a reason for being exempt , where the hell is Sykora in these lists? I know Mogilny is a stud but best line ever was Arnott Elais Sykora
Ya you guys have all dropped a notch in my books. You are all now at notch -2 lol.
I’m kidding but seriously where the holy hell is Sykora.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Unless I missed a reason for being exempt , where the hell is Sykora in these lists? I know Mogilny is a stud but best line ever was Arnott Elais Sykora

Unfortunately there are better #17s and better options for 99-00 and 00-01.

 

[Eggtimer]

Unfortunately there are better #17s and better options for 99-00 and 00-01.

Poppycock

 

[Classic Devil]

Unless I missed a reason for being exempt , where the hell is Sykora in these lists? I know Mogilny is a stud but best line ever was Arnott Elais Sykora
Ya you guys have all dropped a notch in my books. You are all now at notch -2 lol.
I’m kidding but seriously where the holy hell is Sykora.

Yeah, Sykora suffers from competition for #17. On lineups where you don't take Gomez, Sundstrom is a good choice to fill out the Center position, and Kovalchuk always challenges him for a winger slot. Kovy's 2011-2012 season and playoffs is hard to pass up.

 

[Classic Devil]

To keep this going just a little longer, in case anyone else wants to jump in:

Elias-Arnott-Mogilny
Hall-Gomez-Gionta
Kovalchuk-Zajac-MacLean
Shanahan-Holik-Jagr

Stevens-Rafalski
Niedermayer-Daneyko
Martin-Zidlicky

Brodeur-Schneider

This is a pretty fascinating team. Brodeur/Schneider is a classic tandem (one of the two I now see as "defaults"), but there are two things here which are unusual: first, Martin and Zidlicky on defense. Obviously since you took Gomez (the Gomez/Driver decision is probably the most consequential one), you're going to be short on D, but Zids isn't much of a loss really and Martin is underrated. I should start thinking about using Martin more myself - I own his jersey, after all.

Then you have a pretty straightforward forward corps, although I think I'd sub Gionta out for Lemieux. Pretty fascinating fourth line though... I love pairing Shanny and Holik, and putting Jagr with them (instead of McKay, my usual choice) makes that a mean goal scoring unit. Talk about size and toughness...

Elias-Arnott-Mogilny
Hall-Gomez-Gionta
Kovalchuk-Zajac-Langenbrunner
Shanahan-Holik-Jagr

Stevens-Rafalski
Niedermayer-Larsson
Martin-Zidlicky

Brodeur-Schneider

No Daneyko!?!

Otherwise not hugely different from AfroThunder's. Bringing in Langs instead of MacLean is an interesting choice...

Elias-Arnott-MacLean
Parise-Zajac-Gionta
Kovalchuk-Gomez-Lemieux
Palmieri-Holik-Jagr

Stevens-Rafalski
Daneyko-Niedermayer
Martin-Kurvers

Brodeur
Schneider

Kurvers! Not one we often see. I don't think I've ever seen Palmieri make one of these rosters, either. And a lot of Jagr on these teams!

Generally, you can always assume you'll start with four defensemen: Stevens, Rafalski, Niedermayer, Daneyko
And one forward makes every team: Elias. MacLean and Lemieux make most, but not all obviously.
And one of three #9s: Parise, Hall, Muller
Then you have to make the Gomez/Driver decision, and a lot of other decisions follow from that choice.

After that, the forward corps can be a lot of different combinations.

 

[The 29th Pick]

Unless I missed a reason for being exempt , where the hell is Sykora in these lists? I know Mogilny is a stud but best line ever was Arnott Elais Sykora
Ya you guys have all dropped a notch in my books. You are all now at notch -2 lol.
I’m kidding but seriously where the holy hell is Sykora.

he gets no respect

 

[Blackjack]

No Daneyko!?!

Otherwise not hugely different from AfroThunder's. Bringing in Langs instead of MacLean is an interesting choice...[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I know it's Haram to leave out Dano. Truth is he was past his prime by the time I became a Devils fan, so I was leaning a little bit toward some of the later players e.g. Langs over MacLean.

Although I'm obviously not being totally consistent since I have Shanahan in there.