Devils: Looking back and looking forward

June 28, 2009   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

Now that the 2009 draft is over with and UFA upon us this Wednesday, things are happening fast around the NHL.  Before looking forward (at UFA and the coaching search) let’s look back at the Devils’ draft. 

In the first round, the Devils were supposed to draft 23rd but traded that and a third-round pick (one of two the Devils had) to Calgary for the 20th pick and selected two-way center Jacob Josefson.  Two immediate pluses for the Swede - the eighteen-year old doesn’t seem too undersized at 6′ 190 pounds and he apparently knows the Devils’ first round pick last year – Mattias Tedenby.  Funny thing is at the Devils’ draft party there was a guy a couple rows in front of me with a copy of the Hockey News and he said before the pick he wanted Jacobsen, so he was beside himself happy when we did trade up to take him.  Take post-draft hype for what you will but this was GM Lou Lamoriello’s quote after drafting Josefson:

“He’s a complete player,” Devils general manager Lamoriello said. “I haven’t seen our draft table as I’ve seen them today in a long time because where we had him ranked and then he didn’t go. Then, you get to point where you say, ‘Maybe he’s going to be close.’ Then, when you get close to where you’re going to draft, maybe four or five picks, that’s the only chance you have of somebody else switching. So, we made some calls and we were able to get Calgary to do it.”

I think everyone – especially Pierre McGuire who was still harping on it during the draft coverage this year - probably remembers the last time Lou was excited at the draft table (at least visibly).  And in general the Devils don’t miss when they trade up to snag a player - Zach Parise and Travis Zajac were the last two picks the Devils traded up in the first round for. 

Of course it was interesting that Calgary should be the team the Devils traded up with.  Lou claimed it was ‘just a coincidence’ that it was the Flames who dealt with the Devils for slightly below market value – and then ironically traded that third-round pick and the rights to Jordan Leopold for the rights to prized UFA Jay Bouwmeester.  I’m a little more invested in seeing Jacobsen do well because this pick feels a lot like blood money, the unofficial compensation for Brent Sutter pulling a Bill Belichick and stabbing one of my teams in the back.

With the rest of their draft it seems as if the Devils went for size and a little bit of offensive skill on the blueline which is a bit of a refreshing change.  True, you need small and quick to succeed offensively in the new NHL but the Devils have come up woefully short both size-wise and with offensive production from the blueline in recent years.  Second-round pick Eric Gelinas sounds intriguing, he’s 6′4, 190 pounds and comes from an athletic (and tall) family - including a brother who played baseball in the Angels’ system and a father who was drafted by the Penguins – so clearly he’ll fill out some more, and he’s shown offensive skill from the blueline. 

New Jersey selected a teammate of Josefson’s in the third round, eighteen-year old defenseman Alexander Urbom, another teen who’s got decent size (6′3 196).  Continuing the sudden trend of beef on the blueline, the Devils selected another defenseman with their fourth-round pick, Seth Helgeson (6′5 220) before picking left-wingers Derek Rodwell and Ashton Bernard with their fifth and six-round picks and defenseman Curtis Gedig with their final pick.  Helgeson seems to be in the Colin White mode of big and nasty (he compares himself to Matt Greene of the Kings), and Bernard’s a definite enforcer type.  I’m not sure how the others’ll turn out but hopefully a few of these players will be in red and white down the road.

However, the draft is no longer the Devils’ immediate concern.  As usual, there are plenty of decisions to be made in UFA, both on our own players and on other team’s FA’s.  Johnny Oduya’s currently a UFA but according to a Swedish newspaper, Oduya has agreed to re-up with the Devils for a multi-year deal at approximately $3.1 million per season.  Not bad if true valuewise, I would have preferred an upgrade on defense but barring a major surprise later this week it seems as if we’ll be going into the season with much the same defense we finished last year with.

If the defense seems settled for better or worse, there are still several decisions to be made up front.  Brian Gionta and John Madden are UFA’s and it doesn’t seem as if Lou’s going to break the bank to re-sign either.  In Gionta’s case he’s coming off of two years where he barely averaged 20 goals a season, with Jamie Langenbrunner, Brian Rolston and prospect Nicklas Bergfors all listed at RW, there’s not much room for Gio either on the ice or cap-wise.  All that said, I don’t want to hear crying from my fellow Devils fans if Gionta follows his buddy Gomez to the Rangers to try to rekindle their past chemistry, given that Devil fans never really gave Gio the benefit of the doubt after his production started to slip from his ‘06 fluke season.

With Madden, he’s had two down years in the last three though according to him he played well this year and pucks just weren’t going in for him.  I beg to differ, given the PK’s struggles for most of this season, the area where Madden’s supposed to help a team more anyway.  However, the PK was very good in the playoffs once the departed Sutter deployed a more agressive approach on special teams.  I wouldn’t be shocked if Madden followed Sutter to Calgary, especially given his recent public quotes on how much he thrived in his system. 

Decisions also have to be made on Brendan Shanahan and Mike Rupp though I think the decision on Rupp’s already been reached with the re-signing of enforcer Pierre Luc-Letorneau Leblond to a multi-year deal.  He’ll probably take over the role of masher/enforcer on the fourth line that Rupp never fully embraced.  Will Shanny be back?  I’d take him if he came back with the same condidtions he joined the team last year - very low salary and for half a season – otherwise it isn’t really worth it to pay $1 million plus for a full season of a 41-year old player who (as much as I like him) honestly didn’t add a lot offensively last year. 

Of course there’s the backup goaltender question.  It seems doubtful Scott Clemmensen will be back, especially after the way he was made to dissapear off the face of the earth once Martin Brodeur returned.  I don’t really want to see fragile Kevin Weekes back either but wouldn’t be surprised if Lou did retain  him for one more season as a cheap benchwarmer now that Brodeur will want to resume his 77-game a year schedule.  Money also has to be saved for RFA’s like Travis Zajac. 

Typically there’s still no news on the coaching situation although Lou had an interesting cryptic quote when asked by the Post on who would be the new coach:

“I might have a surprise”

To me a surprise would be anything other than Jacques Lemaire, so maybe there’s some hope that Lou isn’t still suck in the pre-lockout 20th century mode after all.  Of course he did say might…