Ed Mulholland-USA Today Sports
As sixteen teams in the NHL prepare for the second season, fourteen others gathered for team photos, cleaned out lockers and kept an eye on last night’s Draft Lottery. The Colorado Avalanche would win the prize, grabbing the number one pick. For the New Jersey Devils, it was a small disappointment among many major ones. They will pick ninth in the draft. However, they will lose their first round pick in 2014, punishment in the Ilya Kovalchuk free agent fiasco three summers ago.
While players gathered up belongings, it was a time for reflection. With the team failing to qualify for the postseason for the second time in three years, there will be changes coming down the pipe before training camp opens in the fall. When the team missed in April of 2011, it was largely blamed on the disastrous start with former Devil John MacLean at the helm as well as key injuries to players like former captain Zach Parise. However, when it happens again after last year’s run to the Stanley Cup Finals, it can’t be brushed aside as a fluke.
Everyone hates to use the word rebuilding, but it may have come to that point. With eight players becoming unrestricted free agents on July 1, decisions will have to be made regarding who will stay and who will go. Financial issues will also be come a focal point with the salary cap dropping. So a major question will be whether or not the organization will have the purse strings to attract other higher-end free agents in addition to keeping Patrik Elias and David Clarkson. These are weighty decisions General Manager Lou Lamoriello will have to ponder in the upcoming weeks.
One which is off the table is the job of head coach Pete DeBoer. Lamoriello said yesterday in an interview in The Star Ledger that DeBoer will return. He also added that he wasn’t sure about the rest of the coaching staff since people’s plans do tend to change though he wasn’t anticipating any. The Devils assistants this season included former players Scott Stevens, Chris Terreri and Dave Barr as well as Matt Shaw. Shaw replaced Adam Oates who left to take over the reins of the Washington Capitals.
Previously, Shaw handled the power play for the San Jose Sharks during the 2011-12 season where the Sharks were a constant offensive threat when up a man. This was certainly not the case this year for the Devils. Sometimes it would have been more effective if they could have simply declined the penalty since their power play was that inept.
Some players know where their futures lie and others do not. This knowledge factored into the decisions of some to decline offers to play for their countries in the upcoming World Championships in Finland.
Stephen Gionta and Ryan Carter will play for Team USA while Kovalchuk will suit up for his native Russia. Others like Elias, Marek Zidlicky and Alexei Ponikarovsky didn’t entertain the thought because they do not have contracts.
Regardless of their contractual status, it is a difficult ending to swallow because the puck dropped on the shortened season with such promise. It is hard to fathom how essentially the same group of players could have lost their way so easily and why they were never able to find their way back again.
It is the most important thing Lamoriello and DeBoer will have to decipher, and they will have plenty of time to do it.
Dawn Miller is a New Jersey Devils writer for Rant Sports. Follow her on Twitter, ‘Like” her on Facebook or add her to your network on Google.
