With the arrival of Kaapo Kakko and Jack Hughes the rivalry between the New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils looks to be hotter than ever. How many players have toiled for both teams? More than you think.
34 players have crossed the Hudson to play for both the New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils. 33 didn’t get there via a trade since there has been only one trade between the two teams since the Devils moved to New Jersey 34 years ago.
The one deal between the two teams came two seasons ago at the trade deadline when the Blueshirts swapped forward Michael Grabner to the Devils in exchange for a second round draft pick and defense prospect Yegor Rykov.
That deal is a great example why the teams don’t want to trade with each other. Grabner scored only two goals in 21 games and was a healthy scratch in the Devils first round playoff series. He then signed with the Arizona Coyotes in the off-season, ending his career in the Garden State.
Meanwhile, Yegor Rykov just signed his first pro contract with the Rangers and hopes to be patrolling the Ranger blueline soon and they used the second round pick to trade up in the 2018 draft so they could select K’Andre Miller, a top defensive prospect. In hindsight, that is definitely one-sided trade that could haunt the Devils for years to come.
The poachers
The Rangers have never balked at the opportunity to hurt their cross river rivals. Four times the Rangers poached the Devils, signing top players as free agents.
In 1995, defenseman Bruce Driver departed the Stanley Cup champion Devils to join the rival Rangers, signing a three-year, $3.9 million contract. After 12 years in New Jersey, he shocked Devils fans by defecting across the Hudson.
Fans cannot understand when a player displays no loyalty to a team he has played for his entire career. Driver explained in a New York Times interview after he signed with the Rangers.
"“I’ve bled Devil red my whole career. By going across the river to play for the Rangers, you’ll probably see a lot of people who are disgusted, who are disappointed. But I’d tell them to think of their own particular situation. Say you are working for a firm and you have a choice to take a job transfer, one a half-hour away and one clear across the country. If the money was basically the same, most people would make the decision that they wouldn’t want to uproot their family. That’s the decision I chose.” – Bruce Driver"
The second free agent signee was defenseman Vladimir Malakhov, acquired by the Devils at the trade deadline in 2000. He had cost the Devils two players and a draft pick and was promptly signed by the Rangers as soon as he hit free agency. The Rangers gave him a four year $14 million contract. He missed most of his inaugural season with a knee injury and never lived up to his reputation as a top blueliner.
The third prominent Devil signed by New York was Bobby Holik in 2002. Holik had played 11 years as the heart and soul of the Devils. More of a defensive stalwart than a goal scorer, Holik had still topped the 20 goal mark eight times. Signed to a five year, $45 million deal, Holik was a total bust on Broadway. For that salary, he was expected to be a goal scoring machine and when he notched only 16 goals in his first season, he was roundly criticized.
Although he rebounded with 25 goals in his second year, the Rangers bought out the Czech center’s contract following the 2004-05 lockout.
The last Devils star the Rangers signed was Scott Gomez in 2007. This was another case of the Rangers signing a player for all of the wrong reasons. They threw $51.5 million at Gomez in a five year deal and again the thinking was that he was going to be a goal scorer. However, Gomez had topped 19 goals only once in his eight years in New Jersey and was primarily a playmaker.
Gomez lived up to that reputation in his two seasons in New York, but Glen Sather was eager to offload the bloated contract and found a willing taker in the Montreal Canadiens. In one move Sather turned a free agent problem into a tremendous deal as he fleeced Montreal, getting forward Chris Higgins and defense prospect Ryan McDonagh in exchange.