What would a Devils season be without Lou Lamoriello bringing back a former player?  In what turned out to be the only trade the Devils made on a strange deadline day, New Jersey re-acquired diminutive winger Steve Sullivan from Phoenix for a 2014 seventh-round pick.  I’m sort of conflicted on this deal, as much as I like Stevie (and god knows the Devils could use a winger with more skill) and the price is clearly right, this reminds me so much of when we re-acquired a washed-up Stephane Richer for a seventh-rounder another generation ago.

Ironically Sullivan himself was a ninth-round pick originally in 1994, and defied his 5’8 160-pound frame to play over 1000 games in the NHL (1002, to be precise), registering 288 goals and 752 points in that time.  A now 38-year old Sullivan – dealt for Doug Gilmour all the way back in 1997 – wasn’t having the best of seasons with a 5-7-12 scoreline and a -8 in 33 games, though he was an effective forward as recently as last year where he put up 17 goals and 49 points for a contending team.  Sullivan won’t play tomorrow night in Boston, but will instead make his Devils re-debut on Saturday at the Rock.

Can’t say I was surprised by what turned out to be a lack of activity other than the Sullivan deal by the Devils at the trade deadline.  It’s almost inexcusable that we still have eight defensemen on the roster, though at least none of our guys are so despondent they’re calling a press conference to express regret about their own contract (a la Roberto Luongo, who of course wasn’t moved either).  Still, I’ve ranted and raved about Lou’s obsession with maintaining our eight-man defensive army all season long and to the extent it’s hurt guys like Mark Fayne and Adam Larsson, or annoyed long-time pros like Henrik Tallinder.

Seeing the prices other players went for during the last few days, I do understand our reluctance to do a ‘big’ deal, especially with the picks we’ve already lost with various trades and the Kovy cap penalty looming.  Ironically today’s deadline lacked quantity but not quality as multiple major deals were done (and a total wtf deal by Steve Yzerman in Tampa), most of which Derek chronicled already including his own Rangers in an odd way basically trying to get a do-over on the moves they made this offseason in the last week.

At this point though, everyone’ll have to live with what’s done until the offseason at least.  Whether teams bought, sold or shuffled the deck.