Battle Of Hudson

When Ilya Kovalchuk signed a fifteen-year contract to stay with the Devils after his rent-a-player stint in 2010, it seemed as if he had made a commitment to play out his career here, a rarity among big Devil UFA’s who seem to leave by the dozens.  After a rocky beginning, the Devils’ run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2012 seemed to be the start of good times for Kovalchuk and the Devils’ organization.  Even with Zach Parise leaving and Kovalchuk having a poor 2013 (just four even-strength goals and a costly injury) there was still twelve years for the big Russian to lead us to glory, after all.  And everything the Devils have done since the draft seemed to have us geared toward another big playoff run.

Shockingly, that all changed three hours ago when word of Kovalchuk’s ‘retirement’ at the age of 30 stunned the hockey world and angered Devils fans everywhere.  I say retirement in quotes, because obviously he isn’t retiring from hockey.  God knows SKA and the Russians couldn’t announce their agreement to have the Russian Rat return there for five years and $50 million tax-free dollars fast enough – the body wasn’t even cold yet, for crying out loud!  Somewhat surprisingly, Lamoriello did not choose to toll the contract (which would have prevented him from signing with the KHL) and let Kovalchuk go over to Russia without a fight.  Maybe Lou figures it’s just best to wash our hands of this mess finally.  Especially after all the drama the moody Russian has already put us through over the last few years between the two-month contract mess, his feud with then-coach John MacLean, and his dalliance with remaining in Russia after the lockout.

Perhaps this shouldn’t have surprised us in the end.  After all, the reluctance of Kovalchuk to return from Russia when the lockout ended should have sent up red flags everywhere.  I know I was worried and told a number of times I was being paranoid.  Admittedly, after Kovalchuk did come back everything was forgotten by most including me.  In hindsight, we all should have been more skeptical.  Especially after a poor half-season where he rarely seemed engaged, except with his shorthanded scoring.  It’s easy to see monetarily why the ex-Devil winger wanted to bolt, after all the $77 million we still owed him on his headache of a contract doesn’t compare to the money he’ll get in Russia.  To this I say, good riddance to bad rubbish.  I’d take his ‘homesickness’ more seriously if he wasn’t turning down half a mint of dollars to get paid a mint in rubles.

If there’s one thing I’m already tired of reading after two hours of using up my phone battery to surf the Internet, it’s that the Devils are better off without the contract.  Yes, the money was onerous but with Jeff Vanderbeek having one foot out the door, the contract wasn’t going to be his problem anyway.  We’ll miss Kovalchuk the player more than we’ll benefit from not paying his salary the next few years.  Ultimately a lot of the money we’ll save on payroll we’ll lose in ticket sales the next couple of years when the effect of a depleted Devils team is fully felt at the box office.  Our offense was bad enough without him during the games the Russian Rat missed due to injury last year.  Michael Ryder – as good a signing as it was – isn’t going to replace Kovalchuk.  Ryane Clowe may or may not replace David Clarkson, depending on health.  And then there’s the matter of replacing Parise’s production.

Which leads to my other pet peeve today, the thought by some – including Tom Gulutti who I normally like – that the Devils ‘made their choice’ by signing Kovalchuk and not signing Parise in 2010.  That is such a load of garbage I barely know where to begin.  Signing a player requires the player to actually want to sign with us.  Parise publicly was crying for a contract over eighteen months (including the year after we signed Kovy) but ultimately never re-signed with us despite his public protestations.  To me what he did was ultimately disingenuous.  There’s no evidence that we shafted Parise to take care of Kovalchuk, even Parise claimed in the end it wasn’t about money when he left though of course most incoming FA’s will say that.

However, what Parise did and other ‘sports betrayals’ like Bobby Holik and Scott Gomez signing with the Rangers ultimately are just that, sports betrayals.  Yeah we have fun booing said players and obviously free agency is about money more than loyalty in most cases, but it’s called free agency for a reason, the player’s free to go where they want.  Kovalchuk leaving the Devils on a contract for the next twelve years – especially after all we went through to get him and the penalties we suffered as a result of the contract (while Kovy never got docked one cent or punished at all) – cuts deeper though.  To me, this is on the level of Bill Belichick scrawling out ‘I resign as HC of the NYJ’ half an hour before he was to be announced as the football Jets’ next head coach, claiming he was in turmoil but knowing perfectly well he wanted to go to New England.  After some haggling, ultimately the Jets let him go for a first-round pick although that would provide scant consolation as that weasel went on to lead the Patriots to title after title.  In the case of Kovy, not only are the Devils not getting anything back, but they still are going to lose a first-round pick next year – even money it’s a lottery pick too – in addition to having already lost a third-rounder and being docked $3 million.  Not to mention they’re out yet another talented winger.

To think just three short years ago, Kovalchuk and Parise were going to be the pillars of the franchise, especially when Parise was named captain before last year and the team made a surprise run to the Finals.  The good times seemed like they were beginning anew after years of running in place with quiet first and second-round playoff exits and a disasterous blip on the screen in 2010.  Now both are gone of their own volition, and the Devils have nothing to show for either player with only heartache and broken promises in their wake. 

Despite our playoff run in 2012, it’s been a long four years for Devil fans.  Nobody’s going to cry about our missing the playoffs two of the last three years after we made it nearly every other season in the prior fifteen years, but the neverending saga with the Kovalchuk contract seemed to start our bad karma though in reality it began with the messy end of the 2010 season where then-captain Jamie Langenbrunner feuded with coach Jacques Lemaire and ultimately dragged down the rest of the team with his sulking.  After the Kovalchuk contract was finally signed, sealed and delivered after litigation and arbitration, the Devils still had to pay up the nose in penalties.  And our on-ice product suffered too as the black cloud of who was going to be traded to help us get under the salary cap weighed on the team during the first half of ’10-11 before Langenbrunner’s trade finally cleared the air and Lemaire’s return got the Devils back on the beam.  While our second half was fun, it was ultimately meaningless after a nightmare of a first three months.

We didn’t have much time to bask in the glow of our Cinderella run to the Finals in 2012 before Parise surprised many and left, despite claiming for eighteen months he wanted to stay.  New Jersey barely survived other free agent angst with Martin Brodeur deciding to stay after going UFA for the first time in his career. Then came a lockout that hurt hockey fans all over North America, but ultimately hurt the Devils more than any other team since it was during that time that Kovalchuk got attached to playing for SKA in Moscow.  Getting the big Russian back into North America to fulfill the last thirteen years of a contract he agreed to was like trying to drag an eight-year old into a dentist’s office.  This year’s free agency was no bowl of cherries though ultimately franchise-leading goalscorer Patrik Elias and most of our other key FA’s sans Clarkson decided to stay. Short of a team moving, we’ve been put through the ringer over the last few years as Devil fans like few fanbases with off-ice drama.  And now this sorry conclusion to a bad three-year soap opera as the lump of coal on top of a bowl of ****.

Ultimately, like I told a friend, we only got one Prince of Wales trophy for three years of on-again, off-again drama and a betrayal nearly unprecedented in sports.  I can’t think of many instances where a star player (and I use that term loosely since Kovalchuk was never publicized – in Atlanta or here – the way his countryman Alex Ovechkin and other actual stars were) left in the prime of his career to play in another league.  Larry Czonka and other Dolphin players leaving for the World Football League in the mid-70’s?  At least they won two Super Bowls before leaving.  Ultimately Kovalchuk’s tenure will be left with unfulfilled promise and the Devils, as a franchise holding the bag for the player’s constant vacillation.  Even during the contract fiasco in 2010 he constantly threatened to play in Russia, though the pull wasn’t quite as strong then as it was after he actually played there.

Not only are the Devils left with penalties still to pay for a contract they’ll never get the benefits of, but now they have to replace the player as well.  Maybe they’ll dip back into FA with their cap/salary space and pick up someone like Damien Brunner, the ghost of Jaromir Jagr or even Mikail Grabovski (please, no more Russians right now.  I can’t even stomach the possibility of having lovable Sergei Brylin as an assistant right now.  To me today, all Russians are guilty by association).  There could be another trade in the works as well.  Perhaps the only good things about Kovy leaving are the fact our ‘cap recapture’ penalty is minimal, and the fact we still have two months to pick up the pieces.  Even current captain Bryce Salvador alluded to the latter fact in some of his comments.  One guy I can’t wait to hear from is Elias, who was one of the few never to mince words about Kovalchuk while he was here.

Nothing anyone says or does will help the Devils at this point though.  Typing out this blog does help me work through my conflicting emotions at least, which I suppose is always a good thing.  Conflicted in that I don’t want someone that clearly doesn’t want to be here, but know it’ll be a pain in the rear end to replace him.  With both Kovalchuk and Parise leaving so soon after 2012, there’ll forever be a dark cloud now over what was one of the most fun periods of my life at the time.  Perhaps one of the few things that prevents it from being forever tarnished is the fact Travis Zajac and Adam Henrique scored the three biggest goals of the playoffs, and they’re still here.  Not to mention the contributions of our heroic fourth line of Ryan Carter, Stephen Gionta and Steve Bernier that spring – all of whom are still here, after they all forgoed FA to remain when they could have cashed in on their playoff success.  And let’s not forget Brodeur, the face of the franchise who also forgoed riches time and again to play out his career (so it would seem) in New Jersey.

Of course I also have conflicting emotions over the Devils going forward.  Part of me’s defiant and wanting to get right back at it with a core group that actually wants to be here, and part of me’s in a melancholy mood feeling the twin departures of Parise and Kovalchuk will gut the franchise for years.  At least in the end, there’s still Lou around to run things and get it back on course.  Despite various disagreements with Lou I do have confidence despite everything that’s happened with players leaving us, that he’ll stick around to see this through.  Granted, part of me wishes he’d have been more of a ***** and made it harder for Kovy to bolt but it’s that same fairness that leads others like Marty, Elias and even a guy like Marek Zidlicky to want to stay.  I suppose there are good and bad things to every approach.

I do know one thing for sure, I don’t ever want to see Kovalsuck (Doc Emrick‘s Freudian slip during one of the playoff games last year) in the NHL again, not for the Devils or anyone.  If being a star in the biggest league in the world isn’t enough for you then with all due respect **** up a road.  He shouldn’t be allowed back into the league OR the Olympics after what he pulled, especially since he couldn’t wait to announce his contract with SKA.  He probably will come back at some point, and with our luck wind up on the Rangers mercing it up.  Since after all, that’s what the Russian Rat’s about in the end – money.

During the last eight days, the Devils have made a series of bold moves trying to simaltenously  position the team both for now and the future.  Sounds like a near-impossible task, right?  Generally, either you’re rebuilding, or you’re going for it now.  Devils GM Lou Lamoriello doesn’t believe in rebuilding though, only retooling.  Yet, even as the team was signing win-now FA’s Ryan Clowe and Michael Ryder, they also made an unexpected trade for goaltender Cory Schnieder, now anoited the successor to HOF-goalie Martin Brodeur.  And somewhat paradoxically, Lou claimed the Devils’ latest move – trading Henrik Tallinder to Buffalo for a low-level minor leaguer and clearing cap space – would make room for a young defenseman like Jon Merrill, Eric Gelinas or Damon Severson, but didn’t completely close the book on re-signing vet Marek Zidlicky either.

Whoosh, pretty much the only thing that hasn’t changed in the last week is my own computer woes going on three plus weeks and counting.  Note to self: never, ever, ever rely on STAPLES to fix a hard drive ever again.  Part of me wished I was around to recap this year’s FA, as opposed to my live-cap with only no news and bad news to report last offseason, at least until Brodeur, Johan Hedberg and Bryce Salvador were re-signed the day after FA started.  Hedberg is gone now though, bought out in yet another change and facing an uncertain future – neccesitated of course by having Schnieder and Brodeur in goal.

Although in Lou’s own words, the team is probably done with ‘outside FA’s’ (again not ruling out Zidlicky), that doesn’t mean the task of putting together the 2013-14 Devils is near complete yet.  According to Capgeek the Devils are currently $7 million under the cap celing, but that’s not factoring in the RFA deals for Adam Henrique and Jacob Josefson, likely to command around three to four million between them, as well as the salary of a seventh defenseman – who will probably start leaving Peter Harrold back in the swingman role – whether it be a rookie or Zidlicky.  There will eventually have to be a forward subtracted at some point though since Henrique and Josefson would give the Devils fifteen guys under contract, with only Stephen Gionta on a two-way deal. 

Even though he’s on a one-way deal now, former first-round pick Mattias Tedenby is probably the odd man out given the staff’s clear lack of faith in him the last couple of years, and with the underrated pickup of Rostislav Olesz on a one-year, $1 million deal.  Olesz was once highly touted in Florida – where he played for then-coach Pete DeBoer – before getting too much money too soon, and winding up banished to the minors in Chicago after being a cap throw-in to the Brian Campbell trade, and later tore his ACL last Spring to boot.  However, Olesz did average nearly a PPG in the minors, toiling without complaint while the cap-strapped Hawks had to keep him down in Rockford, and he did have his best pro season under DeBoer, putting up 14 goals and 15 assists in 2009-10.  Maybe he’ll follow the path of recent castoffs like Andrei Loiktonov, Peter Harrold, Ryan Carter and Steve Bernier and find a home in New Jersey?

Of course Olesz didn’t get quite the ink that our other two FA signings got.  Derek of course recapped the Clowe signing, which was in my book a neccesary evil.  I hate giving a guy with his age/recent concussion history a five-year deal, and a guy with limited offensive talent just a hair under $5 million per, but sometimes you have to pay for talent scarcity.  Especially considering our previous second/third line physical presence predictably cashed in and went home – in a script all too familiar to Devils fans as David Clarkson followed Zach Parise and Brian Rafalski (as well as former coach Brent Sutter) in the sense that he went home.  Although Clarkson’s agent strangely tried to burn bridges on the way out the door, Clarkson was his usual understated self after the fact, genuinely appreciative of all the Devils did for him, and at least he didn’t keep the Devils hanging.  For Lou’s part, he admitted he’d ‘moved on’ from Clarkson last Sunday after the draft when he rejected the Devils’ offer and went the FA route, and signing Clowe was the only realistic short-term replacement available for Clarkson’s skillset – with young Stefan Matteau probably a longer-term replacement.

If Lou tried to keep status quo by ‘trading’ Clarkson for Clowe, he also took a step to alleviate our biggest weakness last year – winger scoring – by signing Michael Ryder (pictured above with former teammate Carey Price) on a surprisingly friendly two year, $7 million deal.  Finally, the Devils at least were able to somewhat replace the scoring that walked out the door with Parise to the land of ten thousand lakes.  Ryder has had three 30-goal seasons in the NHL, including as recently as 2011-12 in Dallas, where he set a career high with 35.  Last season, he scored 16 in the shortened season (46 games total) for the Stars and Canadiens.  Yes, his all-around game is more limited than Parise’s, but Ryder’s touch around the net is something a 28th-ranked offense badly needed and he has postseason experience – putting up seventeen points in twenty-five playoff games on the Bruins’ run to the 2010-11 Stanley Cup.

If our forward depth and goaltending have been improved, our defense still has some questions with the departure of vet Tallinder and possible exodus of PP quarterback Zidlicky.  However, one of those questions – for the time being – at least isn’t what do we do with too many defensemen anymore?  Even if the Devils bring Zidlicky back, at least we’ll only have seven signed defensemen on our roster with Harrold in the swing role and the other six clear starters, unlike last year where we seemingly had to scratch guys after picking names out of a hat since it was hard to tell a guy to sit in the press box while the Devils were allowing the fewest shots per game in hockey.  However, the Devils still need to improve their offense from the blueline.  Perhaps that improvement will have to come from within, however.  Even if we bring Zidlicky back, Adam Larsson will still have to step up since there are few other candidates to add offense from the back with NHL experience on the roster.  If Zidlicky doesn’t come back (and we did have a hideous PP with him last year, so I can’t claim he’s irreplacable), a younger d-man like Merrill or Gelinas will also likely have to help fill the void and provide an offensive spark.

In a time of uncertainty for the Devils, two things are certain – Clarkson or no Clarkson, the team we have on paper now is much better than the team we ended last season with.  And after the Devils ballooned their payroll by several million dollars from the start of last season close to this season’s lowered cap, this organization proved once and for all that whatever problems current majority over Jeff Vanderbeek may or may not be facing – none of them have affected the team’s hockey business, just the way Lou promised it wouldn’t.  Rumors of financial trouble have been so rampant over the last couple of years, Lou even had to reassure FA’s like Patrik Elias and Danius Zubrus that the team was still financially stable and that he (Lou) would be remaining on the job even after a rumored imminent change of ownership. 

Both re-signed just before FA, and in Elias’s case he’ll likely retire a Devil although as Daniel Alfredsson proved last week never say never.  Even not being a Sens fan I was saddened for Ottawa fans by the news of Alfie leaving (seemingly slipping out at night, the way the Baltimore Colts once did) given all he’d done in Ottawa and the fact few guys remained with their original team throughout their career.  Alfie’s defection to Detroit – and their rumored interest in Elias before that – was a sobering reminder of how much Devil fans should appreciate Elias staying all these years, even through all the Devils’ coaching changes and turmoil earlier in his career.  Brodeur too for that matter, although it’ll be interesting to see how the acquisition of Schnieder, and his own role going foward impact what Marty does after his contract expires next offseason.