The New Jersey Devils finally got an elite center for another Stanley Cup push, acquiring Doug Gilmour from Toronto. in a five-player trade.
Gilmour, 33, gave the Devils, who had the NHL’s third-worst offense that season, possibly its most talented center ever to that point. Defenseman Dave Ellett and a conditional draft pick NJ sent to Toronto the previous year came back in the deal.
The rebuilding continued for the Maple Leafs. They acquired Steve Sullivan, defenseman Jason Smith and the rights to forward Alyn McCauley, who was still playing junior hockey for the Ottawa 67’s.
`As you can tell, it’s the type of trade where we let two great veterans go,″ said Toronto general manager Cliff Fletcher.
“Personally, I’ll really miss these two veteran players. They have great character and I’m sure the New Jersey Devils are excited about getting them and it will substantially help their chances of getting through that tough Eastern Conference.″
“We’re carrying on what we started last summer, we’re trying to become a younger team and by taking one step backwards we’re taking two steps forward,″ he said.
Defenseman Smith, 6-foot-3, 205 pounds, was a first-round draft pick of the Devils in 1992 and had one goal and two assists in 57 games that season.
Sullivan, 5-9 and 155, was a 10th-round choice in 1994. He appeared in 33 games that season for New Jersey with eight goals and 14 assists. He spent 3 plus seasons with the Leafs before stops in Chicago, Nashville, Pittsburgh and Phoenix before finishing his career where it started with 9 games in New Jersey in 2013. He ended up playing 1011 total NHL games, scoring 290 goals and adding 457 assists for a total 747 career points (0.74 points per game average).
McCauley, a fifth-round pick in 1995, was one of the more highly-regarded players in junior hockey with the No. 1-ranked Ottawa team. He played in 488 games over 9 NHL seasons with Toronto, San Jose and the LA Kings, scoring 69 goals and notching 97 assists for a total of 284 points.
Ellett, 32, had four goals and 10 assists in 56 games before the trade. He signed with Boston in the offseason, only playing 20 games for the Devils and scoring 2 goals and 5 assists in that time.
Gilmour had 15 goals and 45 assists for Toronto before the trade. He spent the rest of that season and the next in New Jersey, playing 83 games and scoring 20 goals, with 55 assists for 75 total points in the Garden State. Over his 1474 game career, he amassed 450 goals and a whopping 964 assists for 1414 points (0.96 points per game average). He ranks #19 in all-time NHL scoring, although Alex Ovechkin may pass him soon.
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