Probably a topic more suited for the History of Hockey board, but.....for the years that the Devils appeared in the Finals:
1995:
Devils acquire Neal Broten from Dallas for Corey Millen. Devils acquire Shawn Chambers and Danton Cole from Tampa for Alexander Semak and Ben Hankinson.
The Devils were missing some veteran punch down the middle after Bernie Nicholls left via free agency. Broten looked like he might be done, but meshed in immediately and put up 28 points in 30 regular season games and 19 points in 20 playoff games.
Devils would move Slava Fetisov to the Red Wings a week after bringing in Chambers. For whatever reason, Chambers was a better fit for the time while Fetisov would have a renaissance in Motown. Chambers added 9 points in 20 playoff games.
2000:
Devils acquire Vladimir Malakhov from Montreal for Sheldon Souray+. Devils acquire Alexander Mogilny from Vancouver for Brendan Morrison and Denis Pederson.
Malakhov was an enigma, but man, when he was motivated he was tremendous. Malakhov shored up the third pair and added some offensive punch on the 2nd PP unit.
Morrison and Pederson both held out to begin the season which allowed Scott Gomez and John Madden to steal their spots. Dealt out of a position of strength to bring in Mogilny to add some pop on the 2nd line.
Both deals were of the win-win variety. It was a bummer that concussions derailed Pederson's career. I thought he was an ideal #3 center in the making.
2001:
Allegedly the Devils put in a respectable offer for Rob Blake, but all the pieces were prospects/picks. Colorado blew New Jersey's package out of the water by including Adam Deadmarsh and Aaron Miller. The Kings were still in the playoff hunt and wanted some pieces to help them immediately. Almost ironically, the Kings pushed the Avs to 7 games in round 2 that season.
The Devils then went to plan B which was Sean O'Donnell for a young Willie Mitchell. O'Donnell was a solid D before and after his stint in New Jersey, but he just didn't fit the puck mover mold that Malakhov did the previous season. Got so bad that O'Donnell was a healthy scratch for games 5/6 of the Finals.
The Devils and Avs would meet in the Finals, and those two trades had an impact.
2003:
Maybe file this one under trades that didn't happen which helped win a Cup.....
Scott Gomez and Oleg Tverdovsky were surprise healthy scratches the night of the trade deadline. In particular, scratching Gomez seemed peculiar since most teams fighting for the division lead wouldn't do that to a top 6 forward.
Allegedly, the Devils had a deal in place to send Gomez/Tverdovsky to San Jose for Teemu Selanne, Marco Sturm, and Mike Ricci. The rumor was that Selanne wasn't interested in playing in the East and he squashed the deal with his no trade clause.
The Devils were struggling to score and the "big" deadline acquisitions were.......Grant Marshall and Pascal Rheaume. Kind of a let down when I was momentarily penciling in Selanne/Sturm/Ricci into the lineup.
Marshall had 0 goals in 59 career playoff games. Not exactly the numbers you wanted to see when the top-6 was lacking scoring punch.
But somehow, Marshall was a decent fit alongside Elias/Gomez for that run and scored 6 goals in 24 playoff games. Rheaume played some unexpectedly solid minutes, especially when Nieuwendyk wasn't able to play in the Finals.
I still wonder if the San Jose trade had gone through whether that team would have gelled in time. Something like:
Sturm-Elias-Selanne
Friesen-Niewendyk-Langenbrunner
Pandolfo-Madden-Gionta
Brylin-Ricci-Stevenson
vs.
Elias-Gomez-Marshall
Friesen-Niewendyk-Langenbrunner
Pandolfo-Madden-Gionta
Brylin-Rheaume-Stevenson
2012:
The Devils fell short against a buzzsaw LA squad in 2012. The Kings carved out a big chunk of cap space during the summer of 2011 when they sent Ryan Smyth back to Edmonton. Do the Kings make the same run with Smyth rather than Jeff Carter?
The Kings' deadline move of trading Jack Johnson+ for Carter while calling up Slava Voynov balanced out their lines.
