NJ Devils Online
7/8/2004
NEW JERSEY - The New Jersey Devils were busy yesterday, completing two transactions, a minor deal with the New York Rangers and the OTHL's first major blockbuster with the Philadelphia Flyers.
The New Jersey Devils yesterday completed the biggest deal that the OTHL has seen to date. The blockbuster deal saw two way center John Madden, powerplay QB Brian Rafalski, Jeff Friesen and the youthful Brian Gionta all leave New Jersey for Philadelphia. In exchange, the Devils were able to land the young and flashy Simon Gagne along with a top line center in Alexei Zhamnov and defenseman Danny Markov.
With the organization recognizing their difficult financial situation, the team realized that resigning players next offseason would be difficult. With many contracts expiring at the end of the upcoming season, and pending UFAs in John Madden, Jay Pandolfo, Viktor Kozlov, Martin Brodeur and Brian Rafalski, the organization recognized the difficult and daunting task of extending all those contracts when many of the players would ask for raises.
So, the Devils decided Madden and Rafalski were expendable and sent them packing to Philadelphia. Despite taking on even more salary in the deal, the majority of that salary came in the form of Alexei Zhamnov. Zhamnov becomes a huge upgrade at center and gives the Devils a respectable top line formation of Elias - Zhamnov - Langenbrunner. In addition, the Devils replaced Rafalski with the slightly younger Danny Markov and Jeff Friesen with Simon Gagne. The toughest loss was Brian Gionta, the young right wing was a crucial part of the Devils future but the Devils strongly felt the deal was fair and liked the package they were receiving well enough to justify the deal.
"This deal was huge for this organization and signifies the start of drastic change. Brian [Rafalski] we hated to see go but we realistically felt that beyond this season, he and John [Madden] were not in our plans. We'd love to have 'em back but we just don't have the finances to keep them. Simon Gagne was justification enough for us to pull off this deal and upgrading our center like that I believe really accentuates our top line. This trade in my opinion, really declares us as contenders."
After losing Gionta, the Devils went out in search for another young right wing to replace him and they found one in the New York Rangers organization. The Devils traded young center prospect Petr Vrana to the Rangers in exchange for the flashy Jozef Balej.
The busy Devils organization was also rumoured to be discussing a potential trade that would see several Devils prospects leave New Jersey in exchange for a depth center, multiple 2004 draft picks were said to be involved. For more news on this and any other potential deals the Devils swing, stay tuned.