The New Jersey Devils are pretty far removed from a playoff spot and are stumbling along in the Metropolitan Division. The Devils are the oldest team in the NHL with an average age over 30 (almost two years older than the second-oldest team, the St. Louis Blues) and appear to be a candidate for a total rebuild.
Are the Devils planning on rebuilding? According to Devils GM Lou Lamoriello, the Devils are not in a rebuilding phase and they never will be.
Via the Devils site:
“I don’t think you tear it down by any means; that’s not in the philosophy of this organization nor do I think that’s something that can be done in this day and age. You don’t just simply tear it down because of free agency and the way the draft is structured. It’s almost impossible to do if you think like that.”
It sounds like Lou would prefer to call his team’s process a transition rather than a rebuild, but that’s pretty much a technicality. Lou can call it whatever he’d like, but he and fans alike know the Devils need a lot of work and a lot of changes before they’re contenders.
Goaltender Cory Schneider had some thoughts on the topic of a rebuild as well.
“I don’t like to use the word rebuild either because it’s a resignation that it’s OK not to succeed for a given amount of time and I don’t think that really works in New Jersey. I don’t think we want to believe that or hear that. Sometimes a team falls short of their goals or it doesn’t go nearly the way you would have liked so changes have to be made at some point. Whether it’s a wholesale change or just plug a few pieces, who knows.”
Schneider isn’t sure if the Devils need a few pieces or a wholesale change, but he too doesn’t like to use the “rebuild” term. Though a wholesale change sounds like the exact definition of a rebuild, Schneider has an interesting and simplistic way of looking at things. The Devils failed to meet their goals and they need to make changes. It’s as simple as that.
