Too late to fill last season’s screaming need but an early start for next year, the Devils are bringing back Jason Arnott to fill their major void at center.
General manager Lou Lamoriello yesterday dealt prospect Matt Halischuk and 2011 second-rounder to Nashville for the 35-year-old righty who scored the 2000 Stanley Cup winning goal for the Devils.
“I watch that video every single summer, two or three times. It always brings a tear to my eye,” Arnott said yesterday. “I wanted the chance to do it again.
“I’m really excited. I always wanted to come back to Jersey at stome point in my career.”
Arnott, 6-foot-5 and 220, has spent the last four seasons in Nashville after three-plus years with Dallas. He was traded to the Stars by the Devils with Randy McKay and a first-rounder (Daniel Paille) for Joe Nieuwendyk and Jamie Langenbrunner on March 19, 2002.
“I was devastated. I really wanted to stay in New Jersey. It was heart-breaking, a shock to me,” Arnott said. “I had a great line [the A Line, named for him] I played on, and an unbelievable team.”
He was taken in 1993’s first round, seventh overall, by the Oilers and traded to New Jersey with Bryan Muir for Bill Guerin and Valeri Zelepukin on Jan. 4, 1998. He fell out of favor with New Jersey because of injuries that kept him out of vital games, such as the seventh game of the 2001 finals.
Arnott has one year left on his contract at $4.5 million, and he waived his no-trade clause when the Predators told him they couldn’t extend his deal.
“I gave [GM] David [Poile] a small list of teams I’d be willing to go to, and New Jersey was definitely at the top of the list,” Arnott said.
He played 63 games last season, failing to top 20 goals (19) for the first time since 1998. He is a three-time 30-goal scorer, including matching his rookie-season best of 33 in 2008-09.
Arnott will rejoin Patrik Elias, two-thirds of the A Line, in coming back to New Jersey, and it is believed he would listen to offers to extend his contract. He said he’s like to play with Elias “100 percent. I’ve never forgotten the fun we had playing with each other.”
Now the Devils’ top two centers, he and Travis Zajac, are righties, which should play well with all the star left wings on the roster.
Halischuk, a right wing, was hampered this season by injury, playing 11 games with New Jersey (1-0-1) and 33 with Lowell (11-11-22)