30 Years Later: Scott Niedermayer I STAN SPECIAL

When Lou Lamoriello traded defenseman Tom Kurvers to Toronto for the Maple Leafs' first-round draft pick in 1991, he could not have imagined the smile on Lady Luck's face.
A year earlier, the then Devils general manager had deftly traded down with Calgary, taking the Flames' 20th pick while forfeiting No. 11 to the Albertans.
Critics thought he was nuts but Lou wound up with the winningest goalie in hockey history. The Flames went nowhere with Trevor Kidd.
Granted, Martin Brodeur was a tough Entry Draft to follow but the Devils outdid themselves a year later. Picking third with Toronto's gift, New Jersey pulled in the ultimate in superior two-way defensemen.
Grabbing Scott Niedermayer was a no-brainer; arguably one of the finest acquisitions since the National Hockey League was born in 1917.

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"Everyone knew that the (Philadelphia) Flyers would nab goliath Eric Lindros with their first pick," said Associated Press hockey writer Ben Olan, "but the next two were up for grabs."
In 1991, San Jose selected second and went for a prolific junior scorer with Spokane's Pat Falloon. Next up was the Garden State's entry and Lamoriello couldn't wait to get the words out of his mouth.
"The New Jersey Devils select Scott Niedermayer."
Few in the audience knew very much about the slick-skating Western Canadian let alone could they spell his name correctly.
But Lou knew.
"Scotty was a winner right from the start," said Lamoriello who had traced Nieder's career before he even stepped into junior hockey.
Niedermayer's mother, Carol, a schoolteacher and an adept skater in her own right, had enrolled her sons, Scott and Rob, in figure skating classes and then regular hockey instruction. Both paid attention.
"Scotty learned well," Carol Niedermayer told me on one of her Eastern visits. "We could see by his skating that he had a future.'
From the get-go, Scott starred for winning kid teams. Later, during his first year with the Kamloops (Junior) Blazers, he won the Western Hockey League's top prize and later copped Gold at the World Junior championship.
And that's not all. Niedermayer was the balance wheel for the Blazers when they won both WHL and Memorial Cup titles.
"Winning was simply what Scotty did," wrote Jared Clinton in The Hockey News.
Yet, because he was stickhandling out West and not in the East; and because his name wasn't Lindros, Scott was not the talk of the hockey world in 1991.
But Lou knew.
He understood that with the first-overall pick, Philadelphia would nab Lindros and he was tickled pink when second-selecting San Jose took Pat Falloon.
Knowing that he was fortified at forward with 1989 choices Bill Guerin and Bobby Holik, Lamoriello considered one of two choices for the blue line, Niedermayer and Scott Lachance.
He took the first Scott and got the right one although Lachance had a decent enough career with the NY Islanders.(In that same 1991 Entry Draft, the Devils also garnered fleet winger Brian Rolston at eleventh overall. Rolly also proved to be an effective forward with special emphasis on adroit penalty-killing.)
Considering that Niedermayer would wind up playing for two WHL champion teams and win MVP honors after the 1992 Memorial Cup playoffs, the Devils knew they had the right guy.
Larkin: "Success followed Niedermayer, so any lack of amazement was justified. Winning was simply what he did."
I recall that Scott's arrival in New Jersey was greeted with minimal enthusiasm to start the 1991-92 season. The general staff believed it would be best if he "observed" half a dozen NHL games before making his playing debut.
He then played four games, totaled one assist and then was returned to juniors. The talent - "potential," to use a term Lamoriello traditionally disliked - all was there.
"How the Devils extracted that talent," said one NHL scout, "would be the key."

But there was a personnel problem. When Lamoriello hired Jacques Lemaire to coach his Devils in 1993, he brought a blueprint - call it a "Trap," if you will - that would become a New Jersey trademark for years.
Lemaire: "I had a way of coaching and a style that could turn this team into a winner and I needed all my players to buy into it."
It hardly fit Scotty's hockey au go-goplan like a glove; more like a claw into a mitten. Scotty wanted to go; Lemarie wanted slow.
"Jacques wanted Nieder to shift his focus to his own zone," said Larkin of The Hockey News. "For the player it meant that his green light was suddenly a shade of amber."
Knowing that his teammates were moving upward in the standings as a group, Scott played his game while occasionally butting heads with Lemaire.
As for his rivals in that 1991 draft, Lindros remained the headline grabber in Philly, Falloon was a disappointment in San Jose and Lachance was fair to middlin' on Long Island.
New Jersey native and long-time Fischler Report hockey analyst Gus Vic vividly remembers the evolution of Nieder's game in those early, challenging years for the young Devils blueliner.
"Scotty would start a rush in his end," asserted Vic, "and superbly bob and weave his way through center. But when he got over the other team's blue line, he'd put on the brakes and look around as if he heard Jacques yell 'Stop!' Then, he'd look around as if he needed an invisible scout to tell him what to do next."
Nieder would describe that era in his young hockey life as "my challenging situations."
The offensive whiz and the defensive coach eventually blended their brainstorms and the result was his being included in the NHL's "Greatest 100 Players of All-Time."
While neither fellow draftees, Lindros, Falloon nor Lachance, ever sipped the sweet taste of Cup champagne, Scott, the Devil, savored the bubbly in 1995, 2000 and 2003; not to mention his fourth sipping in Anaheim.
In his definitive work, "Players - The Ultimate A-Z Guide," historian Andrew Podnieks summed up The Niedermayer Effect:
"What counts - in terms of Scott being drafted third overall - is that he lived up to his billing and then some. He had great offensive ability with an explosive stride and excellent passing."
Perhaps just as important - in terms of Scott's ultimate Hall of Fame credentials - is that he proved resilient under the disparate formulas of coaches Jacques Lemaire, Larry Robinson and Pat Burns.
The wisdom of drafting Nieder was underlined over and over again during his dozen seasons with New Jersey.
He won the Norris Trophy in 2003-04 and his 475 points were 10th among active defensemen. And just a few more things:
1. Scott won a Gold Medal at the 2004 World Championship.
2. That made him the 14th player and fourth Canadian in the Triple Gold Club (Stanley Cup, Olympic gold and World gold)
3. Additionally, he won the Memorial Cup, World Junior Championship and World Cup.
According to The Hockey News, "He's one of only two players to win all six major events. The other happens to be Corey Perry of the Canadiens."
From a purely personal viewpoint, my dealings with Scott date back to his rookie year in East Rutherford. Always - and I do mean always - I found him insightful, amusing, self-effacing and, most of all, a just plain good fellow.
Since I never could figure out what gift of appreciation I could give him for all the pleasure he brought to Devils hockey, I kept it simple.
One night after one of his especially lyrical games, I gave him a cassette of legendary jazzman Stan Kenton's best tunes.
"Scotty," I said, "there's one particular orchestration here that says it all about how I view your creativity and the way you've played the game."
"Oh," he shot back with a touch of surprise in his voice, "what's it called?"
"Artistry In Rhythm!"
(By the way, this was my first - not third - choice.)