Fiery Gilmour is playing with Devilish enthusiasm

Sporting News, The, March 10, 1997 by Larry Wigge

Doug Gilmour puss a crumpled piece of paper from his coat pocket. He has yet to play his first game as a member of the Devils, but he has a New Jersey schedule as he emerges from the team's private jet with defenseman Dave Ellett. That's the dedication to detail that has made Gilmour one of the great leaders in sports--and one of the reasons the Devils are now the Eastern Conference favorites to reach the Stanley Cup finals pending more moves before the March 18 trade deadline.

Remember what the acquisition of veteran center Neal Broten did for the Devils two years ago when he helped them win the Cup? Gilmour is a better player than Broten which forces the rest of the conference s teams to get active.

Teams have to pay a price to win--and the Devils paid theirs by sending defenseman Jason Smith, right winger Steve Sullivan and junior forward Alyn McCauley (Ottawa 67's) to Toronto for Gilmour and Ellett. The Maple Leafs also received a conditional third or fourth-round draft pick they had previously traded to the Devils.

"For the Devils, it was easy to make that trade," Islanders G.M. Mike Milbury says. "Doug Gilmour is a great leader, great playmaker. New Jersey made that trade to win the Stanley Cup--and this trade gives them a real good shot at it."

New Jersey's weakness at center has been a concern. G.M. Lou Lamoriello gave youngsters Petr Sykora, Sergei Brylin and Sullivan an opportunity to be the No. 1 center, but all failed.

Rumors linked the Devils to Gilmour in December when coach Jacques Lemaire asked former Montreal and Toronto coach Pat Burns--now a TV analyst in Montreal--whether he thought Gilmour, who had been struggling, could still produce. Burns assured Lemaire that Gilmour was the same feisty leader and point-producer who helped the Flames win the Cup in 1989. You can bet a lot of Eastern Conference teams are studying the effect this trade will have on them with the deadline approaching.

The concept of picking up a veteran scorer for the stretch run isn't new for Lamoriello. Over the years, he has added such veterans as Patrik Sundstrom, Peter Stastny, Bernie Nicholls and Broten to beef up his roster for the playoffs.

But he had never landed one with Gilmour's range of abilities or playoff reputation. Opponents dislike playing against him in the playoffs because he will do whatever it takes to win.

Four times in his career, Gilmour has totaled more than 20 playoff points, including 35 for a 1992-93 Maple Leafs team that didn't even reach the Cup finals.

"We've watched him very closely," Lamoriello says, "and I think you'll agree he hasn't lost the intensity and feistiness."

After watching Gilmour get one goal and three assists in his first Devils game and total three goals and six assists in three consecutive victories, Lemaire said, "You just have to look at him to know he has a lot of hockey left"

Gilmour, 33, has always made players around him better. That won't change with the Devils.

The deal wasn't sealed until noon on February 25 when Lamoriello told Toronto G.M. Cliff Fletcher he was willing to give up Sullivan, a 5-9 sparkplug who had excelled since moving from center to left wing on a line with Dave Andreychuk (a former 53-goal scorer with Gilmour as his center in Toronto) and Bobby Holik.

Smith, 23, was a high draft choice (1992) who never became the defensive force the Devils had hoped. McCauley, New Jersey's fifth pick in the 1995 draft, is a 19-year-old center. took for him in the first-round of this year's draft if Toronto can't get him signed. By acquiring his rights (and presumably signing him), Fletcher can save face by claiming he got the equivalent of the 1997 first-round pick he bungled away when he acquired Wendel Clark from the Islanders last March.

The Devils believed they could afford to part with McCauley because they own the rights to center Brendan Morrison, who is breaking records in his senior year at the University of Michigan.

Ellett, who can become an unrestricted free agent after the season, is the less talked-about member of the deal, but he had two goals and three assists in his first three games, showing he can become an important addition, along with Gilmour, to New Jersey's anemic power play.

Gilmour, who is driven to get back to the finals, says one of his career regrets was the aftermath of the Flames' 1989 Cup victory when, in aD the excitement, he never took the opportunity to hoist the Cup and skate around the ice with it. "I promised myself I would do it again," he says. "Hopefully, this is the year."

The only negative is that Gilmour's contract is entering its option year. He wanted to negotiate a three-year, $11 million deal with Toronto. But that's a bridge that will be crossed later. With Gilmour, Holik, Denis Pederson and veteran checkers Bobby Carpenter and Peter Zezel, the Devils no longer have a weakness at center.

"Somebody said to me we don't have a star," Lamoriello says. "I disagree. Our star is not a name, it's a team."

Lamoriello is right.

The Devils get the edge in the deal because they didn't give up a prospect who will become a star of Gilmour's magnitude. But conversely, getting Gilmour doesn't guarantee the Cup. The Flyers are still a great team, and Florida is nearly as tough defensively as New Jersey. So much will depend on goalie Martin Brodeur--and, of course, luck.