Gomez retires

[BostonNala370]

Scott Gomez retires after 16 years in the NHL and 17 years as a pro.

Best wishes  Scott

[Chimaira_Devil_#9]

Always likes Scott, it was great to see him come back and really play well a couple of years back. I was disappointed he wants given another chance after the year he had.  

[Nicomo]

A Calder Trophy and a couple Stanley Cups in his first few years in the league. I always enjoyed watching him with the speed he had. The EGG line has to be one of the best the Devils have ever had too. Good luck to him whatever he does next.

[moustic]

Thank you Mister Gomez ! 

[bostondevil11]

He was sometimes a frustrating player but those early years until the EGG line were some exiting hockey from him. 

The first Devils game I ever went to 11-17-00 against the Bruins Gomez scored with 2 seconds left in OT. (Oh gee makes me feel old look at that grainy footage!)  

 

Edited September 1, 2016 by bostondevil11

[MadDog2020]

Congrats on a great career Gomer. Enjoy retirement.


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[Derlique]

Very happy he was able to come back a couple of years ago and produce. The sour taste in my mouth left seeing him don the red and black and play well. Not many cooler sights in hockey than seeing Gomez take the puck in our zone and effortlessly gain the ozone. Would've been cool to see him play with Kovalchuk.

[DJ Eco]

What a career by this guy. After joining the Rangers, I never thought he'd achieve redemption in a Devils sweater, but he somehow managed to; what a great story. Hope he enjoys retirement, he's earned it.

Edited September 1, 2016 by DJ Eco

[dmann422]

Should be a lesson to players that the grass is not always greener, but he was a great Devil and I wish him the best.

[RunninWithTheDevil]

Great Devil. Had great potential that was squandered in NY and MTL. 

"Meet me in Newark!" Still kills me though

[Devilsfan118]

It's sad to think about what his career could have been had he not chased the almighty dollar. I truly think he was one of (if not the) best passers to ever come through the Devils system.  Supremely talented, questionable work ethic early on.

Best of luck going forward.

Can Gomez replace Dano as the PbP guy?

[thecoffeecake]

His last year back as a devil, he was still an incredible playmaker, especially on the power play. I didn't think there was any reason he shouldn't have gotten a deal for last season to play on the 4th line.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

1 hour ago, RunninWithTheDevil said:

Great Devil. Had great potential that was squandered in NY and MTL. 

"Meet me in Newark!" Still kills me though

Not really.  Look at his two seasons in NY and first season in MTL and his numbers were very much in line with his career norms.  He simply declined young.  I went over it in the Around The League thread...after his first season in MTL, he had played a ton of games for a player his age (784 regular season and 133 playoff by the end of his age 30 season...basically averaged almost 92 GP per season).  He was like a 10-year-old car that had been driven 25-30k miles every year. 

[capo]

I'm glad he got to come back to NJ for a little redemption.  I always liked him as a player. Its crazy how our cup teams and players are nothing but memories now.

[Triumph]

I'm not sure there's a player in the league now like Gomez, but maybe that's because fewer teams play a strict trap these days - Gomez was fantastic at getting through the neutral zone and getting chances on net.  He's also an object lesson in scouting, not allowing one bad thing (his weak shot) from overshadowing everything else he could do on the ice.  I've looked for it before and it's not online, but I'll never forget his OT winner against Tampa in 07, one of his last great moments in a Devils uniform.

He was 12th in the NHL in assists between his rookie year and now - the guys ahead of him are mostly future Hall of Famers.

[DevilMinder]

You said it Tri, his ability to get through the NZ was always amazing. He had a ton of personality even inside a Lou run team and got plenty of chuckles between him and Mogilny's banter.

Enjoy retirement Gomez!

 

[NJDevils1214]

I'm getting old! Glad he had the year he did when he came back, silenced a lot of critics by playing really well on a sub par team. 

[BlueSkirt]

The Galloping Ghost from the Alaskan Coast !

[RunninWithTheDevil]

11 hours ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Not really.  Look at his two seasons in NY and first season in MTL and his numbers were very much in line with his career norms.  He simply declined young.  I went over it in the Around The League thread...after his first season in MTL, he had played a ton of games for a player his age (784 regular season and 133 playoff by the end of his age 30 season...basically averaged almost 92 GP per season).  He was like a 10-year-old car that had been driven 25-30k miles every year. 

more talking about the entire year he went without scoring a goal and the potential role he could have played here. he was a great passer and a decent playmaker with hockey sense

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

6 hours ago, RunninWithTheDevil said:

more talking about the entire year he went without scoring a goal and the potential role he could have played here. he was a great passer and a decent playmaker with hockey sense

After that 10-season period I brought up (also keep in mind that during the lockout, he played 65 games for the Alaskan Aces and broke his pelvis, so it's not like he got any "rest" in 2004-05), in the following season he played another 80 regular season games and another 7 playoff games...this was the first season that he was clearly dropping off.  That upped his GP count to 864 regular season and 140 playoff (over 1000 games), plus the 65 games he played for the Aces. 

He never came close to playing a full season's worth of games again after his 11th season in the NHL (he did play in 39 out of 48 games in 2012-13), and was clearly not the same player ever again, even with the brief resurgence in his second Devils stint.  He was a +61 in his first 10 seasons...he was a -62 the rest of his career. 

He averaged 0.8125 PPG in his first 10 seasons, and he was very consistent throughout...from 2010-11 on, that plummeted to under half that rate (0.403), and he was often worse than that.  The burst he enjoyed with the Devils was nice and kind of fun to watch in what was a crappy season, but there really isn't much to suggest that he would've been able to do that had he been here before that.  Though he was vastly overpaid due to the age-old GM mistake of thinking that overpaying good players will somehow make them superstars, Gomez turned in three very-Gomez-like seasons in the first three seasons of that deal, two with the Rangers and one with the Canadiens.  In the fourth year of that deal (the first decline year), he was still getting plenty of ice time with Montreal; it's worth pointing out that in the six seasons after the lockout, not only did Gomez play in 532 NHL games (regular season and playoff combined...about 89 per season), he saw his ice time increased significantly...over those six seasons, his average TOI was anywhere from 18:34 to 21:04 (21:10 during Montreal's 19-game playoff run in his first season with them...the decline started after that season)...in his first five NHL campaigns, he had never been over 16:46.  There's much more evidence to suggest that he was simply wearing down due to playing a lot of games and playing a lot WITHIN games, as opposed to him being misused or squandered by his other teams.  He never struck me as a guy who was a big fitness fiend either, which probably just caught up with him once he hit his early 30s. 

Edited September 2, 2016 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[DevsMan84]

1 hour ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

After that 10-season period I brought up (also keep in mind that during the lockout, he played 65 games for the Alaskan Aces and broke his pelvis, so it's not like he got any "rest" in 2004-05), in the following season he played another 80 regular season games and another 7 playoff games...this was the first season that he was clearly dropping off.  That upped his GP count to 864 regular season and 140 playoff (over 1000 games), plus the 65 games he played for the Aces. 

He never came close to playing a full season's worth of games again after his 11th season in the NHL (he did play in 39 out of 48 games in 2012-13), and was clearly not the same player ever again, even with the brief resurgence in his second Devils stint.  He was a +61 in his first 10 seasons...he was a -62 the rest of his career. 

He averaged 0.8125 PPG in his first 10 seasons, and he was very consistent throughout...from 2010-11 on, that plummeted to under half that rate (0.403), and he was often worse than that.  The burst he enjoyed with the Devils was nice and kind of fun to watch in what was a crappy season, but there really isn't much to suggest that he would've been able to do that had he been here before that.  Though he was vastly overpaid due to the age-old GM mistake of thinking that overpaying good players will somehow make them superstars, Gomez turned in three very-Gomez-like seasons in the first three seasons of that deal, two with the Rangers and one with the Canadiens.  In the fourth year of that deal (the first decline year), he was still getting plenty of ice time with Montreal; it's worth pointing out that in the six seasons after the lockout, not only did Gomez play in 532 NHL games (regular season and playoff combined...about 89 per season), he saw his ice time increased significantly...over those six seasons, his average TOI was anywhere from 18:34 to 21:04 (21:10 during Montreal's 19-game playoff run in his first season with them...the decline started after that season)...in his first five NHL campaigns, he had never been over 16:46.  There's much more evidence to suggest that he was simply wearing down due to playing a lot of games and playing a lot WITHIN games, as opposed to him being misused or squandered by his other teams.  He never struck me as a guy who was a big fitness fiend either, which probably just caught up with him once he hit his early 30s. 

I think I remember reading Sather legitimately thought Gomez was a consistent 80-90 point player that was being held back by the Devils system.  Also think I remember reading that Sather was not alone in that line of thought and that is why he paid him that big $.  In the three seasons leading up to his signing with the Rangers, he had 214 points in 234 games, so not really too far fetched for them to think that.

Edited September 2, 2016 by DevsMan84

[eaglejelly]

15 hours ago, Triumph said:

I'm not sure there's a player in the league now like Gomez, but maybe that's because fewer teams play a strict trap these days - Gomez was fantastic at getting through the neutral zone and getting chances on net.  He's also an object lesson in scouting, not allowing one bad thing (his weak shot) from overshadowing everything else he could do on the ice.  I've looked for it before and it's not online, but I'll never forget his OT winner against Tampa in 07, one of his last great moments in a Devils uniform.

He was 12th in the NHL in assists between his rookie year and now - the guys ahead of him are mostly future Hall of Famers.

at 3:10

 

Edited September 2, 2016 by eaglejelly
added text

[msweet]

Always a favorite of mine. Thanks for the memories.

[Triumph]

Oh nice eaglejelly, I know I'd been looking for that for a while and hadn't found it.  Fake the pass on the 2 on 1 and take the shot - perfect.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

20 hours ago, DevsMan84 said:

I think I remember reading Sather legitimately thought Gomez was a consistent 80-90 point player that was being held back by the Devils system.  Also think I remember reading that Sather was not alone in that line of thought and that is why he paid him that big $.  In the three seasons leading up to his signing with the Rangers, he had 214 points in 234 games, so not really too far fetched for them to think that.

Yeah, discussed that before in other threads, re:  Sather thinking that Gomez was somehow being held back by the Devils.  The 33-goal season blew up that 3-year sample and expectations...and Gomer's salary (though he still would've gotten [over]paid well).  I think that season led some to think that Gomer could become a consistent 25+ goal scorer to go along with his other skills, but that just never happened.

I thought it was always funny how Gomez was knocked in Ranger Country for being...well, what he'd always been.  But the "Devils are holding him back" crap and the huge salary just created expectations that Gomer could never live up to.