Devils Trade Arnott to Washington

Last summer, the Devils went back to the well and brought back another veteran who helped them win, literally, a Stanley Cup.

As every Devils fan recalls, Arnott was forever immortalized when he buried a cross ice feed from Patrik Elias behind Ed Belfour to clinch the Devils’ second Stanley Cup in franchise history in double overtime.

The hopes at the beginning of the season were that Arnott would be the staple for the 2nd line and be able to get the offense to move in the right direction. For the first half, that’s exactly what he was doing, leading the team in goals for nearly the first 3 months.

But with the change in command [Lemaire taking over for MacLean], Arnott’s play began to drop off considerably. In fact, Arnott had slipped to centering the third line, and was consistently held off the scoring sheet. Fans even noted that it was almost impossible if Arnott was playing unless he was called for a penalty, fanning on a shot from the point on the power play, or getting a rare point on a goal.

There were continuous questions if the Devils were going to move Arnott, or if Arnott would ask them to move him leading up to Monday’s deadline.

Recently, Arnott openly stated if he could be moved to a team in the playoffs, he would accept the trade. He would refuse, however, to be moved to a team that is fighting to earn its spot because if he would be making a lateral move and would prefer to stay with the Devils.

Today, just at the Trading Deadline, the Devils abided by wishes of their former hero and were able to move him to a team in the thick of the playoff race.

Washington proved to be the best, and possibly only, suitors for the 36 year old veteran center. In return, the Devils got a larger, younger, and quite frankly a better center in at least terms of face-off percentage and a draft pick.

Dave Steckel is an average center overall, but is great on the penalty kill, and late game situations, including winning clutch face-offs. He also is willing to get into the dirty areas and create traffic. His major drawback, according to scouts and observers, is the face he does not use his side to his advantage nor to his benefit. He will fit in easily on the Devils bottom two lines, and with a price tag only $1.1 million over the next two seasons, is a low-risk, decent reward player.

Along with Steckel, the Devils received the Capitals’ 2nd round pick in the 2012 draft.

Steckel will be in the Devils’ line-up Wednesday night and will be wearing Arnott’s old #25.

The quest for the post season resumes with the Devils being 9 points out with 20 to play.