Rangers have crucial decisions to make with influx of young defensemen

Between the Devils’ first Cup in 1995 and third in 2003, general manager Lou Lamoriello traded Jaroslav Modry, Cale Hulse, Chris McAlpine, Jason Smith, Sheldon Souray and Mike Commodore in deals to shore up the perennial contender’s roster.

These cited defensemen were all between 22 and 25 years of age when sent away, some for rentals, and they combined to play 4,112 games in the NHL, ranging between McAlpine’s 289 and Smith’s 1,008 big league matches.      But the Devils were stocked on the blue line, starting with the pair of Great Scotts, Stevens and Niedermayer, who were augmented during their Era of Excellence by Ken Daneyko, Brian Rafalski, Colin White, Bruce Driver, Tommy Albelin and short-time acquisitions Shawn Chambers, Vlad Malakhov and Oleg Tverdovsky.