Another Devil has vanished without a trace, and Lou Lamoriello’s cupboard of prospect bait isn’t quite as full as it used to be.
Alexander Mogilny, the team’s leading goal-scorer with 43 last season, yesterday bolted the Devils to sign with the Maple Leafs as an unrestricted free agent.
Mogilny signed a four-year deal at an annual salary of $5.5 million, rejoining Leaf GM-coach Pat Quinn, who had him in Vancouver.
“We thought he was the most talented player in the pool,” Leafs executive Bill Watters told The Post. “Even more than [Joe] Sakic, and we got him at half the price.”
The 32-year-old right wing had a disappointing playoff for the second straight year, but the one round where he starred was against the Leafs, piling up a five-point game on April 28 in Game 2 of the second-round series that went seven.
Mogilny was initially courted by the Red Wings and Stars, as well as the Leafs, when he turned free agent Sunday, but Detroit and Dallas dropped out of the bidding for the two-time 50-goal scorer.
The Devils gave up young centers Brendan Morrison and Denis Pederson to obtain Mogilny from Vancouver on March 14, 2000, and the most they’ll now receive in return is a second-round compensatory draft pick.
Mogilny made $5.2 million last season, but the Canucks paid $1 million of that as part of the trade agreement. The Devils never made Mogilny a serious offer to remain in New Jersey, despite his desire to remain.
This was the Devils’ second loss of an unrestricted free agent in three days. Rental defenseman Sean O’Donnell signed with the Bruins Sunday for $7.5 million over three years, having come from Minnesota for defense prospect Willie Mitchell last March 4.
Mogilny’s case recalls the loss of Doug Gilmour to free agency, after the Devils gave up Steve Sullivan, Jason Smith and Alyn McCauley for Gilmour and Dave Ellett, both of whom were gone within a year-and-a-half. Smith and Sullivan have carved themselves important slots in the league.
The 43 goals scored by Mogilny represent the third-best single-season total in Devils history, behind the 46 of Pat Verbeek in 1987-88 and the 45 of John MacLean in 1990-91. Mogilny went 46-43-89 in 87 regular-season games with the Devils, while posting 9-14-23 statistics in 48 playoff matches. Entering his 13th NHL seasons since defecting from Russia in 1989, Mogilny has scored 396 goals and 841 points in 780 regular-season games.
The goals he scored last season will be hard for the Devils to replace, and the playoffs were a glimpse of what they can expect, when they fell just short of repeating as Stanley Cup champs largely for a lack of Mogilny’s scoring.
