A rare gift is eluding the Devils, and Lou Lamoriello has probably already squandered his best chance of receiving it.

The Blues, who visit the Devils tonight at the Meadowlands, still owe New Jersey a swap of first-rounders from their 1994 tampering with Scott Stevens. But since the Devils last summer elected to take outright the Blues’ first-round pick, the other portion of the punishment, they cannot seek that compensatory swap next summer because of a prohibition against consecutive-year selections.

Not that they’d want to, at least not the way things stand. The swap is only worthwhile if the Devils finish higher than the Blues, and right now, New Jersey trails St. Louis by six points with one game in hand.

The Devils’ last chance to exercise that swap will be in 2003, and the Blues have established themselves as one of the top teams in the league, making it far from certain that the Devils can top them in points. If they don’t top the Blues next season, the gift is squandered. Even if they do, the Blues would surely exercise their unused one-time deferral, and the Devils would have to top the Blues the following year again, or it would still be squandered.

Lamoriello almost surely already has blown his chance to gain the most from the swap of firsts, part of Gary Bettman’s landmark ruling of Dec. 28, 1998 in which the Blues were also fined $1.5 million, $1.425 million of which went to New Jersey.

That first summer, the Blues held the 17th pick in the 1999 draft and the Devils the 27th; Lamoriello did not opt for the obvious swap, taking goalie Ari Ahonen, when he could have had Martin Havlat, among others.

Last summer, Lamoriello curiously chose to take the Blues’ 24th overall pick outright, then wheel it to Florida for two second-rounders. The Devils chose Adrian Foster with their own 28th overall pick, and Igor Phohanka and Tomas Pihlman with those second-rounders from Florida.