A no-trade clause, the extra year: Scott Stevens got everything he wanted – entirely appropriate for the Devils captain who gives everything he’s got.

“There’s no other place I really wanted to be,” Stevens said yesterday after signing a three-year contract extension at some $7 million a season. “I still believe in this team and organization, and I hope to win another Cup here and retire here.”

Stevens will be 41 when this extension expires after the 2004-05 season, if the league doesn’t shut down that year with the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement. He says he wants to consider coaching thereafter, but for now, he remains one of the greatest defensemen in the NHL, showing few signs of being 37 years old.

Now in his 20th NHL season, Stevens will have earned nearly $60 million lifetime in salary by the time this deal ends, with some $56 million of that paid by the Devils.