Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Cam Janssen bringing his fists back to New Jersey

Edmonton Oilers v St. Louis Blues

ST. LOUIS, MO - MARCH 24: Cam Janssen #55 of the St. Louis Blues fights Jim Vandermeer #2 of the Edmonton Oilers at the Scottrade Center on March 24, 2011 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

Getty Images

The New Jersey Devils were without an enforcer for all of about eight hours. After the Devils shipped noted pugilist Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond to Calgary for a 5th round pick next year, they went out and signed another master of the fistacuffs in Cam Janssen. Terms of the one-year deal were not immediately released, but the acquisition shouldn’t cost the Devils much in the way of salary. Janssen has made anywhere between $550,000 and $600,000 over the last four years of his NHL career—it’s unlikely he’d be much of a raise.

The free agent signing brings Janssen back to the team that originally drafted him in the 4th round of the 2002 Entry Draft. Janssen’s agent Kevin Magnuson of KO Sports Inc. spoke to The Bergen Record about the deal:

“He’s very excited to be back with Lou (Lamoriello) and the Devils. It’s a great opportunity for Cam with Pierre being traded earlier in the day.”

Whether he’s been in the National Hockey League, the American Hockey League, or the Ontario Hockey League, Janssen has always been a man who’s known his role. No one is ever going to mistake Janssen for a valuable offensive hockey player. The man comes to drop bombs, entertain the crowd, stick up for his teammates, and challenge opponents to fights on Twitter. Let’s put it this way: in 260 NHL games, he has 10 points and 675 penalty minutes.

A player doesn’t rack up those kinds of numbers by obstructing and interfering. This is what he does:

It’s interesting that Janssen would replace Letourneau-Leblond as the Devils enforcer since the two will be forever linked in one of the longest fights in recent memory. Janssen will act as the nuclear deterrent on New Jersey’s bench next season. Opponents may think twice about going after Ilya Kovalchuk or Zach Parise if they have to answer to Cam Janssen afterwards.

After all, it’s hard to imagine anyone would want to go toe-to-toe with this guy more than once.