"There's not a whole lot of nostalgia remaining for Scott Niedermayer when he comes to New Jersey.

The Devils no longer play at Continental Airlines Arena, where Niedermayer helped the club win three Stanley Cups. Many of the faces from those glory years are gone, too, since Niedermayer left to join the Ducks in 2005.

One constant, though, is New Jersey president and general manager Lou Lamoriello, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday night as a builder partly for his longtime service to the Devils.

"When I was there, he was the Devils," Niedermayer said. "I was very fortunate to be part of his organization because he obviously runs a good one and puts together teams that are very competitive. And I was able to win some championships there, so I'm very thankful for all of that."

Lamoriello selected Niedermayer third overall out of Kamloops of the Western Hockey League in the 1991 draft and made him a cornerstone of a franchise that won Stanley Cups in 1995, 2000 and 2003.

In his induction speech Monday, Lamoriello mentioned Niedermayer – one of five players on all three of those Stanley Cup teams – among those that have helped him throughout his career.

So it goes without saying that Lamoriello is one of the more influential figures in Niedermayer's storied career.

"Very much so," he said. "He's a guy that I learned a lot with early on."

Lamoriello thought so highly of Niedermayer that he offered him a contract worth $7.8 million per season to stay with the Devils in the summer of 2005.

Lured by the prospect of playing with his brother Rob in Anaheim, Niedermayer turned it down and signed a four-year, $27 million deal with the Ducks."