Scott Gomez

In the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, Scott Gomez was selected with the 27th pick of the first round by the New Jersey Devils. At the time, he was playing for the Tri-City Americans of the Western Hockey League (WHL) and had just been named to the WHL's All-Rookie Team. He also played for the Alaska Aces. In the season after he was drafted, he justified the Devils' decision by scoring 108 points in 58 games for the Americans. This earned him a spot on the WHL West First All-Star Team.

For his efforts, he was awarded the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league's top rookie and played in the NHL All-Star Game in Toronto. Gomez scored 10 points in the 2000 playoffs as the Devils won their second Stanley Cup.

Despite the lockout, Gomez returned to form in 2005–06 and set career highs in goals scored and points, tallying a total of 33 goals and 84 points. He would never reach 30 goals in a season again in his career let alone 20. Along with linemates Brian Gionta, Patrik Eliáš and, before Eliáš' comeback, Zach Parise, Gomez helped rally the Devils from a poor beginning of the season by finishing the season on an 11-game winning streak and clinching the division title in the last game. Gomez finished the 2006 Stanley Cup playoffs with five goals and four assists in nine games. On July 25, 2006, Devils General Manager Lou Lamoriello accepted an arbitrator's ruling of a $5 million, one-year contract for Gomez for the 2006–07 season. Hence, he would go on to be an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2007. During the 2006–07 season, he led the Devils to the second round of the playoffs and totalled 60 points.

On July 1, 2007, Gomez signed a $51.5 million, seven-year contract with the New York Rangers. On the same day, the Rangers signed Chris Drury, who also wears the number 23. To settle who would wear number 23 while playing for the Rangers, a puck was flipped, with Drury winning and earning the right to continue wearing number 23, while Gomez changed his number to 19. Coincidentally, Drury won the Calder Memorial Trophy the year before Gomez won the same award. When asked about his decision to leave the Devils, Gomez said,

Gomez faced his former club for the first time at Prudential Center on November 14, 2007. Each time Gomez touched the puck, he was severely booed by Devils fans. The Rangers went on to win 4-2 that night, with Gomez piling up two assists in the game.

On February 1, 2008, in a game against his former club, the Devils, Gomez recorded his 500th career point by assisting on a Chris Drury goal.

On October 1, 2008, Gomez and the New York Rangers won the Victoria Cup by beating Metallurg Magnitogorsk by the score of 4–3. On October 3, 2008, Gomez was named an alternate captain of the New York Rangers.

On June 30, 2009, Gomez was traded by the Rangers, along with Tom Pyatt and Michael Busto, to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Chris Higgins, Doug Janik, Ryan McDonagh and Pavel Valentenko.

During the 2010–11 season, on February 5, 2011, Gomez scored a goal which would be his last for more than a year. During this time, the Canadiens played in 90 games, although Gomez missed 30 of these games in the 2011–12 season. Of the games he played in, Gomez failed to score in the final 29 games of the 2010–11 season, the preceding seven-game playoff series against the Boston Bruins and the first 24 games he played in during the 2011–12 season – a total scoreless drought of 60 games. Gomez had 22 assists and had a plus-minus rating of −15 while registering 122 shots on goal during this period. The drought ended on February 9, 2012, with a one-timer goal during a 4–2 victory over the New York Islanders.

When the lockout was settled, the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) directly affected Gomez in two ways — first, it forced teams to count any American Hockey League (AHL) player's salary above $900,000 against its NHL cap, meaning the Canadiens could not "bury" Gomez's salary by sending him to their AHL affiliate, as had been previously done with players such as Wade Redden, to clear cap room. Second, it allowed for up to two contracts per team to be bought out for up to two-thirds of the remaining salary, without the buyout counting against the cap in the 2013 and/or 2014 off-seasons, so as to help teams get under the reduced cap.

However, the buyouts could not be used on injured players, so, to avoid any risk of a hockey-related injury, on January 13, 2013, the first day of the Canadiens training camp, Gomez was directed by General Manager Marc Bergevin to stay home for the shortened season to ensure a buy-out at the end of the season.

With the revised agreement in place, Gomez was promptly placed on unconditional waivers and bought-out, becoming a free agent on January 17, 2013.

On January 23, 2013, Gomez signed a one-year, $700,000 contract with the San Jose Sharks. Playing in 39 games for the Sharks, Gomez recorded two goals and 13 assists.

On July 31, 2013, Gomez signed a one-year contract with the Florida Panthers. Playing in 46 games for the Panthers, Gomez scored just two goals to go with 10 assists.

Gomez returned to familiar grounds in attending the New Jersey Devils' training camp for the 2014–15 season on an unsigned try-out basis. On December 1, 2014, the Devils signed him to a one-year contract. On December 28, 2014, he participated in his 1,000th NHL game. Gomez rediscovered his scoring touch with the Devils, amassing his best offensive output since 2011, finishing third amongst the Devils with 34 points in 58 games.

With the Devils signalling an end of an era through managerial changes and with the intent to build a younger roster, Gomez was not tendered a new contract by the Devils. As a free agent, Gomez again accepted a try-out basis contract to attend the St. Louis Blues training camp for the 2015–16 season on August 27, 2015. On October 7, he signed a one-year two-way contract with the Blues worth $575,000 to begin the 2015–16 season. Gomez was used primarily on the powerplay with the Blues, and contributed with 8 points in 21 games. With the club returning to health and in need of roster positions, on December 29, 2015, he was placed on waivers by the team. Upon clearing, Gomez requested a release from his contract with the Blues and was placed on unconditional waivers by the Blues in order to return to free agency.

Gomez continued his season in the new-year by signing with the Hershey Bears of the AHL, an affiliate to the Washington Capitals, on a professional try-out contract on January 14, 2016. Gomez exercised the release from his tryout contract on March 1, 2016.

After the Senators' first line Center, Kyle Turris, was placed on injury reserve, Gomez was signed as an unrestricted free agent by the Ottawa Senators for $575,000 on March 2, 2016.

On August 31, 2016, Gomez announced his retirement from professional hockey.

On May 30, 2017, Gomez was named as the assistant coach for the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League (NHL). Following the 2018-19 season, Gomez elected not to return to the Islanders bench.