For years they had been inseparable, off the ice and on the ice, where they made magic as sweet as any set of NHL matched-pair wingers have in a very, very long time, and in the mind’s eye of the hockey universe.

But after a while, Patrik Elias yearned for independence from his friend Petr Sykora; yearned to be known as an independent entity and for his own identity. He had, after all, earned that.

And so it was early in the 2002-03 season that I approached Elias, whom I had known since he first joined the Devils as a 19-year-old back in 1995. Sykora had been traded the previous offseason. I started a question, “Petr…”

Elias interrupted me.

“I’m Patrik,” he said.

He most certainly was.

He most certainly is.

He is Patrik Elias, the greatest forward ever to play for the Devils and one of the great two-way forwards of his generation who probably sacrificed some 75-100 goals and 150-200 points off his lifetime 408-617-1,025 total in order to accommodate the unyielding defense-first philosophy of the only organization for which he ever worked.

Except, as Elias told me when we chatted upon the announcement of his retirement, it probably wasn’t much of a sacrifice at all to become an indispensable part of two of the three Stanley Cups the franchise won while reigning over the Eastern Conference for more than a decade.

“There are no regrets for me,” said New Jersey’s forever No. 26, who next year will have his sweater raised to the rafters to accompany those of franchise bedrocks Martin Brodeur, Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer and Ken Daneyko. “Maybe I could have had different numbers somewhere else, but I was happy winning championships. I was happy making the playoffs every year and I was happy knowing we had a chance to win every year.

“You either adjusted in New Jersey or you didn’t stay. We were all proud of being part of those teams. I wasn’t just a one-way player. If they wanted to move me from wing to center, I did it. I played the PP and the PK. I could check. I’m very happy being known for that.

“When I look back, the thing I am most proud of is that I spent my entire career with one team,” Elias said, before referring to the man who ran the show. “You know, I wasn’t the only one to make that decision. Lou [Lamoriello] kept me for all those years, too.”

Elias almost left, almost signed with the Rangers when he became a free agent the summer of 2006. In fact, he had essentially agreed to a six-year, $42 million contract. But when New York general manager Glen Sather would not give the winger a no-move clause, Elias circled back to the Devils and signed a seven-year, $42 million deal.

It was slightly more than the $625,000 he earned during the 1999-2000 Cup season when he recorded 72 points (35-37) and put the puck on Jason Arnott’s stick with one of the slickest passes you have ever seen for the Game 6 double-overtime Cup winner in Dallas. That $625,000, by the way, that was surpassed that season by 486 players. And that $625,000 was Elias’ salary on the first year of a three-year deal he received following a holdout through which he missed the season’s first nine games.

“It wasn’t always roses with Lou,” Elias said. “But we made it work and the relationship got better as it went on.”

The 2000-01 season in which the winger recorded 40 goals and 56 assists for 96 points was the most productive of his career. The Devils gave away the Cup final and a repeat in that seven-game loss to the Avalanche after becoming cavalier about their talent and supremacy, but that was through no fault of Elias, who had 23 points (9-14) in 25 playoff games after posting 20 (seven goals, 13 assists) in 23 matches the previous tournament.

Those were the days of the A Line, the shooting comet of the unit featuring Elias, Arnott and Sykora that was as lethal, skilled and entertaining a combination that has played in the league over the last quarter century. While the rest of the league was playing checkers, the A Line was playing chess.

It seemed as if the three pieces would be interlocked forever. They lasted just over two years. Arnott, unhappy and becoming a disruptive influence, was traded first, at the ’02 deadline. Then Sykora.

“Obviously those were the best two years, but more than that, playing on that line with Petr and Arnie was the most fun of my career,” Elias said. “Every time we went onto the ice, every game, every practice, we had so much fun together.

“But Lou made those decisions. I don’t really know why. I wish we had been together longer.”

Elias thrived without Arnott and Sykora. He became the quintessential checking wing for Pat Burns’ 2003 Cup champions, became the left wing on another one of the Devils’ signature units, the EGG line centered by Scott Gomez that had Brian Gionta on the right. He later moved to center when times became leaner in New Jersey.

But he never wore another NHL logo. Never played for another team, this exceptional player who most certainly is Hall of Fame worthy and who, felled by a knee injury that kept him off the ice all season, will skate in warmups one final time before the home finale against the Islanders next Saturday night.

One more skate for Elias, who established his own identity as a franchise icon and who will leave New Jersey with everybody not only knowing his name, but chanting it, as well.

He’s Patrik.