The New Jersey Devils are expected to sign general manager Tom Fitzgerald to a multi-year extension and added President of Hockey Operations to his list of roles. Fitzgerald has been with the Devils since the summer of 2015 when he joined the club as an assistant general manager. He served in the role for five years, ultimately taking over for general manager Ray Shero when he was fired from the club in January 2020. Fitzgerald was granted the full general manager title that summer and has since built one of the league’s premiere squads, serving a key role in the blockbuster trade for Timo Meier, Dougie Hamilton’s seven-year contract, and the drafting of top defensive prospects Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec.
New Jersey is a fantastic team on paper, though injuries have significantly limited their ability to reach their ceiling. In fact, the Devils are currently outside of the playoff picture, currently sitting two points behind the Eastern Conference’s second wild card – though they do have two games in hand. Their season has been marked by heavy limitations to all of their top names – with Hamilton currently out indefinitely, Meier and Jack Hughes both missing 13 games and Nico Hischier missing 11. The team hasn’t been able to match the production that these top-line players bring, as only two Devils currently have 30 or more points through the team’s first 45 games.
But despite the struggles, New Jersey is opting to stick with their top brass, extending both head coach Lindy Ruff and now GM Fitzgerald. They will hope the duo can command the Devils’ roster back to the Stanley Cup hopes they entered the season with, once they’re able to get healthy.
Need a goalie.
He’s done very good work indeed (Hughes contract will look like highway robbery in a few years, for ex.) but…they need a goalie.
If they find one, they can win Cups.
Goalie is not the only position we need help with, we need to tighten up our defensive core (missing too many pieces right now, need more veteran help)
We also need an upgrade specifically to our bottom 6, when you have guys like Max Willman and Chris Tierney taking nightly shifts you know something is VERY VERY wrong
Those are interchangable pieces you find in free agency or trades or mid round picks…between Hamilton, Hughes and Nemec, they seem to have some core pieces back there already.
BTW, what did you guys do to Ryan Graves, he was good in Colorado…man, he’s bad now.
That’s coaching imo.
Nemec already looking as good as Graves. Luke is no worse than Severson.
Bahl has improved this year.
Problem is, the coaches aren’t getting anything out of Seigs, Marino, Vanecek or Schmid this year.
Of course, Smith is a big downgrade on Dougie but the injuries are just killing us this year.
Hamilton and Hughes are currently injured and Nemec is only 19 years old (we have the 2nd youngest team in the league i believe) I didnt say we didnt have the core pieces in place im saying between injuries and poor play we are not where we should be this year.
We didnt do anything to Graves, he wasnt that great with us either, Marino REALLY masked alot of his poor decisions and play, thats why we let him walk this offseason.
Dont even get me started on coaching, we should’ve promoted Brunette when we had the chance, now we are stuck with Ruff till whenever….Green had us doing pretty good on the PP but now thats starting to suck. McGill is average at best and dont even get me started on Rogowski
Smith is gone after this year hopefully.
Palat signing was self-sabotage.
Still better than if we signed Gaudreau
True.