The New Jersey Devils and Tom Fitzgerald parted ways on Monday evening. Managing partner David Blitzer and Fitzgerald both expressed that it would be best for the team to chart a new vision and direction. Or as they say in the sports entertainment, this move was best for business.
As reported on DevilsNation.com, the New Jersey Devils had been evaluating every area of their hockey operations department. So this move was coming. Again, the inaction of acquiring a certain player, Quinn Hughes, who now plays for the Minnesota Wild, with too many no-trade or no-movement clauses, no action of any kind, something had to give.
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With Tom Fitzgerald no longer in the mix in New Jersey, the Devils will join the Nashville Predators and Toronto Maple Leafs in search of a new general manager. As reported by NHLRumors.com and DevilsNation.com, the Devils want to hire a President of Hockey Operations and a General Manager.
It is best for someone to no longer hold a position within the organization. It was different when Lou Lamoriello ran things; he was the organization. But now, with all the different managing partners and people to answer to, one person needs to be brought in to manage hockey operations, and another will be hired to manage the team.
As Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff mentioned on Frankly Speaking on Victory+, the New Jersey Devils General Manager position is an attractive job. There is a good foundation with Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Jack Hughes, Luke Hughes, Simon Nemec, Brett Pesce, Connor Brown, and Timo Meier. But there is work that needs to be done to make this team a true contender.
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The big name to watch, as reported, is Brendan Shanahan coming in as President of Hockey Operations, as John Buccigross and Seravalli discussed today.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
John Buccigross: “What about New Jersey? Now they have a new direction. What’s next for them? What do you think as you see what they have and how they’re going to try to maneuver things, to try to get better, because you can’t just run it back next year. What makes sense?
Frank Seravalli: “I think you need to chart a new course. And I think the biggest name that stands out, for a lot of different reasons, is Brendan Shanahan. Hire Brendan Shanahan to be your next President of Hockey Operations.
He’s the guy that comes right to the very top of the list, started his career, played at the tail end of his career with the New Jersey Devils, gets the organization, gets the marketplace. I believe, makes his principal or primary residence in Manhattan, so not far away.
And he’s someone who just has a real hunger to get back in and an understanding of what makes the Devils tick. So my hunch or Inkling would be that Brendan Shanahan comes in as President of Hockey Ops.
Then who does he bring with him in terms of the next general manager of this team? What about someone like Jamie Langenbrunner, who also has those connections with the Devils organization, a fan favorite, big part of that Cup team. He’s been cutting his teeth as an assistant GM in Boston. Another assistant GM in Boston who’s made a lot of lists recently has been Evan Gold.
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We touched on Sunny Mehta and his path to winning Stanley Cups with the Florida Panthers, serving as one of the key data architects there and as assistant GM to Bill Zito. Tyler Dellow previously held a higher-up role in the New Jersey Devils organization as their VP of Analytics. He’s now in Carolina as an assistant GM.
Ryan Martin, just across the river, has done almost every job in an NHL front office over the last 30 years except be an NHL General Manager. He has almost two decades of assistant GMing experience between Detroit and the New York Rangers, and he’d be a really qualified candidate.
And then, of course, there’s a guy that I think is like a sneaky candidate here, based on all the different opportunities that he’s gotten over the last few years to interview, would be Peter Chiarelli. Is he someone who could come in, as you know, the guy doing the day-to-day work in conjunction with someone like Brendan Shanahan?
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Would they work well together? I don’t know the answer to that question, or the relationship, but point being, if it is Brendan Shanahan at the top, he’s going to have no shortage of intriguing people to choose from to run the team on a day to day basis, and it just feels like he’s the clear, far and away favorite to be the guy that comes in to lead this organization.”
So the New Jersey Devils have to choose a direction from which they believe the best candidates will come. Again, this person will be outside of the organization. It is a mix of the old-school eye test and the new-school analytics. Regardless, the organization will be changing, maybe not just off the ice, but on the ice as well.
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