Many Factors Went Into the New Jersey Devils Decision to Part Ways with Their GM
Dave Pagnotta of The Fourth Period joined TSN Radio in Montreal and was asked why the New Jersey Devils decided that now was the right time to remove Tom Fitzgerald as General Manager and President.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
The Writing Was on the Wall for Tom Fitzgerald To Lose His Job in New Jersey
Host: “Chatting with Dave Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. You’re on Campbell versus Gallo Hockey heaven at 11. Let’s take a look at the National Hockey League. The Devils fire their General Manager. Tom Fitzgerald is out. They are on the search, just like the Toronto Maple Leafs. Did the Devils make this move because they want to chase down the same people that the Leafs will be chasing down, and what can we expect to happen in New Jersey?”
Dave Pagnotta: “Now, yeah, well, I mean, similar situation, but Fitzgerald was also the President of Hockey Ops. So they may be in a position to bring in two individuals definitively, whereas Toronto is open to that possibility, but may just hire a GM. It oesn’t look like it’s probably going in the president and GM route, but New Jersey, for sure, seems to be looking for two individuals that are going to come in.
One handling hockey ops as the President, the other the day-to-day as GM. And there will be crossover, at least on the GM front. Nashville, as well, has been searching, but they’ve been well along that process and down the line where they’ve done face-to-face interviews and Zoom interviews and things like that, already with a number of their candidates.
But there is a little bit of crossover there, and we’ll see if Vancouver follows suit. There’s a lot of speculation that they may go down this road in search of a new GM as well. But from Jersey’s perspective, looking at paper, this team should be a lot better than they’ve shown this season, even with injuries to some key pieces, Jack Hughes being the primary, and a lot of people started to question whether it was the system that was put in place.
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But to go back to back years, you can’t use the injury excuse all the time, even though sometimes it’s pretty valid. They had it last year, all right, well, let’s see how you can come back that and get through it this year, and they weren’t able to. So, eventually, with one year left on his contract, it was clear and similar to Brad Treliving, he has one year left on his contract as well; it’s clear that New Jersey wanted to see. Hey, if you’re going to write this ship, fine, you got to prove it to us if you want to earn an extension.
Most of these guys don’t like going into their final year without some security. I think that factored into the whole decision as well. Yesterday (Monday), when they dropped the hammer on this one, and Fitzgerald was part of that discussion and said, Yeah, you know what? This is the direction. Well, maybe it’s best for everybody if we part.
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I’d be surprised if both the Predators and the Maple Leafs wouldn’t want to have an interview, or wouldn’t want to have at least a discussion with Tom Fitzgerald as well, because you look at his track record in terms of some of the moves that he’s made, he’s made some pretty solid moves for the New Jersey Devils. He’s really deepened that roster. Obviously, it hasn’t worked, but on paper, it looks pretty good. I think he’ll be under consideration for the other gigs as well.”
NHLRumors.com Note: While injuries have been an excuse in back-to-back seasons, that couldn’t be the case this season. New Jersey found a way to overcome those injuries and get into the playoffs last season. It must have been that uneventful that some forgot they were there. However, as has been proven across the league, if you think the person you want to hire will not become available, you’ve got to get them.
As has been the case all season, the Devils will look outside the organization to fill their President of Hockey Operations and General Manager roles.
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