New Jersey Devils: Tom Fitzgerald gets long overdue chance as general manager
Tom Fitzgerald has waited over 10 years for a chance. The New Jersey Devils are finally giving him one.
The New Jersey Devils are expected to announce Tom Fitzgerald is their new full-time general manager. He took over for Ray Shero in January after he was let go. Fitzgerald did enough in his first two months as a General Manager to get the “interim” tag removed from his job title.
For Fitzgerald, this has been a long time coming. He has been working his way up in front offices for over 10 years. After a successful NHL career, he joined the Pittsburgh Penguins as their Director of Player Development starting in the 2007-08 season.
After the 2008-09 season, Fitzgerald got a promotion to Assistant General Manager. He stayed with the Penguins until the 2014-15 season, after which he followed Ray Shero to the Devils. Fitzgerald had the same job title with the Devils, though he also served as the General Manager of the Binghamton Devils, their AHL affiliate.
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When Shero got fired in January, Fitzgerald was named the interim General Manager and interim Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations. He made a strong early impression by netting the Devils several hauls at the 2020 NHL trade deadline. Fitzgerald’s first trade saw him net a second-round pick in 2020 and prospect David Quenneville for defenseman Andy Greene.
Fitzgerald also traded defenseman Sami Vatanen to the Carolina Hurricanes for forward prospect Janne Kuokkanen, defenseman Fredrik Claesson, and a 2020 conditional fourth-round pick. He also traded Wayne Simmonds to the Buffalo Sabres for a fifth-round pick in 2020. His most impressive one came from trading Blake Coleman to the Tampa Bay Lightning for top prospect Nolan Foote and a 2020 first-round pick.
With those moves, Fitzgerald has proven he’s the right guy to lead the New Jersey Devils through their rebuild. He acquired some impressive pieces for guys who weren’t going to be a part of the next great Devils team. That’s exactly what you want to see the general manager of a rebuilding team do.
At the age of 51, Fitzgerald is finally getting the chance to prove he can be a full-time general manager. You have to feel happy for him. Fitzgerald worked his way up the front office ladder, which isn’t an easy thing to do. He’s shown he’s an impressive evaluator of talent and he did enough in his first two months as general manager to prove himself deserving of the full-time position.
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Is Fitzgerald going to be a great general manager? Who knows. Only time will tell. But this is a chance Fitzgerald has proven he deserved. And it’s a chance I’m willing to bet he won’t blow.