Earlier this week, the New Jersey Devils made it official by announcing that they are parting ways with now-former President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Tom Fitzgerald.
It’s too early to say who the next POHO and GM will be going forward, or whether it will be one or two people serving in those roles. The dust hasn’t even settled on Fitzgerald’s departure and the Devils will need to go through the process of figuring out what direction they want to go in. They need to figure out who they want to talk
to about the position(s) and, hopefully, hire the right people to take this team to the next level.
Regardless of who they hire though, there are several pressing issues that will need to be addressed almost immediately.
Sheldon Keefe’s Future
The general assumption when a team makes a general manager change is that they’re going to want to bring in their own head coach and not be saddled with the incumbent.
I generally can go either way when it comes to Sheldon Keefe and whether or not the Devils should keep him going forward.
I do think its important for the general manager and head coach to be lock-step in terms of their vision for the team and how they want them to play. And its tough to say what that is today when we don’t know who the next President of Hockey Ops and general manager is going to be. All we know is that whoever the Devils wind up hiring didn’t have a say in hiring Keefe in the first place.
For the record, I don’t think Keefe is a bad coach. I do think he had the team playing a brand of hockey that didn’t fit the skillsets of the best players on the team for much of this season though and the team struggled to generate anything offensively as a result. I think we’ve seen post-Olympics with the players making quicker decisions, defensemen joining the rush, and better support overall that the team has looked more like what we might’ve expected when the team went and hired Keefe.
The Devils have played better down the stretch of this season, and while that might not be enough to save Keefe long-term, it might be enough to convince the next regime that they have more pressing matters than who the coach of the team will be come October. The next regime might like how the team has played down the stretch and want Keefe to continue doing what he’s doing. Heck, the next regime might think Keefe is a better coach than anyone who is out there on the open market. And if it doesn’t work out with Keefe, it would be really easy for the next regime to play the “coaching change card” whenever they deem it necessary and ultimately bring in their own guy.
I’m not saying this is the right or wrong way to handle the head coaching position, but let’s just say for argument’s sake the Devils hire Brendan Shanahan as the POHO. Just because Shanahan and Keefe overlapped in Toronto doesn’t necessarily mean they have to be attached at the hip in New Jersey. Maybe they are. Maybe Shanahan thinks Keefe is a great coach and they can win with him because they won a lot of games in Toronto together. Or maybe Shanahan believes Keefe only has so much upside. Maybe Keefe is good enough for now until Shanahan’s preferred coach becomes available, whoever that might be. Maybe Shanahan is well aware of Keefe’s flaws and shortcomings as a coach and he’s not interested at all.
I still think its more likely than not that a new regime hires a new coach and the Devils move on from Keefe as a result. But it also wouldn’t surprise me if the Devils opted to stick with what they have for the time being.
Getting Nico Hischier Signed
We’ve talked about Nico Hischier’s situation before and how his future impacts everything else going forward. The Devils captain is up for a contract extension on July 1st.
I don’t think Fitzgerald’s departure will have a significant impact on Hischier’s decision, but I do think the direction the Devils go in with their hire(s) could have an impact.
The Devils don’t need to tear it down and rebuild. If anything, the core of what should be a pretty good hockey team is already in place, and all the next GM needs to do is augment what they have in place going forward. But at the end of the day, this is a business. Nico Hischier is in line for a new deal, and like I said before, a deal isn’t done until its done. Hischier might look at the situation here in New Jersey and not be thrilled regardless of the decision to move on from Fitzgerald.
It will be important for whoever the next POHO and GM is to meet with Hischier and sell him on their vision of the team going forward. While I wouldn’t panic at what Hischier said to the media yesterday in regards to his future, the truth of the matter is that the Devils haven’t come close to winning a Stanley Cup in the Hischier era. Granted, most of those years were rebuilding years but there has been a lot of losing hockey in that era. That’s not necessarily Hischier’s fault, but it does speak to how the Devils failed to build a winner under Fitzgerald. It’s only natural for Hischier to consider his options before signing away the remainder of his hockey prime to continue being a New Jersey Devil.
I don’t know if Hischier signs on July 1st. I don’t know if he takes the summer to see what the Devils do before signing in training camp. I don’t know if he says “thanks, but no thanks” and makes it clear he won’t sign. But in terms of players on the current roster, getting Hischier’s situation resolved will be the #1 priority this summer.
The Simon Nemec Situation
It’s probably too early to definitively declare winners and losers in regards to Fitzgerald’s departure from the Devils organization, but if there was someone who is probably relieved when the news came down, it might be Simon Nemec.
Nemec was reportedly being shopped leading up to the trade deadline but was ultimately not moved. I wrote about this situation after the fact and my first takeaway was that if it were up to me, I’m not allowing Tom Fitzgerald to make the call on whether or not they trade Nemec. Frankly, I don’t want to trade him at all.
Now that Fitzgerald is gone, one might think Nemec may be breathing a sigh of relief. But I’m not sure we’re entirely out of the woods yet.
Ideally, the Devils would find a way to add a young, controllable, top-six caliber forward this summer to help give them another boost offensively. The problem is that that player isn’t sitting out there in free agency, so you likely need to explore the trade market to find him. Aside from wherever the Devils 2026 first round pick lands, their best trade asset to get that type of player might be Nemec. We could debate whether or not trading Nemec for, say, Matthew Knies is a good idea, but would it be surprising if the Devils revisited that idea even without Fitzgerald? Probably not.
I’m still of the belief that Nemec is part of the solution going forward and my preference is to not move him. I’m hopeful that whoever the next general manager of the Devils is looks at this situation and gives Nemec a clean slate. But it is something to monitor.
Cleaning Up the Blueline
One thing Fitzgerald said in his media session post-trade deadline that I completely agree with is that continuing with seven NHL-caliber defensemen for six spots is no longer sustainable. The Devils need to make a move to clear up that logjam.
Luke Hughes isn’t going anywhere having signed a long-term deal back in October. Brett Pesce isn’t either with a full no-trade clause and four years remaining on his deal. And I literally just wrote that my preference isn’t to give up on a 22-year old former 2nd overall pick in Simon Nemec. So who does that leave? It leaves Dougie Hamilton, Brenden Dillon, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Johnathan Kovacevic.
Hamilton might wind up being the most likely to go simply because his name has been out there for over a year now. He has rehabilitated his trade value since his mid-season benching to where the Devils should be able to get a decent return, and getting his $9M AAV off of the books would give the next regime more flexibility down the road. It might not happen until after his bonus is paid out on July 1st, but trading a soon-to-be 33 year old Hamilton make sense.
But why stop there?
I don’t think Kovacevic is movable at this time, as there’s 4 years at $4M AAV remaining on his deal and he has a full no-trade clause through next season. He has played better of late, and perhaps the further removed he gets from major surgery, the better he’ll look. But getting bailed out of that contract is a tough ask.
If the Devils move a second defenseman, I think its more likely someone like Brenden Dillon could be on the move. Dillon, who will turn 36 next season, will be entering the final year of his contract. His full no-trade clause turns into a 10-team no-trade on July 1st. Dillon is the big body, physical, defense-first defensemen that general managers tend to trip over themselves to add for a playoff run. His $4M AAV ($3M in actual salary) should be easy for another team to fit in.
Of course, the Devils would need to find a way to replace both what Hamilton brings offensively and Dillon brings with his physicality if they were to move on from them. In terms of offense, some of that might have to happen organically with Hughes and Nemec taking another step in their development. But the truth of the matter is that the Devils have had one of the more expensive bluelines in the league for several seasons now. Freeing up $13M in AAV while simultaneously moving on from the two oldest defensemen on the roster is probably the best move the Devils can make for now while they wait on some of their defensive prospects to develop.
Other Questions That Need to be Answered At Some Point
Dawson Mercer is entering a contract year. He’s developed into a consistent 20-ish goal per season player who can be relied upon to play every game, but he hasn’t really come close to matching what he did in the 2022-23 season in terms of production despite playing in all situations and having a consistent top six role. He also doesn’t have trade protection. Is this an area where the Devils look to make a “hockey trade” to upgrade their top six?
Stefan Noesen is also entering the final season of his contract. Noesen missed most of this season with various injuries and will be coming off of a major injury. Do the Devils keep him around as a piece who can get to the net, create havoc, and provide secondary offense?
Cody Glass has enjoyed a career year in terms of goal scoring. Is it sustainable, or is he a late bloomer. Do the Devils consider signing him to a contract extension? He’ll be eligible for one on July 1st.
Maxim Tsyplakov has a year to go on his contract. At $2.25M AAV, he’s a bit expensive for a fourth line role and has been a healthy scratch of late. Do the Devils buy him out at the end of the season and give themselves a little more flexibility with the salary cap?
What do the next contracts for Arseny Gritsyuk, Paul Cotter, and Simon Nemec look like?
Does the next regime try to find a way out of the Jacob Markstrom business? Markstrom has a 20-team no-trade list when his new contract kicks in to start next season, although one could argue with how poorly he played this season, the contract itself is a full no-trade clause.
Will the incoming regime trust the Devils amateur scouting department when it comes to their opinions of what the Devils should do with their 2026 first round pick? Or will they have their own ideas of who the Devils should take and overhaul that department once draft season is over?
Final Thoughts
I don’t view the Devils as a hopeless situation going forward.
That’s not to say that Fitzgerald didn’t do some significant damage with some of the moves he made. There have been some bad moves. Let’s be clear about that. But there’s also a lot of good that Fitzgerald did. The Jack Hughes contract. Trading for Jonas Siegenthaler. Signing Connor Brown. Getting Jesper Bratt signed. And at the end of the day, we’re talking about a hockey team that’s going to win over half their games and finish with close to 90 points. This isn’t a situation where there’s seemingly no path forward. It’s one where they’re not that far away.
The framework is in place for the Devils to be a really good hockey team. They just need a clear vision of what they want to be going forward and people at the top who know how to get them there. Fitzgerald’s ultimate failure was his inability to build upon the groundwork that was laid out.
I don’t know what direction the Devils will go in in terms of reshaping this group. I do know that what the Devils had in place had gotten stale and was in need of a shakeup. I do know that I’m excited about the possibilities of a new regime coming in….not because I take joy in the people in place already losing their jobs, but because I think the Devils can do so much better than what we’ve gotten.
But it ultimately starts with these key hires. Once the POHO and GM are in place, there’s no shortage of items that need to be addressed almost immediately.
