Enough is enough! Whether it’s injuries, poor goaltending or lack of contribution from depth players, the Devils continue to find ways to leave points on the table. It’s been a vicious, repetitious cycle of the aforementioned under the guise of General Manager Tom Fitzgerald for the past three seasons. While I’ve defended Fitzgerald’s patience for quite some time, said patience must be over. After failing to score more than one single goal last night and  having mustered just two or less in the past five games, this team is telling management it needs help.  

Dougie Hamilton is a problem and needs to be moved. It seems pretty evident as more and more reports surface, that the big D-man is the reason Quinn Hughes was not here for training camp, and again not attainable in late November/Early December. Hamilton’s $9m cap hit, paired with his atrocious defensive play, lack of scoring, inability to handle pucks, and his modified no-trade clause, it becomes a tough piece to move. However it must be done. Attach a prospect or a pick if necessary as this is a rare situation of addition by subtraction that would benefit the Devils immensely.Ondrej Palat is the next obvious whipping boy. Palat, with a similar 10 team NMC to Hamilton’s is clogging up $6m of cap space. If Palat is being truthful in saying GMTF has not asked him about waiving such clause, that really makes me question what exactly Fitzgerald is doing. It’s far too often that Palat, with 2 goals and 7 assists, finds himself playing top six minutes and or power play time. Despite playing a bit better of late, it won’t last. Palat is an anchor, holding this team back from the progression that is expected.The goaltending although very good of late, is way too inconsistent. Even last night where Markstrom had a solid game, he made one blunder that essentially doomed NJ. With no goal support coming, Marky must find a way to limit those types of mistakes. Of course, both Devils goaltenders have the patented Tom Fitzgerald NMC tied into their contracts as well.There are too many passengers yet again. Flushing out guys like Nate Bastian and Curtis Lazar was a good bottom six purge by NJ. However, many of the guys taking their place have been as bad or worse. Glendenning, Lammikko, and even Stefan Noesen has been underwhelming. In 37 games played Luke Glendennig has 0 goals. While we weren’t expecting 20+, maybe having 2-3 goals by this time has the Devils with 2-3 more wins, or at least points in the standings.Jesper Bratt has one goal in his last 23 games played…Nico Hischier has no goals in his last 11(kind of gets a pass becuase he does keep other teams top players in check), Dawson Mercer has 0 goals in his last 12… These are three of what should be your top 6-7 scorers in massive droughts. Bratt is not himself, while his legs showed up last night its evident he just cant find twine. Mercer hasn’t even had any scoring chances that I can recall during this stretch. Unacceptable…It’s never a good time to force a trade, but FItzgerald really has to consider. He cannot continue to cherish his current rostered players and should explore all options outside of Hischier, Jack, Luke, and Meier. Every single other player should be on the table..

It’s getting tiresome, writing about the same problems for over a year now. Will Fitzy step up and change the narrative…only time will tell..

I’m so frustrated that I almost forgot…

Happy Holidays to all of you! Appreciate the support more than you can imagine!