NEWARK — New Jersey Devils president and general manager Tom Fitzgerald started and ended his roundtable interview with reporters by stating the same message: “This is on me.”
The Devils are 23-21-2 and 13th in the Eastern Conference in both points and point percentage. They have a 24 percent chance to make the playoffs, per Dom Luszczyszyn’s model. The team’s 13-4-1 start feels like a long time ago. Injuries to Jack Hughes, Brett Pesce and multiple other contributors haven’t helped, and the team’s underlying numbers aren’t encouraging. New Jersey is below 50 percent in five-on-five expected goal share (48.6 percent, per Natural Stat Trick), and it has the worst goal differential (minus-20) in the East. The team entered the season hoping to build off a 2025 playoff berth, and Fitzgerald called the start to the season “absolutely not good enough.”
Asked about his job security, Fitzgerald said, “Life’s too short to worry about things like that,” and said he’s in constant communication with the ownership group.
“I’m very confident in where I’ve taken this team to and how we’ve built through the core and added the pieces we wanted to add to become a contender every year,” said Fitzgerald, who joined the Devils’ front office in 2015 and has been the GM since 2020. “The passion I have for New Jersey, the Devils, ownership and, more important, the fans — I love this. I love New Jersey.”
Fitzgerald also stressed his belief in the Devils’ core players, saying, “We’ve seen them at the top of their game, and we all like it.”
The Devils won a playoff series in 2023, knocking off the rival New York Rangers in seven games, but missed the playoffs the next season. They returned to the postseason in 2025, losing in a five-game first-round series against Carolina.
Fitzgerald said he and coach Sheldon Keefe, hired before 2024-25, are “in lockstep” and that the front office has faith in the rest of the coaching staff. Later in the morning, Keefe told reporters he’s enjoyed his time with Fitzgerald.
“The importance of that relationship between manager and coach, it really shows its value at times when it’s hardest,” the coach said. “That’s when you need to lean on it the most: to be able to find your way to the other side of it.”
During his roundtable, Fitzgerald took questions for 38 minutes and talked about his outlook on trades, the Devils’ Quinn Hughes pursuit, no-movement clauses and more.
Here are the biggest takeaways.
Still looking to add
Fitzgerald still views the playoffs as the goal for this season. It’s not out of the question, especially if the Devils can replicate their strong performance from Monday, when they won 5-2 in Minnesota. Fitzgerald wants to add in the short term — “I’m working the phones daily,” he said — but has found making moves difficult because so many teams are in the mix for playoff spots and haven’t committed to selling. In particular, the GM wants to bolster his forward group.
“The reality is there’s still plenty of runway for this group to come together and (it is) looking at me to help pull things together,” he said. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out: Where can we get better?”
The Devils have 36 games of runway, starting with a Wednesday matchup against Seattle. To get to 95 points — the pace of Pittsburgh, the No. 8 team in the East standings by point percentage — they will need to accumulate 47 points over the rest of the season. That would require a .652 point percentage, which would rank fourth in the league. It’s not impossible, but a turnaround will have to start promptly if it’s going to happen.
Fitzgerald also offered a thought on the league-wide trade landscape. He believes there could be a flurry of moves by general managers before the Olympic break, which begins Feb. 5.
The Quinn Hughes pursuit
The Devils made an offer for Hughes when Vancouver decided to trade the star defenseman, but their pursuit fell short. Hughes ultimately landed with the Wild.
“I can’t speculate on what they got and what they wanted from us,” Fitzgerald said when asked how close the Devils were to landing the defenseman, whose two younger brothers, Jack and Luke, are on New Jersey’s roster. “I can’t comment on it.”
Fitzgerald shot down the notion that no-movement clauses he gave to other players got in the way of making a deal. Asked directly, he said the team could have cleared the necessary cap space had a trade with Vancouver come together.
The Devils lost six of seven games before Vancouver’s deal with Minnesota, and Fitzgerald acknowledged that trade talk likely impacted players in the dressing room.
“It’s uncomfortable, especially with social media now. There’s no secrets. There’s no hiding,” he said. “I would have to say, of course, it affected people. … You live on pins and needles a little bit. That’s, I think, natural and human, but that’s the life of sports.”
Evaluating Markström — and his extension
Fitzgerald signed 35-year-old goalie Jacob Markström to a two-year, $12 million extension in October, and the goalie has had a difficult start to the season. He has an .879 save percentage and ranks 77th out of 82 goalies in goals saved above expected (minus-5.23), per Evolving-Hockey.
“He needs to be better, but I do believe that he can,” Fitzgerald said.
The GM pushed back on the notion that he rushed into the deal. He said the team intended to extend Markström from the day it acquired him from Calgary in 2024.
“Marky’d be the first to tell you about his ups and downs this year, but when you go back and evaluate him at that point (of the extension), you looked at his playoffs and how well he played in the Carolina series,” Fitzgerald said. “We don’t ask our goalies to be spectacular every game. Just give us a chance. And I just felt working with (goalie) Jake Allen, the tandem that they had gave us the best opportunity to win hockey games. And I still believe that.”
Dougie Hamilton situation
The Devils made veteran defenseman Hamilton a healthy scratch two games ago. In response, Hamilton’s agent J.P. Barry told The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, “In our view, this decision is all about business rather than his game right now. Singling him out seems very calculated at this stage. Dougie has a 10-team trade list, and there have been efforts to trade him going back to the draft last year.”
Fitzgerald said the decision to scratch Hamilton had nothing to do with anything other than putting the best lineup on the ice. He said Johnathan Kovacevic returning to the lineup meant someone had to sit, and the team wanted to keep Šimon Nemec in at that point.
“This was just a personnel decision and performance-based,” Fitzgerald said. “(Hamilton’s) agent and I have been in constant communication, so there’s no secrets.”
Fitzgerald called the glut of defensemen a good problem to have. After sitting one game, Hamilton returned to the lineup against Minnesota and had a pair of assists.
“I give Dougie a lot of credit,” his GM said. “He was a healthy scratch the other night for no other reason but his current play, and he played really well (the next game). He came back strong. I talked about the character of the person. Sheldon told him, ‘You have to be ready.’ And he was.”
On trade protection clauses
The Devils have 14 players with at least some form of trade protection. Most notably, veterans Hamilton and Ondřej Palát have 10-team trade lists and full no-movement clauses that prevent them from being waived. Both have struggled this season.
“These are two respected players,” Fitzgerald said. “They’re very respected in that locker room, and they will be treated with respect.”
As for his use of no-movement clauses, Fitzgerald called it part of doing business.
“It’s part of the decision-making on both sides,” he said. “When you do get (trade protection), you’re getting it from somewhere else. Maybe it’s a little less money. Maybe it’s a lower cap hit.”