The New Jersey Devils dominated the Minnesota Wild when the teams met at the Grand Casino Arena on Monday. The atmosphere was bound to be heavy and laced with unease: after all, the teams had met for the first time since the Devils tried, and failed, to acquire star defenseman Quinn Hughes.
Hughes had expressed his interest in playing with his brothers, Jack and Luke, in New Jersey. Consequently, the Devils were among the foremost teams to figure prominently in discussions surrounding the defenseman’s future. Despite it all, Tom Fitzgerald couldn’t get it done and has decided to speak up on the Devils’ unsuccessful move to acquire the former Canucks star.
New Jersey Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald Clarifies Position About Failed Quinn Hughes Stint
The Devils’ season has been thoroughly forgettable. The team had started on a high note, but things soon took a turn for the worse, and since then, the Devils have been at the receiving end of fiery social media discourse. Not long ago, Luke Hughes had to face relentless booing from the home crowd, compelling goaltender Jake Allen to rush to his defense.
Fitzgerald has had his own share of criticism to deal with, too. Things got worse for him after the Devils failed to acquire Quinn Hughes. It is only fair that he comes forward with a clarification. “I can’t speculate on what they got and what they wanted from us. I can’t comment on it,” the Devils GM said as reported by Peter Baugh of The Athletic. Clearly, Fitzgerald refused to spare a lot of time pondering what the Wild did to acquire Hughes that the Devils could not.
Meanwhile, the GM also stated that the Devils would have taken steps to clear the required cap space if things with the Canucks on the trade front had gotten that far. “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.”
Moreover, the time leading up to the trade took a toll on the locker room’s morale, with all the chatter. “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.”
The Devils’ failed attempt to land the elite defenseman had adverse repercussions for the team overall. Nonetheless, Fitzgerald admitted that, at the end of the day, much of the aftermath is inevitable in sports. “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.”
However, the Devils have regained some of their past agility with two wins, including one over the Minnesota Wild. It would have been nice to have Hughes, but the team has a lot of ground to cover, and the Devils have shown the hunger and drive to make a comeback recently.