Good evening, everyone. Per the New Jersey Devils, Managing Partner David Blitzer announced that General Manager Tom Fitzgerald and the organization have parted ways. Per Pierre LeBrun, Fitzgerald had one year left on his contract.

Note: The following reaction was updated at 9:19 PM EDT.

Needless to say, not a lot of New Jersey Devils fans were expecting this type of move today. The general feeling seemed to be that ownership in New Jersey lacks proactivity and would be late to the General Manager search party if they chose to fire Tom Fitzgerald in the offseason. However, things have already been moving around the league. Nashville has been seeking a new GM since Barry Trotz announced his retirement earlier this season. Toronto fired Brad Treliving and has been linked to analytic darling Sunny Mehta. Chris Johnston of The Athletic reported the same on Mehta late last week among other potential candidates.

For the New Jersey Devils, two names are very familiar there in Mehta and Tyler Dellow. Dellow, who was hired as Assistant General Manager of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2024, was first hired as Vice President of Analytics in the Devils organization in 2019. Sunny Mehta was an analyst for the New Jersey Devils from 2014 to 2018, and was later hired by the Florida Panthers before being elevated to an Assistant General Manager and Director of Analytics role in 2023. Mehta, a New Jersey native, should be oft-named in rumors on who the Devils are targeting.

But how did we get here? The New Jersey Devils achieved a franchise record-setting season under Tom Fitzgerald in 2022-23, just a few years into his tenure as GM. For Fitzgerald, things were looking up then, like he might achieve a dynasty in New Jersey in a similar realm to the one led by Lou Lamoriello in the 1990s and early 2000s. But when the Hurricanes knocked the then-very young Devils team out in 2023, Fitzgerald lost his sense of direction. A fast and offensive Devils team turned older and slower as he focused too much on finding players who can play an opposite game to that played by Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Jesper Bratt rather than finding more players who can keep up with them. The result has been three seasons of frustrating, inconsistent hockey.

Many, like myself, hoped that consistency would be achieved under a new head coach in Sheldon Keefe, who brought a few short years of regular season excellence from Toronto in addition to a longer track record in the AHL. If the Devils caught one of the best final years of Lindy Ruff, one of the winningest coaches in NHL history, they hoped to get Keefe in his prime. But this season, the Devils’ style of play has been baffling at times, seeming to reject their biggest strengths until after the Olympic break, when the team was already near elimination. Since embracing the rush game again, with a lower cycle in the offensive zone, the Devils have been scoring nearly four goals per game (over four since March 1).

But other issues plagued Tom Fitzgerald this season, and he would not be able to pin them on Sheldon Keefe. He signed Jacob Markstrom to a two-year, $12 million contract extension on October 31, choosing to lock up the 36-year old goaltender well in advance of free agency while committing to a higher team cap hit than the one that the Devils are currently on the hook for (which was partially retained by Calgary). Markstrom’s performance this season, a 23-18-1 record with an .885 save percentage, should have raised red flags on Fitzgerald’s decision making.

Other issues in Fitzgerald’s cap management and drafting history also led to the team falling flat in the Quinn Hughes trade sweepstakes. Quinn ended up being traded from Vancouver to Minnesota in a package revolving around Marco Rossi and Zeev Buium, who were both passed on by Fitzgerald for Alexander Holtz and Anton Silayev, respectively. But even then, the Devils were in a questionable situation with the salary cap, and their inability to move money at that time may have prevented them from making the move just as much as Fitzgerald’s drafting did. Now, the Devils have been rumored to be considering a split of the General Manager and President of Hockey Operations positions, perhaps due to Fitzgerald’s wide-ranging control over the direction of the franchise leading up to now.

Many would argue that Tom Fitzgerald left the team in a better position than when he took over as General Manager. I am not sure I would venture to credit him that much. He made a lot of good moves, but a lot of his biggest acquisitions were top draft picks. How much can I credit him for Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec picks, especially when I do not believe either have had the cleanest developmental paths? What free agent signings can I really credit him for? I can credit him for Brett Pesce and Connor Brown. I hesitate to credit him for Dougie Hamilton on the basis of the drama (which was very distracting and another possible nail in his coffin) that occurred earlier this season. The Ondrej Palat signing, which was a panic move after Johnny Gaudreau signed in Columbus, hampered the team for years.

More often, Fitzgerald has been pretty good in the trade market. He got Jonas Siegenthaler in 2021, Timo Meier in 2023, Jake Allen in 2024, and Cody Glass in 2025 (but almost forgot to re-sign him). But there have been blunders. He gave up too much for Brian Dumoulin last season, which has contributed to a now near-barren prospect pool. He might have made a fair deal for Markstrom (a possible overpay), but he anchored himself to that trade with the premature extension. He sold low on Pavel Zacha in 2022, which reverberates now as Zacha has turned into a 60-point center and the player the Devils got for Zacha is now finishing up his contract in Nashville.

In all, it’s been a mixed bag, but the best forwards of the New Jersey Devils today are the products of the team Ray Shero built. Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Jack Hughes, and Arseny Gritsyuk were all Shero draft picks. Fitzgerald is responsible for the entire defense. Of the top six forwards, Fitzgerald only brought in Meier, Mercer, and Brown. It’s not like Fitzgerald did not have a chance to make other long-term adds there. He traded another late-round Shero pick in Yegor Sharangovich to Calgary for Tyler Toffoli, only to dump Toffoli for mid-round picks before the 2024 Trade Deadline. Just as much as he had faults with goaltending and being ready to trade for Quinn Hughes, Fitzgerald struggled to assemble a solid forward lineup.

Now, I can only hope that Fitzgerald’s lackeys are on their way out with him. Senior Advisor Chuck Fletcher should be out the door tomorrow. I would not mind seeing Dan MacKinnon, who had a hand in Utica’s struggles this season, following. I would be displeased if it seemed like the job was being handed to someone internally. What have Martin Brodeur or Kate Madigan done to show their decision-making has helped the New Jersey Devils? Beyond them, the Devils should be taking hard looks at their scouting direction, led by Mark Dennehy, Paul Castron, and Scott Lachance. They should also be critical of player development, led by Meghan Duggan, after a year that saw almost everyone in Utica experience declines in production.

It’s entirely possible that Tom Fitzgerald was hanging over everyone’s heads too much, making it difficult for people to do their jobs well. But it is more likely that he was not the only person in the organization who was doing less than he could. It’s not like Fitzgerald failed to ever show that he was capable of a good move. He’s made good moves in abstract this season. His problem was always holding onto his favorite things for too long, and now the bill has come due. When the Devils do make a new hire at the General Manager position, I hope they are unflinchingly aggressive in figuring out where things went wrong from top to bottom in the organization.

What did you think of the team’s decision to part ways with Tom Fitzgerald? Were you surprised? What do you think of their options moving forward? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.