{"id":385588,"date":"2026-01-01T23:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T23:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/385588\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T23:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T23:07:11","slug":"what-experts-say-about-tom-fitzgeralds-devils-gm-tenure-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/385588\/","title":{"rendered":"What Experts Say About Tom Fitzgerald’s Devils GM Tenure"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Jersey Devils<\/a> finally ended their four-game skid on Wednesday. However, fans have been calling for Tom Fitzgerald\u2019s job, as a result of an underwhelming season. Yet, what does a former NHL executive think of his body of work as Devils GM?<\/p>\n

Former Florida Panthers assistant GM Steve Werier joined the latest Devils Rink Report<\/a> and offered a measured, positive assessment of Tom Fitzgerald\u2019s tenure as New Jersey\u2019s general manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t speak to what other people think about him. I think different people have different views of everyone,\u201d Werier began. \u201cTom, I think as a person, is very well liked, and exceptionally well-connected. He\u2019s one of those guys\u2014if you do like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, you get two degrees of Tom Fitzgerald, and he probably can get to everyone past, present, and future in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

That network, Werier noted, is a real asset. It\u2019s what has netted him previous key players such as Timo Meier<\/a> and Jacob Markstrom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich is a good attribute, honestly, to be running an NHL team, to be able to have those relationships ingrained, and be able to pick up the phone and sort of get anyone to answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Werier\u2019s perspective, the on-ice results have followed in the grand scheme of things.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Devils have been relatively successful in the last few years, right? Sort of perennially a playoff team, a team that most would have thought could contend most years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Werier also praised Fitzgerald\u2019s staffing choices.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re looking at whom a person surrounds themselves with, which I think is a good barometer for an executive in anything, whether it\u2019s business or hockey\u2026 Tom surrounded himself with pretty smart folks, you know, on the cap side, and he\u2019s had Matt Cane with him for a number of years. And I think Matt and Tyler Dellow, who\u2019s now with Carolina, were both with Tom in New Jersey for a while, and those are sharp guys who have done well.\u201d<\/p>\n

This season\u2019s struggles, Werier argued, need context. Jack Hughes<\/a>\u2018 injury, plus the plethora of others, is a factor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a strange year. You got a lot of teams who are in surprising spots, good or bad, and we\u2019ll see how it shakes out\u2026 People love to say no excuses, but when you know your franchise player misses 20, 30, 40 games and then has to come back and recover\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

He drew from his own experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2016, we had Jonathan Huberdeau tore his Achilles in a preseason game against the Devils while I was sitting with Fitzgerald and Ray Shero. And then Sasha Barkov missed 50 games on top of that, and we sort of had to throw our hands up in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Hughes now back from injury, Werier sees reason for optimism.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Devils are a deep team, and Jack Hughes is back\u2026 So we\u2019ll see how they do with a healthy roster.\u201d<\/p>\n

The four-game lull was perhaps bigger than Hughes. We\u2019ll see what the Devils do now that they\u2019ve shown a small sign of life. If things go south from here, perhaps it\u2019s a personnel issue. That\u2019s on the guy who built the team.<\/p>\n

But, for now, his final verdict:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say most people would say Fitzgerald has done a fairly decent job over the years relative to others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Werier\u2019s take: Fitzgerald\u2019s relationships, staff, and track record earn him solid marks\u2014with health, not construction, the biggest variable moving forward.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tJames is the New Jersey Devils beat reporter for New Jersey Hockey Now on Sportsnaut and the PHWAs New … More about James Nichols<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Jersey Devils finally ended their four-game skid on Wednesday. However, fans have been calling for Tom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[377],"tags":[201,3723,5,1272,151,3502],"class_list":{"0":"post-385588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-devils","9":"tag-devils-news","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-jack-hughes","12":"tag-new-jersey-devils","13":"tag-tom-fitzgerald"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115822359074319193","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}