{"id":554292,"date":"2026-04-17T05:13:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554292\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T05:13:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T05:13:38","slug":"devils-hire-new-general-manager-a-former-professional-poker-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554292\/","title":{"rendered":"Devils hire new general manager \u2014 a former professional poker player"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Florida<\/p>\n

Sunny Mehta and Bryan McCabe of the Florida Panthers celebrate their Stanley Cup victory in Game Seven of the 2024 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Amerant Bank Arena on June 24, 2024 in Sunrise, Florida.<\/p>\n

The Devils are going all in on their pick to lead the team\u2019s front office.<\/p>\n

The team announced Thursday that they hired Sunny Mehta to be their new general manager, with the 47-year-old expected to be formally introduced at the Prudential Center on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Mehta, who brings over a decade of NHL management experience, was previously a professional poker player, playing in high-stakes Texas hold \u2019em games in the 2000s, and has co-authored two books based on his experience, focusing on different game strategies.<\/p>\n

\"Sunny<\/p>\n

Sunny Mehta and Bryan McCabe of the Panthers celebrate their Stanley Cup victory in Game 7 of the 2024 NHL Stanley Cup Final at Amerant Bank Arena on June 24, 2024 in Sunrise, Fla. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Following his professional poker stint, Mehta, who was raised in Wyckoff, New Jersey, started his NHL front office career with the Devils, spending four seasons in New Jersey (2014-18) as the director of hockey analytics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a dream come true for a New Jersey kid, who grew up watching Devils\u2019 practices just 20 minutes away in Totowa,\u201d Mehta said in a statement released by the Devils<\/a>. \u201cAfter meeting with (co-owners) David Blitzer, Josh Harris, Bob Myers, and other members of the organization, I knew this was the place I wanted to be. Thank you to Vinnie Viola, Bill Zito and the entire Florida Panthers organization for a fantastic six years and for the opportunity to take the next step in my professional career.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Jersey has a tremendous young core that will be looking to get back to being a contender, a complement of young assets and draft picks, and a passionate fan base hungry for success. I was fortunate enough to watch the New Jersey Devils raise three Stanley Cups and am excited to get to work to return to that level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mehta spent the past six seasons as the Panthers\u2019 assistant general manager and director of analytics, helping them construct back-to-back Stanley Cup championship-winning teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thrilled to welcome Sunny and his wife, Nicole, back home to New Jersey,\u201d Blitzer said in a statement. \u201cWe quickly realized this job was in high demand and were incredibly fortunate to meet with many qualified candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cSunny\u2019s familiarity with our organization and experience with a two-time Stanley Cup-winning team are characteristics that will serve as a foundation for future success. Our expectations are to be a perennial playoff team and compete for the Stanley Cup, and I look forward to Sunny leading us there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Devils<\/p>\n

Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald talks about the hiring of new NHL hockey team head coach Sheldon Keefe (left) during a press conference on May 28, 2024, in Newark. AP<\/p>\n

This decision for the Devils comes just days after they fired general manager Tom Fitzgerald amid a disappointing season, which saw the team finish near the bottom of the Metropolitan division.<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald led New Jersey\u2019s front office since January 2020, and saw the team reach the playoffs twice during his tenure, including their first postseason series win in over a decade with a victory over the Rangers in the 2022-23 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter talking with David Blitzer, it was apparent to everyone that the best course of action is to move on for the benefit of the team,\u201d Fitzgerald said in a statement. \u201cI am incredibly appreciative to David, (co-owner) Josh Harris, and the entire New Jersey Devils organization for being a part of my life for the past decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Devils are fortunate to have a core of great players, vocal and passionate fans, but most importantly, tremendous people who worked with me toward a common goal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunny Mehta and Bryan McCabe of the Florida Panthers celebrate their Stanley Cup victory in Game Seven of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[62678,25449,62,57,5141,8960,5,25450,576,151,4,63,15719,12877,3502],"class_list":{"0":"post-554292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida-panthers","8":"tag-bryan-mccabe","9":"tag-david-blitzer","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-panthers","12":"tag-floridapanthers","13":"tag-front-office","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-josh-harris","16":"tag-new-jersey","17":"tag-new-jersey-devils","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-panthers","20":"tag-stanley-cup-victory","21":"tag-sunny-mehta","22":"tag-tom-fitzgerald"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116418347360058300","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554292","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=554292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}