James Nichols
New Jeresy Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald is on the hot seat and he knows it. However, as the day’s go on, the sentiment that he isn’t going anywhere grows. However, that doesn’t mean someone new won’t come in.
The Devils have massively underperformed this season despite their recent record—winning 10 games in their last 14 contests.
It’sm unfortunately, too little, too late, with their playoff probabilities sitting at an unlikely 0.2%.
At this point, fans have called for Fitzgerald to lose his job for months. Despite knowing his seat is on the burner, Fitzgerald explained he’s moving forward looking to add.
A few weeks back, ESPN reporter Emily Kaplan said she could see the Devils GM remaining, but instead of having two titles, he could be stripped of one.
“New Jersey, we’re all kind of curious what that looks like,” Kaplan said via The Flying V podcast. “Do they make a management change? I could see it going either way.
“I could see them maybe trying to just bring in somebody above Fitzgerald, below him, some more support. Maybe they make a change there, but I know that Tom Fitzgerald’s plan is to continue to dangle some of these top defensemen that he has to get an impact forward.
“They’re a team that I’d really look at to make a hockey trade.”
More recently, Sportsnet insider Nick Kypreos echoed a similar sentiment:
“In New Jersey, Tom Fitzgerald holds the president of hockey operations and GM titles together, but some are wondering if the Devils’ ownership will look to break up those two jobs. That was their intention when they first offered the president job to John Davidson when he left the Rangers in 2021, but Davidson felt at the time it was too close to his ties to New York and chose to return to Columbus instead.
“It will be interesting to see if the Devils do look to hire someone solely for the president of hockey operations title this summer, and whether that would allow Fitzgerald to stick around for at least one more season as GM and assess him from there. The feeling in New Jersey is that Fitzgerald is preparing for the worst, knowing he’s on the hot seat.”
It’s a precarious situation. You can clearly see the Devils are a team that, with the proper health, can be a top team in the NHL.
When Jack Hughes is healthy, the results follow.
Despite the desire from fans to see Fitzgerald walk out of the Prudential Center with his personal belongings in a box, there’s a reality where he and head coach Sheldon Keefe get one more crack in 2026-27.
With nine games remaining on the regular season schedule, we could get answers sooner than later.
