Philadelphia Flyers Speaking With Wrong New Jersey Devils Executive
By Nick Villano
The New Jersey Devils gave permission to the Philadelphia Flyers to speak with executive Chuck Fletcher. They should be trying to hire assistant GM Tom Fitzgerald.
Listen, I’m not one to give advice to our rivals. Usually we let them make their own mistakes, but this one seems a little too obvious. The Philadelphia Flyers asked the New Jersey Devils to speak to executive Chuck Fletcher, who immediately becomes the front-runner to get the job.
The Flyers fired Ron Hextall a few days ago, and spent little time waiting to find his replacement. Unsurprisingly, the Devils gave the Flyers permission to speak with Fletcher for the open position. That’s likely because the Flyers picked the wrong executive.
Tom Fitzgerald is the man that would be perfect for the Flyers GM job. He’s been oh so close to a few jobs, being the other candidate for the Minnesota Wild GM job that went to Paul Fenton. He was interviewed for the New York Islanders and Carolina Hurricanes.
Fitzgerald has been an assistant GM for 10 years. He’s more than paid his dues under Ray Shero. It’s time for him to get a GM job. However, I am more than happy keeping him from our rivals.
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Chuck Fletcher is a fine candidate. He came to the Devils to work under Shero while looking for the next GM job. He’s got a great resume that includes nine years as the GM of the Minnesota Wild. In fact, he was the general manager that took Zach Parise away from the Devils.
He’s the safe choice you could say. He came to the Devils in a senior adviser role, and was always going to move on sooner rather than later.
The Devils are lucky that they get to keep Fitzgerald in house for now. The Flyers will likely hire Fletcher, who wasn’t extremely important to the Devils. In fact, I bet most fans didn’t even know he came to work for Jersey’s Team.
Fitzgerald will eventually get a GM job. It’s just good to know that he isn’t going to a major rival.