Over the past few seasons with Ray Shero at the helm of the New Jersey Devils, he’s had Tom Fitzgerald by his side. On Saturday, we learned his right-hand man is getting a promotion. Elliotte Friedman announced that Fitzgerald will now be the executive vice president and the assistant GM. Also, Dan MacKinnon was promoted to senior vice president.
You maybe asking yourself right now what do these promotions mean? As Amanda Stein of the NJ Devils wrote in her article:
"“All matters related to hockey operations, including contract negotiations, transactions and working with the Devils Development staff.”"
To break this down, Amanda is saying that Tommy Fitzgerald is the one responsible for directly helping Ray Shero. Fitzgerald will be directly involved in basically all major decisions with the Devils. Let’s say the Devils are working out an extension for Nico Hischier, Fitzgerald is there to put a second set of eyes on everything..
Dan MacKinnon was the Senior Director of Personnel for the past few seasons. According to Amanda Stein, MacKinnon will oversee all areas of the teams pro scouting department as well as assisting the amateur scouting staff. He will also assist in player evaluation, acquisition and the preparation for the NHL Draft. He’s also going to have an important role in building the new analytical department.
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What does this mean for Dan MacKinnon in this role? This means MacKinnon will be responsible for the pro scouts that are hired to scout players, and possibly acquire them in the future. Also this will provide the Devils intel on what players could be steals via trades, signings, drafting, and waiver pickups. The Devils already hired Tyler Dellow late last season in order to control the analytics side of things. Dellow basically is the money puck analytics guy to MacKinnon.
The next part of the equation is that Dan MacKinnon will assist Devils Director of Amateur Scouting, Paul Castron, in over seeing what the Devils amateur scouts reports on each player. Each and every scouting report and evaluation is down to such precise detail to make the best picks in the NHL Draft. From what has occurred over the years, Ray Shero made a lot of great improvements, and has been able to promote from within.
Promoting two great employees within allows two more hirings to take Dan and Tom’s old spots. The past few summers, it always seemed teams like Minnesota and Carolina tried to pry Fitzgerald as a new GM. When the time comes for when Ray Shero needs a successor, it’s a good problem to have Tommy Fitzgerald and Dan MacKinnon there to keep the philosophy of “fast, attacking, supportive, and self starters” within this true organization that’s beginning to blossom.
It doesn’t appear Ray Shero is stepping down anytime soon, especially after how managing partner and team owner Joshua Harris have Shero a contract extension. Plus with the acquisitions this offseason and the way the youthful talent, and veteran talent is built with younger veterans this seems to be a playoff roster.
It’s clear this was the right move to make, keeping two major assets inside the building and away from other teams.