New Jersey Devils: Tom Fitzgerald Move Could Lead To Something Bigger
The New Jersey Devils announced that assistant general manager Tom Fitzgerald is leaving the bench. This might be bad news for current head coach John Hynes.
The New Jersey Devils made the interesting decision to put assistant manager Tom Fitzgerald as one of John Hynes assistant coaches back on October 16th. When it happened, Hynes said he was the one who came up with the idea. This was a strange decision back then, but Monday’s decision seems even stranger.
The Devils announced that Fitzgerald would be returning to his role as assistant GM, as well as Binghamton’s GM, and his time behind the bench would end. One might think that Fitzgerald wasn’t going to leave the bench until things evened out, but after losing two of the past three games, this isn’t exactly “mission accomplished”. Now, the Devils are 8-6-2 with Fitzgerald behind the bench, which is much better than how they started.
Seeing Fitzgerald move back to the front office tells us that there could be something bigger in the works here. Is Ray Shero thinking about making a major trade, and he needs his right-hand man there through the process? This could be something as big as a Taylor Hall trade or something as small as deciding how to move forward with Cory Schneider.
Shero knows there’s a lot going on with this team, and he needs all hands on deck in the front office. Fitzgerald is an extremely valuable asset for his maneuverability. He’s an even bigger asset for his vision. Shero has to want that, and the needs of the coaching staff have to fall on Hynes.
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Does this move actually spell bad news for Hynes? Shero could be calling Fitzgerald back if he’s telling the head coach he’s on his last straw. With how the season has started, that wouldn’t be terribly surprising.
Either way, we can’t imagine this is nothing. The Devils just made a major decision on a Monday morning, and it has to have implications for the future. This team needs as many eyes as possible on the on-ice product. Taking one of the best ones away shows there’s a bigger plan in place. Only time will tell what that plan is.