New Jersey Devils Reminded Of Tom Fitzgerald’s Success After Marc Bergevin Firing

The Montreal Canadiens are making major changes up top, firing Marc Bergevin as general manager. He’s made some terrible decisions as GM, but many thought his run to the Stanley Cup Final last season would be enough to keep him in the role. Then, he made a few moves in the offseason that just showed the Canadiens were lucky to get where they got.

Bergevin was fired on Sunday. The Canadiens announced the move, and there were think pieces on it from every major publication. ESPN’s Kristen Shilton wrote that the “feeling was the time had come” for the Canadiens to fire Bergevin. He made multiple moves that really put ownership and the rest of the team in a tough position.

The Canadiens cleaned house with Scott Mellanby resigning on Saturday night, and then assistant GM Trevor Timmins was fired alongside Bergevin. It reminds us of January 2020 when the New Jersey Devils were forced to fire GM Ray Shero. The Devils ownership gave most of the power to Shero at the time, but when he finally went “all in” to make this team a contender, it was a major mistake. The Devils fired Shero because he made a few major mistakes in the offseason of 2019. It’s similar to what the Canadiens did this past offseason.

At least Shero didn’t use his first-round draft pick to draft someone who paid a fine for committing a sexual crime. The kid asked to not be drafted, but Bergevin drafted him anyway. Then, the Canadiens learned they were losing both Carey Price and Shea Weber for an undetermined amount of time. He made no moves to replace either, and the Canadiens got off to the worst start in franchise history.

This all makes us appreciate Tom Fitzgerald even more. Fitz was able to make some really savvy moves while also drafting and acquiring a lot of really likable players. Dawson Mercer is one of the biggest fan favorites this season. Ryan Graves has been a treasure. Dougie Hamilton has been everything we hoped for. These were all great moves by Fitzgerald since he took over the job full time in the summer of 2020.

Having Fitzgerald at the helm shows the Devils are in good hands. Is he the guy who is going to make this team a Stanley Cup contender? It would appear the Devils have the right man for the job. One thing is sure, it doesn’t appear that the Devils have any need to look at the team’s management any time soon. There are teams across the league that would love to have someone like Fitzgerald at the helm.