New Jersey Devils: 3 Biggest Decisions Of Offseason For Tom Fitzgerald
Now that the offseason is almost here for the New Jersey Devils, TomFitzgerald must make these three big decisions to make the team better.
The 2021-22 New Jersey Devils season is nearing the end with another lost season. But now it’s time for the Devils to make important decisions and improve during the long offseason. While this road isn’t new for the Devils, this must be the year where they can figure out the right way to get out of their rebuild. There will be a lot of decisions that Tom Fitzgerald will have to make, and these decisions will reflect on the three key issues they had to suffer this season.
Decision #1: Resign Jesper Bratt
It’s obvious right now that the only player mentioned around the league from the Devils is Jack Hughes. However, people usually don’t talk about another elite player that the Devils have. Jesper Bratt has been here for five seasons, starting from the 2017-18 season.
People saw Bratt as an above-average player who usually had a 30-point season during those past seasons. But this year especially was a breakout year for Jesper Bratt. Scoring 25 goals and 45 assists so far, this had been the best season for Bratt. In fact, because of Bratt, the Devils had never seen a season where a player had over 40 assists since Taylor Hall in the 2017-18 season. Whenever he was put on a line, especially with Jack Hughes on his wing, Bratt always played with a ton of energy to make his presence well known.
With Bratt’s final season of an RFA coming to an end, we must wonder if Tom Fitzgerald will try to extend Jesper Bratt. Earlier in the year, we saw that Jack Hughes impressed Fitzgerald so much that he got an eight-year extension with the team.
While Bratt may not be on the same elite level as Hughes, Bratt was still impressive enough that most people want him to stay. Jesper Bratt is such an elite and underrated talent. If Fitzgerald intends to start the offseason right, he will listen to Bratt’s agent to offer whatever contract he can to get Bratt to stay. However, how much money will get offered will be up to Bratt, signing him is one of the biggest decisions that Fitzgerald cannot mess up.
2nd of 3 Decisions: Find Any Way to Get Good Goaltending
One expectation coming into the season everyone agreed on was that Mackenzie Blackwood would continue his excellence. Then, Blackwood suffered a heel injury before the season, and things never really got going.
Unfortunately, they lost goalie Jonathan Bernier due to injury as well. With both gone for a while, the Devils had to use Utica goalie Nico Daws for most of the year. While Daws did have a lot of great games and certainly has potential, he still has some goaltending issues he needs to work out.
When the Devils tried to put Jon Gillies in games, it ended in total disaster, and he had to get taken out several times. The Devils decided to pick up Andrew Hammond during the NHL Trade Deadline in March. Hammond indeed has shown he wants to help them win, but his talent from Ottawa isn’t there anymore. However, Hammond did help the Devils put a dagger in the Vegas Golden Knights’ playoff chances, so that’s something to make someone smile.
How will Fitzgerald address the goalie situations during the offseason? There are a couple of ways that Fitzgerald could get another goaltender to add to the staff. First, if they want to add a UFA goalie, they could focus on younger additions to the team to try and build confidence. UFA goalies they could investigate are Vitek Vanecek, Ville Husso, Joonas Korpisalo, and Phillipe Desrosiers. Another way the Devils can decide on how to fix the goaltending is by doing it through the draft.
The two goaltenders who are getting projected to be the best goalies in the draft are Tyler Brennan and Topias Leinonen. These goalies are looking to be around in the 3rd or 4th round. Since the Devils have at least one 3rd rounder and 4th rounder, they should use those picks to decide on either goalie. It would be nice to see Blackwood back to form again next year, but making these decisions should provide Blackwood some backup if this happens again.
Decision #3: Find a Great Coaching Staff
here is the most significant decision Fitzgerald must make during the offseason. Lindy Ruff has been with the Devils for almost two whole years. The team hasn’t changed itself and is now at the bottom of the league. While it’s not just Ruff’s fault, this is happening, and it’s clear that whatever coaching style he is attempting doesn’t work. In the past couple of months, Ruff’s undoubtedly made a lot of coaching errors. One big one was not deciding to call a timeout earlier in the Florida Panthers game when the Panthers started to come back. Ruff isn’t the only person on the coaching staff who must go. Mark Recchi and Alain Nassreddine both also need to be let go.
Hiring Recchi may have been a good idea on paper to improve the powerplay, but the powerplay has been the worst powerplay we’ve seen in recent years. It feels like the Devils have given up more shorthanded goals than scoring on the powerplay with Recchi there. While Jack Hughes not being there is an issue, it’s still on Recchi to change it so it can still work, and it’s just not there. Alain Nassreddine is also a coach who needs to be let go and has been around for a while. Nassreddine’s work on the penalty kill is also inconsistent at times, and while he is not as bad as Recchi, he still needs to go.
Where do the Devils go from here on in the coaching staff? If Fitzgerald wants to make a good decision on the coaching staff, he should call up Kevin Dineen and his staff from Utica to coach here. Former Devils legend Sergei Brylin is on that staff and has made their powerplay the 2nd best in the Eastern Conference and the 5th best powerplay in the AHL. Having that kind of powerplay would be excellent for the team.
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Ryan Parent would also be a good assistant coach for the team as he has also had success in Utica. If the Devils decide not to go this route, there are other coaches they could try and bring in. One important name that fans want is coach Rikard Grönberg who is currently with the ZSC Lions in Switzerland. Gronberg is undoubtedly a good idea for an NHL coach who can help change the way this roster can produce since it’s such at a young age. While there are other coaches out there, these are possibly the best options for Fitzgerald to get. Hopefully, one of these coaches will be what Fitzgerald decides during the offseason.