New Jersey Devils: 5 Players Tom Fitzgerald Luckily Avoided

There are always rumors tied to the New Jersey Devils. Tom Fitzgerald is always in on the big name. However, there are some moves many thought he would make, or even some he almost made, that ended up being a disaster avoided.

Things have been a little rough to start the season for the New Jersey Devils. Saturday’s loss to the New York Rangers was the icing on the cake of the first 20% of the season. It has gone bad, but looking at some of the “what ifs” of the Tom Fitzgerald era, it could have gone so much worse. Due to the Devils seemingly endless amount of cap space (which is gone now) and their top prospect pool, the Devils have been tied to many of the top names in the game.

While some have been pipe dreams (William Nylander and Mitch Marner highest among them), others seemed like they were right on track. Many factors changed history. Sometimes the Devils were never actually interested, reporters were just trying to connect the dots. Other times, the Devils went for it, but the player was just not interested in New Jersey.

In both cases, the Devils were lucky said player ended up somewhere else. For every Artemi Panarin and Dougie Hamilton deal that works as expected, there’s the Jeff Skinner who becomes an anchor to the cap when it’s time to pay the stars. Which players especially come to mind as the good kind of miss?

Honorable Mention: Taylor Hall

This wasn’t Fitzgerald, so we put this in honorable mention, but the Devils were literally saved by the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Then-GM Ray Shero would have given Taylor Hall a blank check after he won the MVP in 2018. The Devils were likely looking at a salary in the $11 million range. Instead, Hall went into the next season with a weaker team expecting better results. He got hurt, and the Devils did not negotiate an extension the next offseason as he recovered.

The Devils put their chips on the table the next season, drafting Jack Hughes, signing Wayne Simmonds, and trading for P.K. Subban and Nikita Gusev. None of it worked in 2019, so the Devils traded Hall to the Arizona Coyotes. If the Devils signed Hall in that MVP season, he’d still have three years left on the deal after this season. Clearly, Hall is nowhere near that player anymore, and he’s about in the proper price range ($6 million).

Johnny Gaudreau

Last offseason, the Devils felt like a near certainty to sign former Calgary Flames sniper Johnny Gaudreau. He was coming off a 115-point season. His production would be perfect next to Jack Hughes, although that would make Hughes’ line very small. Still, it’s well known that the Devils were 100 percent in on Gaudreau, but he signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets instead.

The Devils immediately went and gave a $6 million-per-season contract to former Lightning forward Ondrej Palat. That was clearly a reaction to Gaudreau’s decision, and that contract is probably the worst on the team right now. However, Palat and Gaudreau have the same amount of points this season despite Johnny Hockey playing three more games.

The Blue Jackets have been terrible both seasons that Gaudreau has been there. Two coaches have been fired, including the preposterous decision to hire Mike Babcock. It’s been a mess in Ohio. Meanwhile, the Devils used that cap space to trade for and sign Timo Meier.

Clearly, the Devils got the better, and younger, player. Meier had a slow start and still has 11 points. Gaudreau has seven. The Devils avoided a disaster here. Gaudreau has always been a little inconsistent, but he’s always been a star. Now, we don’t know what this is. We’re just glad it’s not ours to deal with.

Jack Campbell

This one is obvious on multiple fronts. Many had the Devils going all in on the former Toronto Maple Leafs goalie in 2022. He was the best goalie on the market, coming off a few good seasons in the hot bed that was Toronto. However, it was always strange that the Maple Leafs seemed fine letting him go despite not having a replacement plan. It was even more bizarre when Matt Murray became a better option.

The Devils were tied to Campbell, but it became more and more clear it was a bad idea. Campbell had good numbers on the surface, but going deeper showed a player that was more lucky than good. That’s proven itself basically the second he signed his contract with the Edmonton Oilers.

Campbell has been so bad in Edmonton that he’s not even there anymore. He was put on waivers and sent to Bakersfield of the AHL. He’s been bad there, too.

The Devils goalie situation isn’t any better than Edmonton’s, but at least they don’t have to navigate $5 million for a terrible player for three years after this one. Vitek Vanecek was the player the Devils took instead of Campbell, and he’s been fine for the most part. He could be better, but it was clearly a much better move than signing Campbell.

Torey Krug

Many thought Tom Fitzgerald would make a big splash in the summer/fall of 2020. He was just officially hired for the job after the front office did an extensive search to see if there was someone better (there clearly wasn’t). He just surprised many by hiring Lindy Ruff as head coach despite interviewing Gerald Gallant and Peter Laviolette. The thought was he’d make a desperate move to fix this defense, and this was the year to make a splash in free agency.

Alex Pietrangelo was the clear top guy, but he was unrealistic for a still-rebuilding Devils team. Behind him was Torey Krug, Kevin Shattenkirk, T.J. Brodie, and Chris Tanev. The Devils instead signed Sami Vatanen. The big signing was Corey Crawford, who decided to retire instead of play one second on this team.

Krug made the most sense of that group if the Devils wanted to make a splash. He had a ton of value, and the Devils needed a left-handed defenseman to pair with Subban and Damon Severson.

However, Krug has been pretty bad since signing to be Pietrangelo’s replacement. He had 40+ points in six-straight seasons with the Bruins before signing. He hasn’t had that once in St. Louis in four years. The Devils avoided a major issue here.

Miles Wood

This one is a little different than the rest. The Devils could have re-signed Miles Wood at any time, but they elected to let him hit unrestricted free agency, and the Colorado Avalanche gave him a six-year deal. The Avs are trying to hit home runs in free agency, signing players to term in exchange for lower AAV. Well, the Devils never had interest in signing Wood for six years. Every Devils fan knows why.

Wood played well when the Devils came to Colorado earlier this month, and he’s done a lot for this team so far. He’s been on the penalty kill, something he wasn’t trusted to do in New Jersey. The Avalanche have different priorities. The Devils really have no interest to pay Wood for six years based on what they’ve seen from him. His inconsistencies are maddening.

The Devils likely didn’t even “avoid” this deal like the others. They weren’t lucky to have Wood choose another franchise. The Devils likely made that decision for him.

Nobody is saying the Devils have made all the right decisions, but Tom Fitzgerald’s patience and stubbornness has worked out in his favor time and time again. For every Andreas Johnsson, there’s John Marino. Every Corey Crawford comes with a Timo Meier. The losses are small and the wins are big. Hopefully, that comes to fruition on the ice this season.