The Nashville Predators and New Jersey Devils have been tied in more trade rumors than we can count. Between Juuse Saros, Ryan O’Reilly, Jonathan Marchessault, and Steven Stamkos, it took up hundreds of blog posts and dozens of hours of radio and online video shows. The Devils and Predators have always been tied because of Tom Fitzgerald’s history with the franchise.
That has led to some trades in the past. Of course, there was Tom Fitzgerald trading the Devils seventh-round pick to the Predators so that David Poile can make one last pick in Nashville at the 2023 NHL Draft. They traded them Erik Haula last offseason, giving the Preds center depth in a market that wasn’t exactly flush.
When Fitzgerald and the Devils parted ways, many expected him to take the first plane to Nashville and get that job. It felt like it was in the bag to many. However, we’re here, weeks later, and the Devils have moved on from Fitzgerald, but their former GM is still without a job.
We haven’t heard Fitzgerald’s name tied to the other open GM positions, including in Toronto and Vancouver. It’s possible he doesn’t want to leave the United States, but as they say, there are only 32 of these jobs available.
Tom Fitzgerald's name comes up for the Nashville Predators job
A new report says the belief is that Fitzgerald will get the Nashville job after all. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period said on the DFO Rundown that Nashville is “leaning” towards Fitzgerald.
Again, we’ve seen the Predators pull the rug from Fitzgerald too many times to believe them now.
Will it happen? The Devils should probably hope so. This way they can probably give him back some of those bad contracts he signed, like Johnny Kovacevic. No offense to him, but Fitzgerald made a bad move giving him that long-term deal. He’ll make more sense in Nashville, and he might waive his no-trade clause to play in a no-tax state.
Beyond that, we’ll see what happens. Fitzgerald was a long-time executive with the Devils, a guy who built a reputation for hockey IQ in Pittsburgh, and the Predators' first captain in franchise history. There's a legacy here he can build off of, but for some reason, he's still waiting on an answer for the job.
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