New Jersey Devils can't let potential Tom Fitzgerald replacement go elsewhere

Once the dust settles on the 2025-26 season, the New Jersey Devils are going to have a host of options available to them when it comes to replacing former general manager Tom Fitzgerald, who amicably departed the organization on Monday.

One early frontrunner, though, is already reportedly being eyed up by the Toronto Maple Leafs, among other teams, and he has childhood and professional ties to the Devils. The organization needs to intervene.

Like the Devils, the Florida Panthers are eliminated from playoff contention, and Panthers assistant GM Sunny Mehta is someone whose name has gotten very popular in recent weeks.

Mehta, 48, began his NHL career with the Devils back in 2014-15 under Lou Lamoriello, serving as an analyst for the team until 2017-18. In 2021, the Panthers picked up Mehta, who reprised his role as an analyst of hockey strategy and intelligence. Mehta was promoted to assistant general manager and director of analytics in 2023-24 and subsequently helped Florida win the Stanley Cup in consecutive seasons.

The Grand Rapids, Mich., native spent time in New Jersey growing up, and with that, the Devils served as Mehta's introduction to hockey. He was hooked from there.

"There we were in New Jersey, I was seven or eight years old, when my dad was at work, [mom] needed something for us to do. She used to take us to the ice rink in Totowa, New Jersey, and this was the early 80s. Professional hockey in New Jersey was not that popular then," Mehta said in a resurfaced "Hockey Night in Canada" clip.

"In that ice facility, there were two rinks. One had the free skate, and then the other side, the New Jersey Devils practiced. I swear, I think at that time there were more people at the free skate than there were watching the Devils practice in 1982 or 83 or whenever this was. I used to sit there day after day and watch the Devils practice, and that was, I guess, the start of the love affair."

With all that said, and the Devils in need of a new president of hockey operations and a general manager, it would be foolish not to bring Mehta home after all the success he's had with the Panthers. The Devils have been heavily linked to former player and Hockey Hall of Famer Brendan Shanahan, who brought the analytics-minded Kyle Dubas into the NHL when he took over as Maple Leafs president back in 2014.

Dubas has since evolved into a full-time general manager, a president of hockey operations, and director of player personnel for Canada while turning the Pittsburgh Penguins around in only a few seasons. Who's to say Mehta can't do the same for the Devils?