Ryan Fitzgerald
New Team: Retirement
We guess this is kind of cheating, but there were a lot of players who are clearly leaving that don’t have a new team yet. We know Keith Kinkaid is leaving despite not being signed anywhere yet. Instead of that, we went with Ryan Fitzgerald. Yes, he is the same kin of Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald.
Ryan Fitzgerald signed a one-year deal with the Comets last offseason after spending the previous three seasons with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The 5-foot-9, 172-pound left-shot forward played just 22 games last season and finished the year with two points. It wasn’t the best effort by Fitzgerald, but he was facing an uphill battle.
This is a player who tried to make the most of his name value, but hopefully he can learn some from his father about hockey front offices. Fitzgerald was immediately hired as an amateur scout (ah, nepotism). He will take a career in hockey into another career in hockey. Hopefully, he has his father’s chops. We guess technically he didn't "leave," but he is no longer an acting NHL player.
Did you learn anything about the Devils roster, or did you jus re-remember a trade that made you sad? The Devils roster is basically together. They have some time to add PTOs or other low-level players to fill out training camp.