There has been a lot of change around the New Jersey Devils this offseason. The biggest change, of course, came at the top. Tom Fitzgerald is out, and Sunny Mehta is now running the show after coming over from the Florida Panthers organization. Devils fans could not be happier with the results, with the latest signing of Luke Evangelista and the hirings of Jessica Campbell and Bryan McCade having only helped the sentiment.
Since taking over, Mehta has wasted little time putting his own stamp on the hockey operations department. His very first moves involved cutting some of those in the front office he didn’t see with a future in New Jersey. Dan MacKinnon was let go as assistant general manager and eventually replaced by Braden Birch, who was also an executive with the Panthers.
Birch spent more than a decade with Florida and worked closely with Mehta during the Panthers' run to back-to-back Stanley Cups. His background in hockey operations and salary cap management gives the Devils another voice with a different perspective on roster construction.
Chuck Fletcher was also among those the Mehta regime did not retain after Fitzgerald's departure. It might not have been the most expected move in the organization.
Chuch Fletcher is not a hiring that will be celebrated across the league
Fletcher is a controversial figure around the NHL after mostly failed stints in Minnesota and Philadelphia. When he came to New Jersey, Devils fans were worried he would get another shot to lead a team if Fitzgerald were ever let go.
Fletcher spent the last two seasons as a senior advisor in New Jersey. He had previously held the same type of role with the Devils in 2018 before eventually becoming the general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Seattle Kraken have brought Fletcher aboard as a senior advisor to general manager Jason Botterill. Botterill is another general manager who is in the hot seat, so it appears that Fletcher’s best chance to get another chance in the big seat is to play the role of vulture.
Some will look at Seattle hiring him and wonder why another NHL organization wanted to add an executive so many are happy to say goodbye to. The Devils moved on as soon as they could.
This follows the trend of old general managers getting chance after chance.
What’s crazy is that himself didn’t get a job this offseason. Any job. Fletcher got the same job he had in New Jersey on the West Coast. MacKinnon got a similar job in Minnesota with Bill Guerin.
Fletcher and Botterill previously worked together in Pittsburgh. They all worked with Fitzgerald in Pittsburgh. Maybe the three of them can get together once again.
Fletcher going to Seattle is interesting because of his history with the Devils. He was also the Minnesota Wild GM when they signed Zach Parise in the summer of 2012. There are so many ties, but the reality is that Fletcher is a name that brings more criticism than celebration. The Kraken struck out with Jason Robertson, Matthew Knies, and a litany of other star players. Hiring Fletcher now tells us they might have struck out in the front office as well.
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