With the New Jersey Devils moving on from Nolan Foote, one of Tom Fitzgerald's earliest trades as General Manager of the team now has one piece of the tree remaining. The original deal in question involved the Devils sending fan favorite Blake Coleman to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Nolan Foote and a first-round pick.
This trade was actually the second trade Fitzgerald made in his tenure as general manager. The first was made the same day as the Coleman deal, trading team captain Andy Greene to the Islanders. That day was met with excitement, as Fitzgerald showed promise in his first two moves.
At the time, Foote had just been taken in the first round by the Lightning. Essentially, the Devils received two first round picks for a year and a half of Coleman. The Covid-19 Pandemic changed a lot of the plans for the Lightning, however they still won two Stanley Cups. If you can win a championship, trade as many prospects as you want.
The Devils were rebuilding. The trade was a home run for the Devils. Foote restocked a growing forward prospect pool and the first round pick gave Fitzgerald more assets to use. The Devils ended up drafting Shakir Mukhamadullin with the Lightning pick. The draft pick actually belonged to the Vancouver Canucks, so it was a higher pick than 31.
How did Foote and Mukhamadullin pan out for the Devils? Well. We all know what happened.
Foote made his Devils and NHL debut during the 2021 Covid-Bubble season. He never played more than 10 games in a season with the Devils, despite the Devils needing a fresh presence in the bottom six. They never let him consistently in the lineup and chose aging veterans or players who did not hold the same prospect pedigree.
Mukhamadullin was involved in the trade that brought Timo Meier to New Jersey. Along with the defenseman, the Devils sent multiple draft picks, Andreas Johnsson, Nikita Okhotyuk, and Fabian Zetterlund.
The Devils also received Zachary Emond, Scott Harrington, Timur Ibragimov, and Santeri Hatakka. Emond, Harrington, and Ibragimov left after the season was over. The Devils kept Hatakka until they did not qualify him, along with Foote, the day prior to NHL Free Agency.
That means, out of the highly praised trade that sent fan favorite Blake Coleman to the Lightning, the only piece that remains is Timo Meier. The asset managment of Fitzgerald is a different coversation for a different day. There are also two ways of looking at this.
The first way is seeing the Devils trading Coleman, a player they were not going to win with, and turning him into a franchise cornerstone in Meier. In the same breath, Meier has yet to show that scoring pedigree he did with San Jose.
The second way to look at this situation, is that the Devils have not developed prospects at all since Tom Fitzgerald took over. Nolan Foote should have been a consistent middle six contributor for a rebuilding franchise. They just did not give him a chance for whatever reasons.
If the Devils can win a championship with Timo Meier, than the development failure of Foote can be forgiven. The overall theme on the matter? The clock is ticking on what was once a promising general manager in Tom Fitzgerald.