New Jersey Devils General Manager Tom Fitzgerald spoke with Bryce Salvador and Erika Wachter before the last game of the season, 4/15/24 vs. New York Islanders.
Tom spoke about a variety of topics from this disappointing season, as well as looked forward to next season.
What a sad season it was for the 2023-2024 NJ Devils.
I discuss and critique what Tom Fitzgerald said in this video.
You can watch the Tom Fitzgerald Interview below:
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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25 Comments
Jake allen hasnt looked that good as of late
I remember how angry and butthurt he sounded. When he was talking about letting go of Linda ruff. He blamed the players completely. Now I guarantee you he's not going to want to buy what we really need in the off-season. He's probably going to try to tiptoe around spending money because he's an idiot when it comes to spending the right money on the right player. The fact we only got a second and third for Tyler is a joke. They treated it like a salary dump
I picked up on Sal hedging his bets right away too. Scary but what GM wants to trade w Trotz? Screw it let's go Devs
With Buffalo just cleaning house, I’m sure as per how the rest of the season has gone; Fitz will wait until the day before next season to hire/replace the coaches. I’m also optimistic that we have seen Green for the last time behind the bench here. I saw on a Wild rumor mill page that they were inquiring about trading for Siegenthaler for Gustavvson which I think you do in a heartbeat. Then use some of the other assets to bring in Chychrun or another real top four defenseman and one more bottom pairing guy. Other goalies who may not be insanely overpriced would be Logan Thompson (or maybe Adin Hill) because of vegas cap space, Binnington who we saw this season is still solid even with his attitude issues; and to some defeee Ullmark because of Bostons cap space. Getting Markstrom would be great if we had a guy in the minors we were convinced would become a great starter in two year. I don’t know that we have that so I’d rather get someone who we could have play for most of our active window
I worry truly about their mental toughness
The thing about the way other teams play when there is a big guy on the team is soo TRUE. Main example the rangers w repme. And if we get another guy like macdermid and with good goal tending I think the core group will become more confident and tough even the younger defensemen will play a stronger more physical game to get the puck out of our zone .Plus hopefully keep holtz even tho his trade value is high he fits so well with the team and would be sad to see him go. 10/10 video waiting for the next
You can’t have consistent playoff appearances when you’re team has inconsistent production from inconsistent players – Jesper Bratt, Ondre Palat
Horrendous defense was never attempted to be addressed, instead it was over expressed – The Enture D Core
Injuries were a huge part of inconsistent play and production. But to be honest, the team is waaaay to soft – Jack Hughes, Timo Meier, Nico Hischier
Goaltending wins championships, and dicking around with the goalie situation was malfeasance and malpractice. Jack Allen really isn’t that great, nor is he that bad, and he’s good for pulling out miraculous saves while letting a softy here and there. Which is exactly what Vanicek was for us. But you can only perform so long like this before it takes it’s mental toll, which left Vanicek looking shell shocked and broken like a little girl who has one of “those” uncles. Schmid only had so much autism in his game, and this year it was no match for a league who figured out the Devil’s game.
Overall – the team experienced adversity, but Fitzgerald was a part of adding to that adversity in a negative way. He let a broken nose turn into 4 stage cancer.
Check out the hockey writers' analysis of the season. Really bolsters up what you say. Good read, though.
🎶All I want for Christmas~ (the off-season) is you~ (a star goalie)🎶
(And defense, and a new coaching staff, and Dougie to recover ☹️, and no injuries, and Tyler Toffoli back I really like him, and a better bottom six tho all hail Curtis Lazar, and NJ Brady Tkachuk I wanna see that toddler in our state)
There's always next season.
please turn the mic closer to you…audio is way low
Tom Fitzgerald failed. Lindy should still be the coach. Period.
One thing that needs to change is get rid of the analytics group. The GM and Coach need to use their own gut hockey sense to get players, play players and having the confidence of the team that they have the players back. I miss the time when coaches coached with their minds and guts.
dude, the mic audio quality is low. I can hardly hear you with it cranked up.
POLL QUESTION:
Is the volume too low?!? Please respond YES or NO
**ALSO, PLEASE POST WHAT DEVICE YOU ARE WATCHING ON!**
If it was playoffs or bust, he would have gotten Zadorov soon after Dougie went down instead of playing with 2 rookies on the backend. Playoffs or bust? How about you use the 9 mil in LTIR!
I think we either trade for Markstrom or sign Brossoit as a UFA
As frustrating and disappointing as this season was, I'm amazed by the out-of-proportion anger levels, given any kind of bigger picture.
For example, I remember becoming a Devils fan in 1988 when Sean Burke carried them into the playoffs and through two rounds before they lost to Boston. They missed the playoffs the next year. Sound familiar? Huge disappointment?
It really didn't get much better after 89. Burke was average and never became a big time goalie. After missing the playoffs in 89 they lost in the first round the next 3 years. That's 5 mediocre years if you're counting.
And the GM for all of it was Lou Lamoriello. Same guy who won us three Cups. I wonder how many angry angry fans were calling for his head, starting midway through 1988-89.
Well, no more Devils so I'm watching the Wings. Seider has 200 hits and 200 blocks on the season. And counting!
Any money not spent is money in ownership pockets. Hamiltons salary got covered, so its like money in the bank for them when they didnt spend to upgrade roster after his injury. All they had to do was spend to the cap and it would have been a different story.
This video is playing on my iPad while I was putting away some pizza. You KNOW I DASHED over and am now typing furiously.
…….
SCHMEED?! You have GOT to be kidding me. I wasn’t watching the game because I was at my best friend’s house and I didn’t really care all that much but SURPRISE SURPRISE, SCHMEED is my biggest pet peeve in all of hockey. I cite YOUR video when I correct people on it because it makes me so mad. I was mad at Fitz before because the masses were (I’m a new fan trying to learn the ins and outs), but OH MY GOD, BYE BYE!!! Go to the REAL pits of hell Fitz. You spend so much time throwing Akira around like a piece of garbage and don’t even have the courtesy to say his name right. Unbelievable. Honestly, I’m glad I didn’t hear it because I would have had an absolute conniption.
Brodeur left in 2014 and this franchise hasn’t recovered at that position since. Fritz has to fix this shit! We can’t waste the talent on this team anymore!
I hope you are right that it’s just GM speak when Fitz said that Travis Green will get the chance to be interviewed. I really hope he doesn’t actually consider making Green the full time head coach next season. Green needs to be shown the door.
Fitzy is a clown
Bro would literally trade the farm and all future picks for 1 goalie. Kakko/Allen is worlds better than Vitek/Akira. Won't matter if Seigs and Marino are still on the team.