Detroit’s search for a new GM is moving into a critical stretch, and one name that has surfaced is drawing a clear warning from a New Jersey Devils perspective: Tom Fitzgerald.
The Red Wings are already staring at a complicated offseason. Dylan Larkin’s trade request is on the table, Alex DeBrincat’s extension is approaching, Marco Kasper could be next for a new deal, and Simon Edvinsson has already landed his.
On top of that, Detroit was sitting on close to $20 million in cap space at the end of July before Edvinsson’s contract was done. Steve Yzerman had plenty to sort through, and the fact that so much was still unresolved by mid-July appears to be part of why the organization moved on.
With the front office in flux, the hunt is on. Shawn Horcoff, who runs the Grand Rapids Griffins, is viewed as an internal frontrunner.
Brendan Shanahan is another Red Wings legend without a job, and Nicklas Lidstrom has also been mentioned based on logic alone. Fitzgerald, though, is one of the external names that has come up.
That’s where the caution flag gets raised.
Fitzgerald was recently dismissed as GM and president of hockey operations in New Jersey after another season ended without a playoff berth, even with Jack Hughes on the roster. Devils ownership went in a different direction and hired former Florida Panthers assistant GM Sunny Mehta.
His time in New Jersey had some decent moments, but the overall picture never came together. The Devils spent heavily on defense and still didn’t have much to show for it, with Dougie Hamilton, Brett Pesce, Johnny Kovacevic, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Brenden Dillon forming a pricey blue line. Luke Hughes brings upside, but it’s not the kind of defense most teams would want to copy.
Fitzgerald also never solved the right wing spot next to Jack Hughes. Jesper Bratt was already in place when he took over after the late Ray Shero, but since then the Devils have cycled through at least a dozen players on Hughes’s other side.
None of them stuck. Right now, the answer is former Edmonton Oilers winger Connor Brown, which says plenty.
For six years, Fitzgerald never fixed the most obvious issue on the roster.
Goaltending was another mess. Since he took over in 2020, 16 goalies appeared in a game for New Jersey, a constant churn at the position that matters most.
His biggest misstep came with Jacob Markstrom, whom he signed to a $6 million AAV extension well before he had to, while Markstrom was still struggling. Markstrom was later traded to the Florida Panthers as one of the first moves by the new GM.
That’s the warning for Detroit. Fitzgerald’s run in New Jersey was defined by the same pattern over and over: a glaring hole, a season derailed, and no clean fix in sight.
Even when the Devils looked like they were trending up, one series loss to the Carolina Hurricanes changed the way he built the team. The approach shifted from a group that moved the puck and attacked on the rush to one that slowed everything down and tried to choke the game off.
The concern is what happens when one setback sends the whole plan off course. Playoff losses happen. If a team kept overhauling everything after every bad series, it would never stay on track.
Fitzgerald may work in the right situation, but Detroit has too much riding on this offseason to take that gamble. There are better choices available to replace Yzerman.
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