As Devils Stumble Continues, What Is Fitzgerald Waiting For?
The NHL Trade Deadline may still be a little over a month away, but in case Devils General Manager Tom Fitzgerald hasn’t noticed, the gear-up segment of the season as teams drive toward the Stanley Cup playoffs has already begun in earnest.
Carolina accelerated the process with its January 24 blockbuster three-team trade to acquire two-time All-Star Mikko Rantanen and 2018 Hart Trophy winner (as a Devil) Taylor Hall. Even teams looking to move into the Wild Card picture are making deals, with the Rangers bringing back 2024 All-Star center J.T. Miller and the Flyers picking up former 39-goal scorer Andrei Kuzmenko.
And that’s just the moves from the Eastern Conference, where the standings are bunching up. With much thanks to the Devils, I should add. Sunday afternoon’s 4-3 defeat at lowly Buffalo dropped their record over their last 16 games to 5-8-3. Whereas New Jersey owned the NHL’s fourth-best points percentage on Christmas Day, they are now a mere five points ahead of Columbus for third place in the Metropolitan Division with the Blue Jackets holding two games in hand.
Sunday’s loss was incredibly disappointing given the steps forward the team took in its previous contest, a 5-0 blanking versus Philadelphia. The Devils skated with passion and grit then, traits that were largely missing from their game in getting behind by three goals after the first period against the Conference’s last-place club.
As New Jersey Head Coach Sheldon Keefe stated in his postgame “press” conference, his club didn’t respect Buffalo’s top players, one of whom is a known Devils killer. Tage Thompson opened the scoring and then contributed a pair of assists. The Devils third period rally fell a goal short.
“Losing hockey” was Keefe’s response to a question about the team’s too-late push.
If Fitzgerald is intent on waiting for center Nico Hiscier to return from an upper body injury, before making his final assessment on whether to pull the trigger on a trade, that would be a mistake. The team was off the rails long before these last three games without its captain,
The Devils are too reliant on their power play, which should be elite given the skill level on the top unit. But when they go 0-for-5 with the man advantage like they did on Sunday thanks to too much hero hockey, it exposes their lack of depth scoring. New Jersey is tied for 19th in the league in five-on-five goals per game, per NHL.com.
It’s not for lack of opportunities—the Devils are 10th in NaturalStatTrick.com’s expected goals for percentage and fifth in high danger scoring chances per game at five-on-five. Even on Sunday when they were outshot 27-17 while trailing, 4-1, through two periods, NST’s expected goals at all strengths were only 3.5-2.9.
This all suggests poor finishing, which could be a combination of bad luck, bad execution, and/or bad personnel. Sometimes it seems like the Devils are allergic to the upper half of the net—they had two breakaways denied by Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen because the shooters couldn’t lift pucks. Paul Cotter showed everyone how it’s done with his snipe into the top shelf from the left wing wall 18 seconds into the third period, but no one else could apply the trick.
Unless they get the Devils’ dander up like the Flyers did, opponents have figured out how to frustrate them by packing the net front areas and tempting their skill players to get too cute with the puck. Limit New Jersey’s rush chances and power plays and you’ll have the opportunity to take advantage of those mistakes.
Fitzgerald had been acknowledging since the early portion of the season—when the Devils were rolling on all cylinders—that the team wasn’t going to be complete until he improved its forward depth. Since then, the need has only become more glaring.
Not that he’s ever been mentioned as being on the market (and it would likely cost an arm and a leg to pry him from Buffalo), but boy, Thompson would look fantastic in a Devils uniform. He’s been what Timo Meier was supposed to be when the Devils acquired him from San Jose two years ago—a natural goal scorer. Only Meier has seen his shooting percentage drop below 10%, the lowest it’s been since the 2020-21 season.
The more probable scenario is that Fitzgerald is checking in on players who are more middle six types with strong faceoff credentials. The returns of Hischier and Erik Haula will alleviate some of the lost possessions off draws, but I think Fitzgerald wants more insurance in that department with someone who can also contribute to the attack.
Ryan O’Reilly? Nashville is notoriously difficult to work with. That puts the onus back on Fitzgerald to be creative no matter who he is targeting. It might take some salary cap massaging and deeper dips into the asset pool than he might ordinarily be comfortable with.
What is Fitzgerald waiting for? The Devils may have just three more games before the 4 Nations Face-Off break, but there really isn’t all that much more time to waste. Fitzgerald’s mission is obvious. He shouldn’t be amenable to his club backsliding into a Wild Card position, not after such a strong start.