How likely is a GM firing for the Devils after this season? 

Among disappointing NHL team’s this season, no accounting is complete without putting the New Jersey Devils at or near the very top of that list.

Bounced early from the playoffs last year after a litany of injuries, this year was supposed to be a step forward for the Devils. Instead, they’re 13 points out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and have several major holes in the roster moving forward.

General manager Tom Fitzgerald was outbid by Bill Guerin to land star defenseman Quinn Hughes, even though the presence of brothers Jack and Luke in Newark made New Jersey the obvious landing spot for Quinn.

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now to discuss whether or not New Jersey’s calamitous season could ultimately cost Fitzgerald his job.

Carter Hutton: Now when you look at this team, right, and I’ve felt like all year there’s been a very vocal fan base when it comes to New Jersey and their struggles. The Luke Hughes contract and his struggles, and everything that’s going on. If it continues and there isn’t like a sort of a push by the end, does somebody end up being fired? Will it get to that point in New Jersey this year, or is it still kind of status quo?

James Nichols: Yeah, it’s a good question. I do think that certainly Tom Fitzgerald’s job is being evaluated in the summer. And not yet, I think he’ll last throughout the rest of the year. But that does kind of make you wonder, like, how do they go into next week? Like with what plans? And, you know, it certainly is going to be discussion between ownership and management, of course. But I think when you look at how the Devils were constructed in 2023, and they had that incredible success as a rush team, high skilled, high speed versus what they pivoted to, you know, they’d be wanting to be kind of like more like the Florida Panthers who won back-to-back Stanley Cubs, which you could understand wanting to do that in this copycat league, but that doesn’t really play to their strengths… But certainly, I think at the end of the day, all roads lead back to Fitzgerald and the decisions he’s made with the roster and the head coaching hire, just because it hasn’t gelled.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…