Off-Season Needs | THREE THINGS

"We all want to play meaningful games at this time of the year," were the words that Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald spoke as he closed out the 2020-21 NHL season.
To get there, to "gear up to the big dance, the playoffs," Fitzgerald knows that along with watching the growth of his current young roster, there is work to be done on his end to build a supporting cast for his young stars.
Here are Three Things: Off-Season Needs, presented by Wawa.

1. Tandem Goaltending

This off-season will be another opportunity to look for an ideal tandem partner for Mackenzie Blackwood. This could be a chance to dip into the free agent goaltending market to find an ideal partner for Mackenzie to help continue to grow his game, managing the highs and rebounding from the lows, over the past three seasons.
Having a partner for Blackwood was high on the list the last off-season, which hit a roadblock when Corey Crawford decided to retire prior to the start of the year. Once again, Fitzgerald will get another stab at it, with the free agent market filled with potential opportunities.
"We're just trying to find the right person," Fitzgerald said.

was awesome for us because we know what he can give us. We know that. But we definitely have to make a commitment to continue an upgrade on our support for Mackenzie on the backend."
Names like Jaroslav Halak, who has played perfectly in a backup role to both Carey Price in Montreal and Tuukka Rask in Boston, to Phillip Grubauer, who started the most games last season of any goaltender on the open market with 40 games for Colorado, the options will be there for Fitzgerald.
Having already re-signed Wedgewood to a new deal, you can never have too many goaltenders in your system. Right now, the goaltending depth includes, along with Blackwood and Wedgewood under contract, Akira Schmid and Nico Daws, both of whom just signed their first professional contracts.
Fitzgerald watched this past season as
his young core of players took leaps
in their progression but has also preached the need to surround these players with those who have more experience, to help guide and usher along with the young core. Having a goaltending tandem for Mackenzie with a partner with pedigree and experience is just another piece of the puzzle to long-term success for the franchise.

2. Finishing Forward and Defensive Depth

Speaking of that development, this past season saw the emergence of different players contributing to the offensive side of the game. Yegor Sharangovich as a rookie had 16 goals; Pavel Zacha reached a career-high 17; Michael McLeod added nine; Miles Wood was back to the high-teens in goal scoring. These are all very important developments, however, the Devils still ranked 26th of 31 in goals per game (2.59) during the shortened 2020-21 NHL season.
Finding another finishing forward to help balance the lineup is also an area that will likely be addressed by Fitzgerald and his staff, and can be accomplished in many ways, whether it's scouring the free agent market or using cap space as the ultimate weapon by acquiring a player in a trade, particularly looking at teams who are up against the salary cap.
Fitzgerald began addressing defensive depth last season with the addition of Jonas Siegenthaler, who recently signed a two-year contract with the club and
trading for Ryan Graves
with Colorado. Graves and Siegenthaler, along with Damon Severson were all protected in the Seattle expansion draft.
Immediately, with the acquisition of Graves, Tom Fitzgerald began ticking off one of his off-season needs.
"It was a perfect storm where we had the (salary cap) room, we have the cap space, they have a good defenseman that they couldn't protect (in Graves)," Fitzgerald told NJD.TV. "So, we're excited. We know what he is. And we know what he's not too, we know exactly the type of player he is and we're not going to make up that he's going to lead us in points.
"We know what he is, and he takes pride in the things that we actually take pride in and where we have to get better. We need commitment from our backend and players to play without the puck. And that's the only way we're going to continue to improve and develop."
Those are some key words from Fitzgerald when talking about commitment, which leads us to the third of the Three Things.

3. Culture Fit

Whether it's the goaltender mentioned above, a finishing forward, or addressing defensive depth, one thing is guaranteed. A move/acquisition won't be made unless it's a player that fits well within the team's culture and wanting to be a part of the commitment in returning the franchise to greater success. This young core is getting there, but there are still necessary pieces to be added.
"Learning how to win, you don't just snap your fingers. You have to experience it," Fitzgerald said. "We haven't won. But we showed that we can scratch and claw and be in games, never quit attitude, very resilient group. Again, going along with our youth, that's going to apply to success moving forward."
"You make your so-called 'wish list' and try to execute it with the goal of improving the team, not just immediately, but for long-term," is what Fitzgerald said in his year-end interview in May. And those words carry a lot of weight because long-term success is not only about how strong your defensive game is, how many goals you score or how many highlight-reel saves you make. It's also about the right fit, the right attitude, and embracing what Fitzgerald is assembling in terms of culture fits.
"We can talk about talent, we can talk about the skill, we can talk about the youth. I want to start talking about commitment," he said. "I want to start talking about (commitment) because you can't have the puck all game and we do some pretty good things when we have the puck, we have to get better without (it)."

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