FEATURE: Fitzgerald Takes a Long-Term Approach

In sports, self-awareness is important.
If you start off with the wrong assumptions of where your players are in their development or where the roster is in terms of its build, then you can easily spiral into a cycle of mediocrity. The New Jersey Devils want to win, but under Executive Vice President and General Manager Tom Fitzgerald, they're going to do it the right way. For him, there is no other way.
And so patience is the word of the day.
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Sports are a results-based business. But it's important to take a step back from our era of instant gratification and find comfort in the idea of sustained, long-term success built around a core that is looking to take steps beyond scratching the surface of their potential.
"I don't believe in going from zero to 60," Fitzgerald said. "I think you could lose your way if you do that. Then you start thinking you're better than you are. This is all about the future."

That doesn't mean the Devils are destined to mire at the bottom of the league standings this season. Fitzgerald wasn't content with the makeup of the roster last year and has since set out to fill in some of the holes exposed by a 28-29-12 season.
One of those was goaltending, which through a slow start to the season, dug a hole so deep in the standings they could never quite climb out. Even with a late-season turnaround in play, the Devils were never able to overcome those early-season deficiencies between the pipes. It's part of the reason why Fitzgerald made the heart-wrenching decision to buy out Cory Schneider, a fantastic human and one of the pillars of the organization for many years.
"Having a goaltender that gives you a chance to win every single night, makes playing in front of them more comforting. I can say that you don't feel like if you make mistake, the puck could end up in the back of the net. It's no secret where our goaltending has been over the last couple of years, and this isn't just on Cory Schneider. Cory was one of the hardest, if not the hardest phone calls I had to make, because of the person he is and what he's done here on the ice, and what he's done off the ice. He and his wife, Jill, have meant a lot to the New Jersey Devils… But I felt it had to be made and it was time to move on."
Mackenzie Blackwood is on his way to being a star goaltender in the NHL, but he can't do it alone, and he needs to continue to develop. And that's why Fitzgerald signed veteran Corey Crawford to compete with Blackwood for ice time.
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"He's a champion. He's a winner. He's got the pedigree," Fitzgerald said. "He has the experience to be a great mentor to Mackenzie. They're going to push each other to be the best goalie they can be. We feel right now we've got a great tandem in the League. Corey, the way he's played particularly in the playoffs and prior to that, we feel really lucky that we have this tandem going into the season and for a couple of years. But most importantly, it's the championship swagger that he has. It's something I felt we needed, to bring people in who've won and understand it."
By making the decision to fully hand the keys over to the young stars of the future, Fitzgerald is self-aware enough to know that by doing that you're accepting the kids will make mistakes. How do you help negate the negative impact of those unforced errors? You attempt to find stability in net.
"How do we eliminate those mistakes? Learn and get better. But you need a goaltender," said Fitzgerald. "That's the most important position to kind of cover-up those mistakes. As we go through this phase of making mistakes and understanding what it takes to win, clock management on preserving a 1-0 lead with two and a half minutes left in the game, and getting pucks deep, that's important.

If goaltender was first on Fitzgerald's list of necessary improvements, his top-four on defense would not be far behind. It's why on the eve of free agency, the general manger flipped a fifth-round pick to Columbus for Ryan Murray.
"Well, first and foremost it is his hockey IQ and ability to play against top lines," Fitzgerald said as he described why Murray was the right fit. "He's not technically an offensive-type of defenseman, but he can move parks. He could give you second pairing on the power play, but that's not what we brought him for. We brought him to stabilize the left side with size and mobility, and the way you can transition pucks and play with either P.K. Subban] or Damon [Severson
"He's technically a top-nine forward if I guess you want to define it, but a guy who can slot up and play with skill," said Fitzgerald. "He's done it. He's played with [Auston] Matthews. He's played with John Tavares. He's played with high-end talent. He's a complementary top-six winger. He's got a nose for the net, he gets to the inside. He is small in stature, but he's stocky and he's hard on pucks. He's just a worker, he's a dog on a bone with skill, and he could look really good next to either Jack or Nico."
Fitzgerald's patience and sense of value has been widely approved of since taking over the GM position with the Devils. These moves he's made have not been the "home-run hitters" and splashy headline-driving narratives. But you'd hard-pressed to argue the Devils aren't better today than they were before the moves. And that's what this summer is about - turning the keys over to the youth, developing young talent and giving them a taste of the NHL, and being competitive night in and night out. Fitzgerald is taking the long-term approach.
"Where we're at, I'm not gonna pretend we're on the verge of winning a cup. We're not," Fitzgerald said.
As a fan, it would be completely understandable to have that statement hit you like a ton of bricks. But if you listen long enough to Fitzgerald, you realize the purpose of those bricks is to build something strong. Sustainable. Exciting.
"Being competitive right now is the most important thing to me," said Fitzgerald. "Putting a competitive team on the ice that can grow together. We can utilize Binghamton for some of our young players and when they're sniffing, we bring them up and give them a taste of the NHL. That's development."