BIG READ: The Path Forward

On January 12, 2020, Tom Fitzgerald stepped in front of a media contingency shoulder to shoulder with New Jersey Devils Managing Partner Josh Harris. His head, rightfully spinning.

The Devils were giving Fitzgerald a tremendous opportunity that many would love but few achieve: to step in as the general manager of a National Hockey League franchise.

"I never thought I'd become a general manager like this," he said, showing the emotion one would come to expect when taking over for a friend and mentor. Harris opined confidence in Fitzgerald at the time, stating the franchise was lucky to have an executive like Fitzgerald waiting in the wings for a chance to prove himself.

Nearly six months later, serving under the weight of the uncertainty of the interim tag, navigating the perils of an international pandemic, a hockey season paused and then ended prematurely, a multitude of trades, and a coaching search, Fitzgerald still stands. And better yet, he stands taller than before, assured of his place with the organization and newly dubbed the Executive Vice President and full-time General Manager of the New Jersey Devils.

"When Tom took over the role of GM in January, we were committed to moving the organization in a new direction," Managing Partners Harris and David Blitzer said in a joint statement. "Having gone through the process of interviewing various candidates, including Tom, and reviewing his work in the interim, we feel that he is the best fit for the New Jersey Devils moving forward."

As the organization presses to move forward with Fitzgerald steering the ship, the club has also found their next head coach. The coaching search, led by Fitzgerald but involving the club's leadership group, determined Lindy Ruff was the best fit to stand behind the bench at
Prudential Center for the coming years.

"Here's the reality," said Blitzer. "We think the core of our team is very exciting for a very long period of time."

But that core needs to be directed properly.

"It was about the right coach at the right time for the right team," said President of the New Jersey Devils, Jake Reynolds.
But what does that mean exactly? What went into entrusting Fitzgerald in this role? What went into tabbing Ruff as "the guy" and what ultimately swayed the Devils to carve a path forward led by these two?

We'll start at the beginning.

Tough Decisions

Fitzgerald was in a difficult position. That's just a fact.

The Devils were underachieving. They had removed their Head Coach John Hynes and General Manager Ray Shero. And whenever there is turnover at that level, the person tasked with stepping in and stepping up has to roll up their sleeves and get to work. That means difficult decisions.

It takes a special kind of person to face that challenge head-on and bring calm to the stormy waters of a professional franchise. Harris and Blitzer mentioned in their statement that Fitzgerald's ability to "stabilize" the franchise helped solidify their decision that he was the right man for the job long-term. One of Fitzgerald's first tasks was to navigate a trade deadline in which the Devils needed to bolster their future without sacrificing the present. But prospects and picks aren't given away for a handshake. Tough decisions had to be made.

"What I like to see is somebody that's got confidence in himself to make moves or make decisions that sometimes are not popular, but you have to do them," said Devils legend Martin Brodeur, who stepped into a more significant hockey operations advisory role on the day Fitzgerald was named interim general manager.

"I think, as a player, I loved for my general manager to do everything he could for us to be successful. And I feel that with Tom, when time's going to come a time when we're going to have to make those hard decisions, he will make those decisions to get the team better."

One of those hard decisions was to trade a fan-favorite player who was having a career year in Blake Coleman to Tampa Bay.

"We traded some popular players, but it was for the betterment of the team," said Brodeur.

At the time of the trade, Fitzgerald recognized how difficult it was to move Coleman, but the return was too beneficial to the future of the organization in his mind to not consider it and ultimately execute it. In return for Coleman, Fitzgerald was able to secure a 2019 first-round pick and top prospect Nolan Foote, and a conditional first-round pick in the 2020 (or 2021) NHL Draft.

In a grouping of other trades, Fitzgerald parted with the expiring contracts of Team Captain Andy Greene, another difficult decision, Wayne Simmonds and Sami Vatanen, in exchange for another high-end prospect in Janne Kuokkanen and a handful of picks, including a second-rounder. In his first trade deadline in the boss' chair of an NHL franchise, Fitzgerald impressed.

"I think that's one of the things that under Lou Lamoriello for so many years, and if you look at my time in St. Louis with Doug Armstrong, they're not afraid to make a move when they know it's going to push the ball forward," said Brodeur. "And I just feel that with all the conversations and some of the situations already that we saw happening late in the year with the Devils, he was not afraid to pull the trigger on tough decisions."

"I'm just so excited for Tom," said Reynolds. "Tom is just an incredible person. He's an incredible teammate. He's an incredible friend, executive and leader who has earned this opportunity and he stepped into a tough situation six months ago and put himself in a position to continue to lead and to put his stamp on the organization and earn this opportunity."

"I think he's done a great job so far," said Brodeur. "I was alongside him when everything went down in January. He's proven how hard he works and how diligent he is. And I think he's done a great job… It was not easy with the trades at the deadline. A lot of the things that he's done, I think he's got a lot of experience, maybe not as a general manager but he's been around the league a lot. He's done tons of different things from coaching to being a scout, to being an assistant GM, so he's done a lot of things. He has got a lot of experience, a lot of connections around the league. And he just cares, and that's what you want. Is your manager a guy that cares about this job? That's what we've seen in him."

Communication & Confidence

Throughout the last six months, one word that continues to bubble to the surface when describing Fitzgerald's management style is "communication."

In the role of general manager, the simple word means much more. Being an expert communicator is an incredibly powerful trait for a general manager in professional sports to possess. As GM, you serve as the front door to an organization. You communicate your vision and direction for the team, not just to the media but to your players, your staff, your fans, and ownership.

It's a skill that Brodeur saw Fitzgerald hone over the last few months. And now, his confidence in communicating his blueprint has begun to shine.

"I think he's really well organized," said Brodeur. "He's got the ability to bring people in and make them accountable. I think he's done a great job. Honestly, presenting his ideas is something that when you're not ready for it, it takes a little while to kind of put everything together. Not just in your head, but on paper for people to see. And I think that's one of the things that he's gotten better at. It's being able to communicate that this is the blueprint of where he wants to send the New Jersey Devils franchise to move forward."

With the season on pause, Fitzgerald helped the organization navigate the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. He spent much of his time communicating with the players and staff, keeping the entire hockey operations department together, informed, and connected. He's also spent the last few months outlining his vision regarding player development, playing style, the process regarding personnel decisions, and his management philosophy. The organization and communication of all of this have impressed the organization from top to bottom.

Internally, Fitzgerald has expressed his belief in open and honest communication. He has surrounded himself with people who have strengths that he might consider a personal weakness, and he has done so for the betterment of the organization.

"He's really open to everything," said Brodeur. "Obviously, at the end of the day, he's going to make his own decision. But he wants to make sure [he checks all the boxes] and makes sure that everybody understands his direction before making a decision. At the end of the day, I think he's pretty confident in himself and he knows the path that he wants to take for us to be successful."

And what further impressed the managing partners was how he operated as the full-time general manager from day one, putting his stamp on the role and never hesitating to take control. And this is likely spurred by Fitzgerald's vast experience covering everything from playing more than 1,000 NHL games, serving as a captain, having played for expansion clubs, having served as an assistant general manager, a coach, and having played a significant role in player development. The experience allows Fitzgerald to operate with confidence and communicate across a multitude of departments and levels of the organizational structure.

"Tom is a very rare person to find in this business in terms of someone that has the experience that he does as a player, as a coach, and as an executive," said Reynolds. "To have someone who has played more than a thousand games as a player and who has been a captain of the team, to someone who has been behind the bench back in 2009 when the Pittsburgh Penguins went on to win the Stanley Cup, obviously, he was behind the bench last year on the Devils front and stepped into that role.

"And then to just what he has been as an executive, going back to his time in Pittsburgh and his emphasis and focus on player development, which is a key focus for us in our future."

The Devils feel Fitzgerald's development into becoming a full-time general manager hasn't happened within the last six months alone, but has rather been cultivated for years.

"I never put things in boxes," said Blitzer. "It's kind of the holistic person, frankly. Tom's background is highly relevant…. But he brings a holistic set of characteristics. His character, his values, the way he looks at the chessboard and the players we have and development plans he's been putting in place and will be putting in place. His leadership qualities, the way he brings an organization together, his decision making at a critical time, at the trade deadline, speaks for itself. I think all those characteristics, not just one, Tom brings a ton to the table."

The last six months of confidence and communication have really solidified Fitzgerald's qualifications.

"The work that he put in, the credibility that he has throughout the hockey world and the resume that he built over the last six months has shown why he is incredibly valuable and why he will step into this role and do an amazing job," said Reynolds.

"It's been pretty inspiring to watch how he's kind of embraced the role and tackled a lot of the challenges that have come his way."

Finding The Right Coach

"The expectation is to put a competitive team on the ice," said Reynolds. That's a hard task to accomplish without the right general manager and head coach tandem.

New Jersey placed Fitzgerald in charge of the coaching search but the general manager has insisted that this was a complete organizational hire. Everything that drove the decision on the next coach followed a specific vision for what is the correct fit for this current roster and where they want to get to.

"Right coach at the right time, for this team," was the mantra. And it has been a process to determine the right pillars the Devils need in a head coach.

"I think we were pretty fortunate to have a lot of time on our hands in the last few months here to try and make the right decision for this organization moving forward," said Brodeur.

The first step was determining where this team is today and where it will be next season and the one thereafter. Then Fitzgerald, along with the Devils brass, needed to decide what personality, coaching style and resume fit those parameters, What complements the current players the best? The coaching search involved speaking with a group of candidates, then narrowing them down to repeat interviewees with some of the conversations lasted hours.

"Within that process, I talked with X amount of people, realizing there was a core group of people who needed to be talked to again," said Fitzgerald. The general manager asked the coaches to discuss their philosophy and tactics with him, treating him as if he were their player.

"I'm the student," said Fitzgerald. "If I can understand it these guys should be able to understand it. Then the next steps were sitting down with Marty and [the managing partners]."

"Lindy Ruff was one of the guys that we looked at early on, just because of his experience," said Brodeur. The Devils first spoke with Ruff at the end of March and reconnected with him several times as he began to pull away from the pack.

"I was able to spend significant time with Lindy," said Blitzer. "He impressed Josh, myself and our entire group with his experience and success at every level during his 25-plus year coaching career, his enthusiasm, his ability to communicate extremely well, and the way he's developed players over the years. We just think he's very well suited to be the leader on the ice for this organization at this point in time."

Ruff certainly checks the experience box. There are only six coaches in the entire history of the National Hockey League who have coached more regular-season games than Ruff (1,493). That list is Scotty Bowman (2,141), Joel Quenneville (1,705), Barry Trotz (1,674), Al Arbour (1,607), Paul Maurice (1,600), and Ken Hitchcock (1,598).

In addition to the regular-season experience, Ruff has coached in the 15th most playoff games in NHL history, just one behind current Islanders Head Coach Barry Trotz. Including Trotz, only three active head coaches in the league have been behind the bench for more postseason games than Ruff.

"We are proud and excited to have Lindy Ruff join our organization as Head Coach. He is one of the most successful and respected coaches in the NHL, not only today but in League history," said Fitzgerald.

"It's an exciting time for us to have a guy like that. It reminds me a lot of the Jacques Lemaireera," said Brodeur. "A guy that has been there and done that before. And I think it's going to be good for you for your organization and for a franchise."

But in addition to longevity and experience, the Devils felt the prime candidate must possess a certain "personality" that would help drive a younger roster to success.

"We have such a young team," said Brodeur. "We wanted to get a father figure a little bit, a guy that knows the league, and who has been around the league a lot to really help our young players move toward the right direction and trying to get us into the playoffs and having some success in the near future. And Lindy kind of checked a lot of those boxes for us."

As the Devils move forward with a roster that will be led by younger talent, like Nico Hischier, Mackenzie Blackwood, Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, and with a plethora of young prospects knocking at the door of the NHL, it was important to the Devils organization to provide this core group with that "father figure" Brodeur mentioned. His resume commands respect, but his personality and ability to connect with these athletes keeps it.

"It doesn't matter whether you're a veteran, whether you're one of our young guys or one of our developmental guys coming up through the system, he's a coach that is going to hold people accountable," said Reynolds. "He's going to invest in the players and help them get to that next level."

"Whenever you start talking to him, it's funny," said Brodeur, "you just want to keep, keep going and talk to him. He's got a really infectious personality. I think his demeanor is really laid back. I think he shows a lot of confidence in himself with the way he walks around and the way he talks. And I think our players will benefit from a guy like that's been around and knows what he's talking about. And one of the other things too is he's welcoming a lot of help around him. So I'm sure we'll build a really good staff around him to help everybody."

Ruff does have a track record of cultivating young talent. Adam Fox, Ryan Lindgren, Tony DeAngelo, Tyler Seguin, John Klingberg, Jamie Benn, Tim Connolly, Tyler Ennis, Tyler Myers, Ryan Miller, Michael Peca, Jason Pominville, Thomas Vanek, and many others are on the list of having success at a young age under Ruff's guidance.

In his most recent stop as a head coach in Dallas, the Devils were impressed with his work with a few of those names in particular. Seguin was consistently a .67 point-per-game player, but under Ruff, he exploded to post 1.05, 1.08, 1.01, and .87. Benn cracked the 30-goal plateau under Ruff three times and won an Art Ross trophy. 

"Sometimes a young guy wants to get to the finish line a little faster than possible," said Ruff. "I think that all the things as a coach you're trying to instill in a player, whether it's work ethic off the ice, your practice habits, even your eating, and sleeping habits to get you to be able to perform at an optimal level… there are a lot of things that get you to be a good pro, good NHL pro. A young player steps in who maybe aren't as developed physically as the players who are there, now you're playing against grown men that are twice your size, twice as strong, you have to get them to a point where they're comfortable."

The Right Style

Blue sky, if everything went according to plan and he built the right roster he'd prefer to be a strong possession team, one who plays with pace and hems the opponent in their own zone, and plays strong defensively. Sounds good, but what does that really mean?

Over his four-year stint in Dallas, Ruff's teams scored the second and fourth-most goals per season in team history. The Stars led the Western Conference and were second in the NHL in goals scored per game over that span (2.97). For those who like numbers, Dallas' Corsi share (CF%) ranked 8th in the NHL over that time period, their Corsi per 60 (CF/60) was second in the league and expected goals per 60 minutes (xGF/60) were first.

The Stars controlled a majority of shot attempts and expected goals under Ruff, showing them to be among the fastest-paced teams in the entire league. The Devils have been among the slowest in recent years, but under Ruff, things are expected to speed up.

The Sabres advanced to the Eastern Conference Final in two consecutive seasons in 2005-06 and 2006-07. He won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL Coach of the Year in 2006 and the Sabres won the President's Trophy in 2007. Ruff compares the current Devils make-up to that of some of his most successful Buffalo squads.

"The age of this team, I've coached similar teams," said Ruff. "If we go back to mid-term in 2006, 2007 with Buffalo, when we were a young team, we progressed and became one of the better teams in the league. We had a couple of good runs where we had a really great shot at winning a Stanley Cup. We played a super-fast, possession type of game which is the same type of game I'd like to bring to this Devils team. A lot of puck pressure and using the skills we have to own the puck and be a team that can dominate with team and possession, but at the same time knowing that defending is a passion we need to have as a team."

Getting a squad to buy in is always a coach's challenge. Ruff has a philosophy for that too: be malleable to the players' individual skill sets and communicate.

"It's building a role and a responsibility, knowing that all players bring a different skill set to the table," said Ruff. "The way we want to play the game, which will be a puck-pressure game, on top of the puck, keeping possession, some players bring greater assets than other players. It will be that constant communication and feedback from practices, from games, to get them a really good feel for where they are at or where I feel they can get to. A lot of times, you can tell them what you want to do, but most times they want to know why. Why they have to do that? Most times, the answer is 'for the team to be successful.'"

While Ruff has a defined vision of his systems and what can work, he has proven himself to be malleable. One of his greatest strengths, according to the Devils, is his willingness to tweak his coaching to fit the players he has in front of them. And while the core values of his systems remain intact, Ruff says he doesn't feel the need to put square pegs in round holes.

"I've had teams I've been criticized for being too defensive and teams I've been criticized for coaching too offensive," he said.

In Dallas, for example, he stepped on the offensive gas because he did have pieces like Benn and Seguin to work with.

"I think all these young, skilled players who have played a certain way until they get to this point, you don't drop them in and all of a sudden try and make them the best defensive player," said Ruff. "You try to utilize the players to the best of their skills. We became a very good offensive team [in Dallas].

It's become even more imperative to be able to tweak your systems in today's NHL with the latest crop of young talent pushing the pace and the level of creativity and skill in their games.

"I think that's the beauty of it," Brodeur said of Ruff. "I think he's going to mold our team with the talent that we have for us to have better success."

Pushing Forward

The Devils are not at all bereft of talent. Their core pieces are solid, but young and need time to grow. 

"I'm very excited about the organization," said Blitzer. "We have fantastic young talent, we've got cap space, we've got prospects moving through the systems… and we're really excited about what the future holds for the franchise."

But understanding that it takes time to get from point A to point B, you need a general manager and head coach in place who are in lock-step with the organization's overarching methodology and mission.

Ruff says when he was speaking with Fitzgerald, he sensed they were on the same page with where they felt the Devils were, and where they should be.

"It really was about, can we work together? Can we grow this team?," said Ruff. "We both understood where the team was at. We talked about where we want to get this team to. I think Tom can push me. We can push each other. I think there will be times where those healthy conversations and pushing each other will lead to a better team, to better growth. But in the end, what excited me talking with David and Josh and even Marty Brodeur on some of this is it's about growing together. Here's where we're at, here's where we want to get to, so let's do it together. Tom's passion... I tried sometimes to out-passion him but I couldn't. I'm excited about working with him."

It's clear that Fitzgerald and Ruff, who have long history with each other, are beginning this new business relationship on the right footing. Their messaging is on point and that's exactly what the Devils franchise needs right now: clarity, communication, and cooperation.

"To be able to have the two of them so closely tied together on the same page and singing from the same song sheet, that is going to be incredibly impactful," said Reynolds. "And then the other word that really comes to mind is stability. We can now move forward as an organization, knowing that we have the GM and coach in place. We can get back to focusing on some of those key pieces that are going to help take this team to that next level. And a lot of that focus is going to be on developing the young talent that we have, surrounding them with the right people to kind of help them continue to grow and learn and understand how to win at this next level."

The work begins immediately, as Ruff leaves his post as an assistant with the Rangers. He will begin speaking with the current coaching staff and together, he and Fitzgerald will be shaping the hockey operations department.

"Next steps after this will be Lindy and I getting together and evaluating what our coaching staff would look like, the type of the assistant coaches he's looking for, and what I'm looking for," said Fitzgerald. "Our current staff will have an opportunity to meet with Lindy and vice versa, and he'll get to know them and it's a process I think is only fair to them and to Lindy."

With so much uncertainty this offseason and with the NHL's return to play beginning soon, the Devils now have clarity with two core leaders to rally behind as they work to compete at a high level for not just the short term, but the long term.