The Devils, who were 28-29-12 (.493 points percentage) this season, were not among the 24 teams to compete in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers. They pivoted midway through the season, launching a rebuild after using the previous offseason to add players for a potential run at the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Devils traded forward Taylor Hall, who won the 2018 Hart Trophy voted as the NHL most valuable player and can become an unrestricted free agent on Oct. 9, to the Arizona Coyotes with forward Blake Speers for forwards Nate Schnarr and Nicholas Merkley, defenseman Kevin Bahl, a first-round pick in the 2020 draft, and a conditional third-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft on Dec. 16, 2019.
New Jersey then traded forward Blake Coleman and defenseman Andy Greene to the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Islanders, respectively, on Feb. 16. Defenseman Sami Vatanen and forward Wayne Simmonds were traded to the Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres, respectively, on Feb. 24.
The Devils will look to use the assets they received in those trades beginning in the 2020 draft. They have nine picks in the draft, including three (Nos. 7, 18 and 20) in the first round, which is Tuesday, Oct. 6 (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVAS). Rounds 2-7 will be held Wednesday, Oct. 7 (11:30 a.m. ET; NHLN, SN1).
NHL free agents can begin to sign Friday, Oct. 9.
"When the market opens, we'll have some holes, and if I can fill them that way, I'm going to do that," Fitzgerald said. "We have [NHL salary cap] space. But I want to use it the right way. I want to use it geared to the future, and that doesn't mean I'm not interested in putting a competitive team on the ice. I owe it to the organization, I owe to the fan base, I owe it to the alumni and players in that locker room to continue to build a better team.
"But that doesn't mean we can go from 0-to-60 because we have a cap space."
That's what the Devils did last offseason when Fitzgerald's predecessor, Ray Shero, acquired defenseman P.K. Subban in a trade with the Nashville Predators on June 22, 2019, and forward Nikita Gusev in a trade with the Vegas Golden Knights on July 29, 2019. The Devils signed Simmonds to a one-year contract on July 1, 2019.
Fitzgerald, who was promoted after Shero was fired Jan. 12, 2020, said his goal is to eventually make New Jersey a top destination for players, but for now he wants to see development among its young core lead the way back to the playoffs, where the Devils have been once (2018) since losing to the Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup Final in 2012.
"It's exciting times," Fitzgerald said. "Sometimes it may be hard to not have an itchy trigger finger and pull things off because they look great, but it just has to make sense for where we're at and where we want to go.
"I don't know if I wasn't clear, but it's clear to me that it's easy to be seduced by certain types of players, then get caught long-term and then regret some things, potentially. The only thing I'm looking forward to is helping these young kids like [Hughes and Hischier], the rest of the prospects, the core kids, and watch them develop and grow together. Then whenever that time is, we just watch them create that winning culture. That's what I'm trying to do right now."
