New Jersey GM: "We Won't Be Coming Back With The Same Group"

[TBone]

I pulled this as a thread topic off of TwitterX.

What would be realistic trades / trade targets on the Devils?

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Changes are coming to the New Jersey Devils.

So says general manager Tom Fitzgerald, who met with the media for an end-of-season press conference on Thursday.

"We won't be coming back with the same group," Fitzgerald said. "Because it was just not good enough."

Fitzgerald says some tough choices are ahead.

"I like our group, [but] my job is to continue to better the group," the 56-year-old Fitzgerald said. "And we've got a lot of decisions to make on certain players, bringing guys back, trad[ing] players..."

Fitzgerald, who is in his sixth year on the job and signed an extension in 2024, lamented a lack of secondary scoring.

"Players underachieved," he said. "I think players who have given us depth scoring [in the past] didn't."

A vast majority of the Devils are under contract through next season.

Forwards Tomas Tatar, Nathan Bastian, Curtis Lazar, Daniel Sprong and Justin Dowling are set to become unrestricted free agents on July 1, as are defencemen Brian Dumoulin and Dennis Cholowski and goaltender Jake Allen.

Set for restricted free agency are forwards Cody Glass and Nolan Foote and defenceman Luke Hughes.

[Pierre McGuire]

Quinn Hughes inbound

[netboy65]

Quinn Hughes inbound

Why not just ask for Jack while you’re at it?

[sdaltons]

Time to bring Allen back!

[somni]

Quinn Hughes inbound

Why not just ask for Jack while you’re at it?

He's saying NJ should trade for Quinn. Lots of scuttlebutt up here in Vancouver on Quinn going to NJ.

[netboy65]

Quinn Hughes inbound

Why not just ask for Jack while you’re at it?

He's saying NJ should trade for Quinn. Lots of scuttlebutt up here in Vancouver on Quinn going to NJ.

Gotcha

[dhsux]

Have to think DA has 1 big hockey trade coming this summer.

But contrary to his own comments I still think 50% chance it will be on the Blue line.

[Pierre McGuire]

Quinn Hughes inbound

Why not just ask for Jack while you’re at it?

Not sure why the eye roll. Tons of speculation that Quinn plans to sign with the Devils and play with his brothers when he hits RFA. Also Tocchet consulted with Quinn before he decided to part ways with the Canucks. He knows Quinn is going to leave. I don’t know when the trade is going down..but my guess is it’s coming sooner than later.

[IsDurbanodoingtime]

Timo Meier really didnt work out for them . You wonder what the ask for quinn is going to be ? If i am alvin, I start with hischer, nemec and a first.

[Cardsfan1586]

Kyrou, Faulk <-> Meier, Pesce

We get a defensive minded RW and a bigger defensive minded RD.

Holloway-X-Meier

Broberg-Pesce or Fowler-Pesce

[noted]

Kyrou, Faulk <-> Meier, Pesce

We get a defensive minded RW and a bigger defensive minded RD.

Holloway-X-Meier

Broberg-Pesce or Fowler-Pesce

These are all terrible for the Blues

[TBone]

The name that was most mentioned in the Twitter thread was Simon Nemec. Talk that they're already giving up on him a little.

[STL fan in MN]

Honestly, I have a hard time coming up with a trade scenario with Jersey that’d make sense. They have some good prices but it’d be the ones they’d almost certainly want to keep.

Maybe Mercer as 3C to supplant Sunny? But that’d really only be a consideration if Army can’t find a bigger fish to fill the 2C role to push Schenn into Sunny’s 3C spot.

The main thing on their roster that sticks out to me is they have 4 right-shooting d-men. That’s quite rare and those are valuable and a hot commodity and I could see NJ taking advantage of the market on RDs. They have Hamilton, Pesce, Casey and Nemec on the right side.

Nemec would be the obvious one to go for but he’s struggled a bit to gain a hold in the NHL. Then again, maybe all he needs is a change of scenery and a kick in the pants being traded would likely bring. But as a former 2nd overall pick, the luster on him has worn off a bit so NJ would likely have to take a little less for him than they’d likely want. Probably similar to the deal Minnesota did to get David Jiricek.

The other young guy is Casey. Seamus is a talented kid. I recall liking him when he played for the NTDP and at Michigan. But he’s only 5’10” and that brings obvious limitations as a d-man.

Nemec would be the home run swing. Acquiring a guy you’d hope could regain his standing as a future #1 and become a star like many thought he could when he was drafted 2nd overall. Casey would be an add to shore up the 3rd pairing. Someone you know is better than Matt Kessel. A decent guy to have for a while to fill a spot until you found a better option.

I want no part of Meier’s contract - 6 more years at 8.8M.

[seattleblue]

Nemec is the interesting one, how do you even price him for sale and are the Blues in a position to pay what it would take to take the risk?

I think you have to put Kyrou in that level of deal probably

[tfriede2]

Timo Meier really didnt work out for them . You wonder what the ask for quinn is going to be ? If i am alvin, I start with hischer, nemec and a first.

Definitely ask for Hischier, but that’s not happening. Nemec, Mercer, 1st, Silayev would be my guess.

[DawgDad]

Nemec turned 21 in February. He might be in Army's category of "teams failing players" pushing them to the NHL too soon. Could STILL park him in the AHL until he shows more consistency.