New Jersey Devils General Manager Tom Fitzgerald To Be Aggressive at Upcoming NHL Trade Deadline
TSN Hockey Analyst Darren Dreger joined TSN Radio 690 and was asked about the New Jersey Devils and their approach to the trade deadline. He stated he believes Tom Fitzgerald will be as aggressive as any general manager out there.
NHLRumors.com Transcription***
Host: The New Jersey Devils are getting Jack Hughes back. Do you think this is happening in time? Such an important player on a team had such high hopes this year. Of course, his injuries coincided with a bit of a disappointing year, but what do you think about them down the stretch? Being a bit of a dark horse?
Darren Dreger: Yeah, they could be, and you’re right. I mean, we hate using the injury excuse because teams go through it. That’s just the reality of the rigors of the regular season. But when you lose top defense like Dougie Hamilton and then your star forward in Jack Hughes, obviously, it’s going to take a bite. And then I would further submit that their goaltending, at best, has been sketchy all year long.
And, you know, Tom Fitzgerald to take a mulligan, he probably would have tried to have invested more and looked after the position of goal in the offseason. You know, he continues to chip away at trying to stabilize and upgrade that position in a number of different ways and also defense.
So I don’t think that Fitzgerald, the general manager, is going to sit back and say, you know, it’s just not our year because of injury. I think he’s going to be as aggressive as he can be between now and March 8. And I hope that the return of better health and star players is going to make a difference.
Look, Florida taught us something last year, didn’t they? Get into the playoffs, get into the playoffs. And if you’re playing the right way and your health is there, your goaltending is there, who knows what could happen, and I think that Fitzgerald and the New Jersey Devils are thinking that way at this stage.”
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