The Athletic has live coverage of the NHL trade deadline with the latest news, deals and analysis.
A few days after landing Timo Meier in a complicated 13-piece package of players, picks, prospects and salary retention with the San Jose Sharks, New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald literally walked out of the war room and joined The Athletic Hockey Show on Wednesday with hosts Rob Pizzo, Jesse Granger and Michael Russo.
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The man known as “Fitzy” in hockey circles discussed the intricacies of the big trade and indicated the Devils may not be done. He talked about how he plans to sell Meier on signing a long-term extension and he talked about the nitty-gritty of how he negotiated such a complicated deal that included conditions on draft picks. He talked about his kids playing hockey, especially Casey following in his footsteps on the Florida Panthers, and he talked about what he plans to do at 3:01 p.m. ET on Friday when the deadline elapses.
He also talked about the trade deadline as a whole and his desire to move the deadline up and as the first-ever Nashville Predators captain, Fitzgerald discussed the legacy of David Poile, the only GM in Predators history, and his first Predators coach, Barry Trotz, taking over in the big chair when Poile officially retires June 30.
“Both Barry and David hold a strong place in my heart,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re linked forever. You know, the first GM of the Predators, the first coach of the Predators and the first captain of the Predators. Both are mentors of mine.”
Here are some of the greatest hits from the podcast with the Devils’ boss:
On the trade deadline and how so many trades happen way earlier
Well, I’m definitely in favor of moving the deadline up. You look at the NBA and where their deadline’s at. I think the public and maybe the media and people who aren’t coaches or players might not understand really what it takes to understand a new system and being dropped into the deep end with a new team. And you can ask any NHL coach, at the start of camp, teams are learning a new system or teaching that system.
It takes 20 games before it really clicks. That’s why people say “let’s evaluate our team after 20 games” just because everybody’s running on the same page. So when you talk about dropping new players into new systems, for us, anyway, our D-zone coverage is different than the majority of teams. It takes time. I’ve got guys that we brought in this summer that it’s just finally clicking. But with that being said, I do.
All you need to know about latest NHL trade deadline dealings, including with @penguins — via @TheAthleticNHL LIVE blog 🏒https://t.co/3qH7vkO92d
— Rob Rossi (@Real_RobRossi) March 1, 2023
I think that’s part of why teams get ahead of the day. People always say you’re probably going to get your best offer, your best acquisition on the 11th hour. You know what? Sometimes you might roll the dice and you may not. Maybe you get your best deal done a week ahead or plus. But again, I’d be very interested in moving the deadline up. Even a month would be great for me personally.
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On why Meier was the focus
Timo, I think, his resume speaks for itself. He’s a presence out there. He’s a big body, he can skate. Real good hands, shoots the puck, he’s a goal scorer. He gets to the net, he’s tough to move out from the net front, holding on to pucks, in the corners, the dirty areas he gets to. The player itself is one thing, but when you look at the age, the control and then you think about adding that to your current group, it just made too much sense not to do this.
So negotiations were long and they were lasting. Hours and just tire kicking and then framing of a deal and then tightening up that framework and then trying to handicap the competition. … Mike Grier was great to work with. He was very thorough. He did his due diligence, listened to his team and then obviously like any good manager, you play one offer up against the other and you just keep squeezing.
On wanting to extend Meier
Very important. If you’re gonna give up those types of assets, you want to at least control him for a couple years, and we do with Timo. The goal here is to extend him. The goal is for him to fall in love with New Jersey — the on-ice product, the players, the age group, the living.
I’ve said this over and over again, if you don’t live here, you don’t understand it. You don’t know it. But it’s a hidden gem. It really is. … I mean, we’re in our bed every night anytime we play an Eastern Conference team at 1 in the morning at the very least. The airport’s 10 minutes away, one-stop shopping with practice facility/game facility. There’s a lot to like to like, a couple bus trips for games.
We travel the least out of every NHL team other than the neighbors here. So it’s just a lot to sell and that’s our goal. When he comes here, he’s gonna fall in love with it and understand that Newark to Zurich is nonstop five-and-a-half hours, so we’ll have family over for him.
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On Poile and Trotz
Both are mentors of mine, David, more so on the management side and Barry was great to me (and) was the guy who allowed me to be an extension of the coaching staff as the captain to really think about his coaching and my future. David’s a Hall of Famer, in my opinion, and I think in a lot of people’s opinion. You can’t stay in this business for as long as he has if you’re not successful. And people want to define success as winning a Cup, and that’s wrong.
Every year he’s had a competitive team. He built up the Nashville Predators. He built up that brand for the league and for that city. He means everything to the Nashville Predators. I do think he’s a Hall of Famer. We talked the other day, maybe I could be his last-ever trade. I’m going to give him a call and see. But with Barry, too, I’m actually lucky, as a young manager, I go to these GM meetings, I’ve got Lou Lamoriello — who is also a mentor; he was at Providence with me, he was my AD — on the right and I have David Poile, my mentor from Nashville, on my left. So Barry will be best to me and maybe I can help him along with some experience as well.
On what his Devils needs are now
I think anybody would say to continue to create some depth in your organization, whether it’s on the back end, whether it’s up front, the different styles of depth. You want to be able to play any type of game for any type of matchup, but you can never have enough depth.
And we’ll talk about maybe there’s a goalie piece out there that we should consider, too, just in case, especially after what we went through last year with using seven goalies. You just don’t know. So that’s all.
Listen, I firmly believe you build your team in the summer. And they grow together through training camp, they grow through a system. You evaluate where you are after 20 playing games, they get comfortable. Adding pieces is a necessity as well to win. But really, how much should you add? I’m not getting caught up with the whole, “We got Timo, we’re the third-best team in the league at this point.” … It is a window. It’s just starting. It’s a pretty big window. So, I trust the players that we have. I trust that what we’ve done this year is not a coincidence. And I believe in the coaches to continue to drive our team to play the right way each and every night.
(Photo: Sam Navarro / USA Today)