I gotta say.. I am falling back in love with Fitz.
Since Fitz took over in January of 2020. The job he's done with the defense has just been spectacular...Fitz has reinvented this defense at 3 times now...after coming in with worse than nothing..the defense was utter dog shit. .
We had no real defensive prospects. Certainly none in Binghamton... Josh Jacobs was probably the best NHL ready prospect in 2020... We had just gotten Bahl in the Hall deal so there was that...he was easily our best defensive prospect at the time. Okhotyuk was still junior with the Ottawa 67's that year.
The big club had Andy Greene, Damon Severson, PK Subban, Micro Mueller, Will Butcher, Sami Vatanen, Connor Carrick, Mat Tennyson.... how's that for a shit bomb...
He immediately traded Greene to the Islanders, Vatanen to Carolina... Brought in Kulikov and Murray in the off season for the 2020-21 season...He drafts Muk at #20 that year...reinvent part 1
At the end of the 2020-21 season he trades for Siegenthaler. He drafts Luke Hughes in 2021 at #4 overall and he signs Graves and Hamilton for the 2021-22 season. 2022 draft he drafts Simone Nemec #2 overall. Reinvent part 2
Summer of 2023 Severson and Graves walk...Luke and Nemec are added. Summer of 2024 drafts Silayev #10 overall and Pesce and Dillon are added ... Reinvent part 3.
This is incredible...just an incredible job at building through the draft while simultaneously supplementing through trades and Free Agency. Just a great job.