How can you possibly say that they were bad decisions when the team is doing better and the players are doing worse?
The team is doing better because of solid additions in Pesce, Kovacevic, and Markstrom. You don't think having Sharangovich and Boqvist in our bottom 6 over guys like MacDermid, Bowers, and Dowling?
Boqvist was non-tendered by NJ and then waived by Boston within 4 months of each other. He's not a good player, being better than MacDermid and Bowers doesn't mean he was worth extending.
Boqvist is a skilled, versatile player who can play up and down the lineup - he's consistently produced like a middle 6 player at 5v5 in each of the last 4 years. I don't care if other teams waived him. He played great for Boston, especially in the playoffs, and has played well in Florida this year.
Letting him walk for nothing was a bigger mistake than trading away Sharangovich. At least there was some logic to that move (it still didn't make sense IMO, but it was defendable).
Sharangovich has 30 assists in 100 games since leaving NJ, how is that a versatile player?
How is that a measure of versatility? Dude can play C or wing and can play in all situations. How is that
not versatile?
Do you really think Sharangovich would have scored 30 goals last year with the way that team was built and all the injuries we sustained?
He wouldn't have needed to. Potting 15-25 from the middle 6 is great contribution.
He was a healthy scratch in the 2023 playoffs.
Maybe the guy who scratched Luke Hughes to play Brendan Smith didn't know what he was doing.
He is a detriment to his team when the puck isn't on his stick.
Disagree - he's right in the middle of the pack
He signed a 5.75M AAV extension that hasn't even kicked in yet, that's crazy for an okay PKer with a nice shot.
And to your earlier point, he probably signs here for 3-4M if he stayed in NJ with less scoring opportunities. That's great value for a guy who should be a constant threat for 20+ goals and 40+ points, and can kill penalties to boot.
If Holtz (who has more points than Sharangovich this season BTW) was given that same deal you would have had an aneurysm.
Holtz is garbage. I said when we drafted him that it was a massive mistake. We won that Cotter trade by a mile.
Also, Holtz has less goals and the same number of points as Sharangovich, despite rango playing 7 less games with a 3-4% on ice sh%
This isn't even mentioning Graves and Severson, both of whom signed long-term deals elsewhere and are in healthy scratch territory for their respective clubs. People were wringing their hands over them at the time and have gone quiet on that front too. Because Fitz made the right decision in letting them go. What's Kevin Bahl doing these days? Where is Nikita Okhotiuk? Does anyone know? Does anyone care?
I was quite happy with those moves, so I don't know why you are bringing them up. Fitz has done a lot of good things, and a fair amount of bad things
Fitz had to make do with whatever Shero left him, now that he's had some time to build the team he wants to build it's clear that he has a great understanding of what the team needs and what the team doesn't. The pieces he brings in are always needed and the pieces he lets go are always expendable.
The fact that he brought in Toffoli, drafted Holtz, and signed MacDermid to a 3 year deal shows that maybe he's not perfect. And don't get me started on keeping around Ruff for as long as he did.
We're 8th in the league in p%, it's not like we're dominating the league. And that's years of tanking, where we were gifted two 1st overall picks, a 2nd overall pick, a 4th overall pick, and a 7th overall pick. And we still missed the playoffs last year. If this team wasn't well above average I would say it's been grossly mismanaged.
What bad decisions has management made that has hurt the franchise in a material, tangible negative way? Give me specific examples. Signing Palat was bad, sure. What else? Hiring Ruff is really the only other major one I can think you can argue for, and even then it's clear that Ruff was going to be a transitional coach and never the long-term answer.
Wasting a 7th overall pick on Holtz when Rossi, Perfetti, Jarvis, and Lundell were still available? Drafting Mcleod over McAvoy (and then re-signing McLeod despite the rape stuff being up in the air). And obviously Hamilton is a massive liability that we can't move.
Nemec over Cooley is starting to look pretty bad as well. But he redeemed himself by grabbing Casey in the 2nd.
It's hard to be critical of anything else because his "bad decisions" have amounted to nothing of consequences.
Nothing of consequence? You mean other than wasting a year of prime Hughes, Bratt, Hischier, and Meier because he extended a terrible coach, shipped out speed and skill for slow and heavy, and wasn't able to bring in a goalie? You don't think that's consequential?
Players who accomplish nothing with the Devils leave the Devils and then accomplish nothing with other teams while getting paid more.
Like the guy who left and scored 30 goals and 59 points last year?
What's there to be critical of? Fitz makes the right decision every time, but people rush to jump to conclusions and make fools of themselves while doing so.
That's provably false.
Fitz has made more good moves than bad, but to pretend that he's been perfect is nothing short of zealotry. I'd probably give him a C+. I like him as our GM, but he's human and it's okay to admit that.
