Top 4 Priorities for New Devils GM This Offseason

The New Jersey Devils are currently engaged in a search for a new head of hockey operations and general manager after letting Tom Fitzgerald go earlier this week. Whoever they bring in will have a whole lot of work ahead of them in getting this team back on track.

The Devils have now missed the playoffs in 11 of the last 14 years, since their last Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 2012.

Mike G. Morreale of NHL.com has suggested a list of top priority items that the new hockey boss will have to attend to, asap. Let's break it down, and look at four of them.

1. More scoring depth

Jack Hughes became a national hero and one of the most recognizable (toothless) faces in America with his Gold Medal-winning overtime goal against Canada at the Olympics. And his importance to the Devils' offense has once again been accentuated with his 72 points in 57 games. Those 1.26 points-per-game are his highest mark since his 99-point breakout season in 2022-23. But Hughes has a habit of missing time, and plenty of it, over the years.

The Devils are just 8-13-0 this season without him, and 40-55-11 overall since he joined the team as the first overall selection in the 2019 NHL Draft. He's only played an average of 60 games a season. New Jersey needs to find a way to tread water without Hughes for the 20-some-odd games a year he's likely to miss. As Morreale puts it, "The team needs to find a way to give its players and fan base some assurance that a collapse or goal-scoring drought isn't inevitable in the absence of its best player."

2. The futures of Dougie Hamilton & Simon Nemec

The defense corps could be due for a major overhaul this offseason, depending on how the new GM handles the futures of two key members of the blueline. Both Hamilton and Nemec had their names on the trade block for much of this season, for different reasons. For the former, the Devils were hoping to move on from the $9M cap hit that still has two more years run, to free up money to make other moves. For the youngster Nemec, he was a wanted man on the trade market anytime the Devils tried to make a significant move. The former No. 2 overall pick is coming off his ELC and is a restricted free agent this summer. The new boss has some big decisions to make on the blueline.

Is Markstrom the man between the pipes to lead the Devils into the future?

3. Get a grip on the goaltending

What is Jacob Markstrom's future as the team's No. 1 goalie? The 36-year-old is starting a new two-year extension ($6M AAV) next season, but after a so-so campaign (.883 save percentage, 3.07 GAA) is he really the man to lead the Devils to the next level? One thing we know is that Markstrom's future is not as the team's designated fighter.

WE GOT ANOTHER GOALIE FIGHT THIS TIME SHESTERKIN VS MARKSTROM 😳🥊 pic.twitter.com/CqkWXkVPpy
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 1, 2026

Morreale notes that a decision also needs to be made on 25-year-old Nico Daws. He's only gotten into seven games at the NHL level over the last two seasons, and has a pretty fancy .950 Sv% over that trial period.

4. Accountability for management, coaches and players

Morreale calls it establishing "credibility in the locker room." He notes that there wasn't really a belief around the team that management had a definitive long-term plan. He cited some frustrating moments during the season, and says that "Keeping an open line of communication with players, coaches and fans is especially crucial as many of New Jersey's key players enter prime contract years."

All in all, this team was built to win in the present. That obviously didn't happen in 2025-26, but the new management team that's brought in must get the Devils back to that mindset as soon as possible. That starts this summer.