Tom Fitzgerald leaves Penguins organization, named Assistant GM for Devils

The New Jersey Devils today named Tom Fitzgerald to the position of Assistant General Manager.

“Tom Fitzgerald has extensive experience as both a player and now in hockey operations, having served in several significant roles over the past eight seasons,” Ray Shero said in a released statement. “He is well-respected throughout the league, and I feel that he is an ideal fit for our team. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Pittsburgh Penguins for their cooperation in allowing Tom to join our organization.”

Fitzgerald has been planning his exit from the Penguins organization for months and Shero has had his eye on bringing Fitzgerald on-board from the start. Former Devils GM Lou Lamoriello was named the Toronto Maple Leafs new GM on Thursday as the entire Devils franchise is in Shero’s control with Lamoriello now out of the way.

Fitzgerald is regarded around the league by executives as a great evaluator of personnel and viewed by many as a future General Manager.

Fitzgerald’s no non-sense approach led to many dust up’s with Penguins GM Jim Rutherford recently. Rutherford in his first year as General Manager has worked the closest with Jason Karmanos who is in charge of the analytics department and assistant GM Bill Guerin.

Fitzgerald was highly animated with Rutherford in a public setting during the end of the NHL draft over differences of a potential personnel decision and those type of dust up’s were common.

The Penguins will not receive compensation for losing Fitzgerald.