Yahoo Sports Devils Lead League In Unexpected Category
This summer, New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald set his sights on hockey players who are comfortable with confrontation and who understand that physicality is part of the game.
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That mindset led him to re-sign Kurtis MacDermid, acquire Johnathan Kovacevic and Paul Cotter, and pursue Brenden Dillon and Stefan Noesen in free agency.
They were not the flashiest moves of the summer, but they have been highly effective in the first 20 games of the 2024-25 season.
In Thursday's 6-2 victory over the Florida Panthers, MacDermid dropped the gloves against Jonah Gadjovich. The brawl was the Devils' league-leading 10th of the season.
To Fitzgerald's credit, he added much-needed toughness to his roster. As the graphic below shows, five of those 10 fights have come from new personnel.
The Los Angeles Kings have the second-most fights at nine through 18 games.
In addition to the spectacle that is a hockey fight, the Devils have improved their number of hits per game.
Per MSG Networks, Leo Scaglione Jr., the Devils' hits per game this season are 25.3, sixth-most in the league. By comparison, last season, the club was 26th in the league (20.3 hits), and two seasons ago, it was 29th (16.7 hits).
Scaglione's colleague, Nick Cahill, added that since the NHL officially began tracking hits during the 2005-06 season, the Devils have averaged the most hits this season.
Cotter leads the team in this category with 59. Dillon is credited with the second-most with 52, followed by Noesen with 51. Then there is a drop off to Timo Meier with 38.
When head coach Sheldon Keefe spoke about his team's newfound physicality, he gave all the credit to his general manager.
"It comes from (Fitzgerald)," Keefe said. "Some of the changes he made, the people he brought in all have an element of that. Whether it's outward toughness or size, physicality, that way. A lot of our structure and system without the puck requires physicality, closing fast, finishing plays whether it's a forecheck or track through the neutral zone or defensive zone."
It is not about going out and acquiring the best players but the right ones. Through the first 20 games of the season, Fitzgerald looks like a guaranteed finalist for the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award this spring for his strategic moves.
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