Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald makes major admission on roster changes - "Won't be coming back the same"

The New Jersey Devils made the postseason, but general manager Tom Fitzgerald isn't interested in running it back. They were the third seed in the Metropolitan Division and were bounced from the playoffs in five games.

With the top of their division and the conference pretty filled with good teams, the Devils are looking to make major changes. Even after what would be defined as a strong season in Sheldon Keefe's first with the team, Fitzgerald isn't happy.

During an end-of-season press conference on Thursday, Fitzgerald said,

"We won't be coming back with the same group. Because it was just not good enough."

The GM added:

"I like our group, my job is to continue to better the group. And we've got a lot of decision to make on certain players, bringing guys back, trade players."

They have several decisions to make on key players, and Fitzgerald is anticipating a different roster by the time October rolls around.

Fitzgerald put the onus squarely on the players for this season.

"Players underachieved," Fitzgerald said. "I think players who have given us depth scoring [in the past] didn't."

They finished 42-33-7, nine points behind the Carolina Hurricanes and 20 points behind the Washington Capitals. The Hurricanes bounced them from the playoffs with an overtime win in Game 5 in New Jersey.

---

New Jersey Devils facing key questions about players

If Tom Fitzgerald is interested in reshaping the New Jersey Devils roster, this is arguably a good offseason to do it. The Devils have a lot of outgoing free agents that they can just replace with other players.

Tomas Tatar is hitting unrestricted free agency (Imagn)

Forwards Tomas Tatar, Nathan Bastian, Curtis Lazar, Daniel Sprong and Justin Dowling are headed for unrestricted free agency. Defensemen Brian Dumoulin, Dennis Cholowski and goaltender Jake Allen are also headed there.

The Devils also have a few RFAs coming up: forwards Cody Glass and Nolan Foote, as well as defenseman Luke Hughes. New Jersey had previously missed the playoffs, but they were able to return. That, however, is not Fitzgerald's goal, as he wants more success.