Fitzgerald: Devils will 'take off' once Hughes, Hischier develop

New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald is putting his faith in the team's young core to develop and help create a winning culture rather than relying on bringing in immediate help with big moves.

"I'm not looking for a quick fix here. When this team takes off is when (Jack Hughes) and (Nico Hischier) take off for good," Fitzgerald said, according to NHL.com's Mike Morreale. "They're the type of players that can pull everybody with you.

"I'm going to be true to myself and true to this plan that we're not going to get ahead of ourselves. We're going to do this the right way and we're going to chip away and we're going to find the right support for our young future stars to help them grow, because they're still so young and they're ready to go."

The Devils iced one of the youngest and most inexperienced teams in the league during the 2019-20 season, finishing the year with just three players over the age of 30.

Beyond Hischier and Hughes, New Jersey is backstopped by the 23-year-old MacKenzie Blackwood and has a good crop of young prospects. Fitzgerald is willing to wait for his star players to progress properly.

"(Hischier) is in his fourth year and I know he's ready to take a big step," Fitzgerald said. "(Hughes) is going to take a step, we're just not sure how big that step will be. It's going to be exciting to see how big of a step he takes. We want to allow our kids to grow at their pace without rushing them into the NHL because we need to."

The Devils parted ways with Taylor Hall, Blake Coleman, Sami Vatanen, Andy Greene, and Wayne Simmonds during the 2019-20 season. As a result, they have nine picks in the upcoming draft, including three in the first round.

"It's exciting times," Fitzgerald said. "Sometimes it may be hard to not have an itchy trigger finger and pull things off because they look great, but it just has to make sense for where we're at and where we want to go."

He added: "The only thing I'm looking forward to is helping these young kids like (Hughes and Hischier), the rest of the prospects, the core kids, and watch them develop and grow together. Then whenever that time is, we just watch them create that winning culture. That's what I'm trying to do right now."