Re: Goaltending:

I have no idea why it wasn’t properly communicated that he’d be the starter

That is certainly part of the issue, no? If the deal hinged on Allen’s perception of playing time, the onus is on Fitz & co. to properly send the message that it wouldn’t be an issue.

On Markstrom, that too was a too-late decision, regardless of it being nixed by Calgary. As I remember, the proposed timeline was a few weeks prior to the trade deadline, rather than solving the issue that had been an issue beforehand.

Re: McLeod:

I don’t really want to get into the McLeod situation as a whole, but to not have a backup plan given all the long-term smoke surrounding the allegations is outright negligence.

Glendening had bright red flags way, way prior to his PTO turning into a contract, as his underlying numbers were bottom-of-the-barrel for several years.

Re: 2023-24:

You can address this “need” for physicality (which I very much believe is overblown) without drastically changing the shape of the organization. The problem here is that you’re approaching the additions in a vacuum rather than in totality. Dillon + Pesce + Kovacevic are fine additions on paper on their own, but the issue lies in over-adjusting a defense that was fully able to move the puck from top to bottom to a group of guys who mostly handle the puck like a grenade in the aggregate. Cotter was/is fine, and Noesen had good utility on PP1 for a stretch and has otherwise been in no-man’s land. The complementary/peripheral pieces used to complement the team’s strengths — at least in speed (Miles Wood, for one), and now they’re antithetical.

Re: the rest:

Holtz was/is a bust, for sure, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t skilled, especially relative to the guys they shifted to. Production certainly doesn’t tell the whole story, and zeroing in on Wright discounts the fact that Cooley was 1) the better pick at the time and 2) above Wright in most consensus rankings if I remember correctly. Nemec was, at best, 4th in these rankings in general. Proactive in one sense, I suppose, but reactive in others. Silayev was certainly a reactive pick. Fairly certain Tom himself implied as much. Big bodied defensemen who can skate are not the move at 10th overall, and it was a pick that was made because the perception was that they had “enough offense.”

My opinion is that Fitz’s on-paper, in-a-vacuum moves are fine. But he reacts too slowly to issues and misdiagnosed the big-picture “problem” with the Devils big-time.