The New Jersey Devils said Friday they are not renewing the contracts of assistant general manager Dan MacKinnon and senior adviser Chuck Fletcher, the latest change as new general manager Sunny Mehta reshapes the club’s hockey operations after taking over control on April 20.
The moves were expected after Mehta was hired a few days earlier from the Florida Panthers, where he helped win the Stanley Cup back to back. At his introductory news conference, Mehta said he was doing “an analysis of the entire organization” before deciding what to do about coach Sheldon Keefe and others.
For MacKinnon, the split closes a long run in New Jersey that began a decade ago, when he joined the club with late former general manager Ray Shero. He later received a promotion when Shero was fired and Tom Fitzgerald was named his successor. Fletcher’s departure ends a shorter stint, though he had served as an adviser to Fitzgerald for the past two seasons.
The front-office overhaul follows a broader shift in direction after Fitzgerald and ownership decided the longtime GM should depart. That left Keefe’s status in uncertainty and handed Mehta the task of setting the next phase of the organization almost as soon as he arrived.
What happens next is whether Mehta keeps making changes beyond the front office, because he has already shown he intends to review the whole operation before settling on the Devils’ next structure.
