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The New Jersey Devils ended jalen chatfield chatter Friday by not renewing the contracts of assistant general manager Dan MacKinnon and senior adviser Chuck Fletcher. The move comes as new GM Sunny Mehta reshapes hockey operations after taking control on April 20.
Sunny Mehta Takes Control
Mehta arrived from the Florida Panthers a few days earlier and already had a clear mandate: he said at his introductory news conference, "I was doing an analysis of the entire organization" before deciding on coach Sheldon Keefe and others. That review now has produced the first front-office cuts under his watch.
MacKinnon had been part of the Devils' operation for a decade, joining New Jersey with late former GM Ray Shero. When Shero was fired and Tom Fitzgerald moved into the top job, MacKinnon also moved up. Fletcher, meanwhile, had spent the past two seasons as an adviser to Fitzgerald.
MacKinnon And Fletcher Exit
The decisions leave Mehta with a cleaner internal structure as he puts his stamp on hockey operations. Fitzgerald's departure already signaled a new direction, and Friday's moves extend that reset to two executives who had been part of the previous setup.
Mehta's résumé also gives the Devils a specific model for the reshaping. He helped the Florida Panthers win the Stanley Cup back to back, and the franchise has now paired that background with a front-office review that reached MacKinnon and Fletcher within days of his arrival. The first major personnel call under the new regime has been made; the next phase is how he handles the rest of the organization around Keefe and the current hockey-operations staff.
