Elliotte Friedman

A hundred people sent me that story.

I had at least a hundred people who sent me that.

We're not going to, if you want to go search it, go do it yourself.

Yes.

Because I'm not sure what the Rogers editorial standards are for this kind of conversation.

But I had about a hundred people send me that story.

Earlier this week, Matt Marchese asked me on a show with Mike Futa which of these openings I thought was going to go down first.

And I really felt it was New Jersey.

I just didn't know that it would be this quickly.

But I had a feeling it was going to be them first because one of the things that was kind of making its way around the NHL was that

Tom Fitzgerald had asked the Devils for clarity on his future because if they were going to let him go, I think he wanted the opportunity to interview in Nashville where he was the first captain, at least for that job.

And I don't believe that the Devils were going to do that.

I think it was their goal to have the season finish and then make any decision that they were going to make.

Instead, what happened was a couple Saturdays ago, we mentioned on Hockey Night on the headline segment that Toronto had interest in Sonny Mehta.

And they definitely did.

And two days later, they announced that Tom Fitzgerald wouldn't be returning and that they had an open search.

I don't think those two things are a coincidence.

Mehta was going to be a candidate in Toronto.

The Maple Leafs were interested and the Devils wanted to have him back.

And, you know, I think what happened there is that