Lindy Ruff impressed the New Jersey Devils with his experience from decades of coaching. Tom Fitzgerald wowed ownership with his moves in a few short months as general manager.

The Devils on Thursday hired Ruff as coach and removed Fitzgerald's interim tag to give him the full-time GM job. Ruff, who coached the Sabres from 1997-2013 and took Buffalo to the Stanley Cup Final in 1999, got the job over interim coach Alain Nasreddine and fellow veteran coaches Gerard Gallant, Peter Laviolette and John Stevens.

"The group needs a teacher - someone who's going to come in and teach and the message is going to be extremely clear," said Fitzgerald, who ran the coaching search. "As the process continued to move forward, Lindy just continued to step to the forefront. One, I was looking for experience: NHL head coaching experience. Two, presence: someone who has been there, done that and could walk into a room and actually grab the attention of our young team."