A future NHL GM? Meghan Duggan working toward her own 'huge, lofty goal' as she helps Devils chase theirs

For the first three decades of her life, reaching the peak of womens hockey was Meghan Duggans driving force.

She wanted an Olympic gold medal.

Needed one.

There was heartbreak along the way namely a blown third-period lead to Canada in the 2014 gold-medal game but she eventually got there.

In 2018, with Duggan as captain, Team USA beat Canada in a shootout to take the Olympic crown.

Duggan dogpiled with her teammates and pumped her fist in elation.

Shed done it.

Advertisement That gold-medal game was the last time Duggan ever played for Team USA.

At 30 years old, it was time for a new chapter for one of the most decorated U.S.

hockey players in history.

Gone were the grueling practices, the thrills of competition, the chase for a collective goal.

Duggan needed to find new sources of purpose and motivation.

Confronting that, she says, was the hardest and most emotional part of the transition.

Being a player for so long and everything that comes with that, theres always that identity crisis of Ive thrown my entire life into something since I can remember, and now Im still a really passionate, driven person, and what can I put that into? she says.

What do you do when youve achieved your dreams? You make new ones.

Duggan is not short on drive.

She wanted to stay in hockey post-retirement and worked to make it happen.

Over the course of her career, people around the sport told Duggan to reach out if she needed anything.

Those comments werent throw-aways to Duggan.

She took them up on it and had probably 25, 30, 35 phone calls and meetings with people in the league.

That initiative ultimately brought the now-37-year-old to the New Jersey Devils and the role of director of player development.

It could lead her to even higher peaks in the coming years.

She has found the managerial side of her job interesting and plans to continue learning and growing.

Someday, she wants to be an NHL general manager.

Ive always been someone that (thinks), Why not set a huge, lofty goal for myself? she says.

I did that when I was a young kid.

It takes a long time to get there and a lot of hard work.

But Im not afraid to set a big goal.

One of Duggans early phone calls in her post-playing career was to Ray Shero, who won the 2009 Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins as general manager and then held the same position with the Devils.

Shed connected with Shero through USA Hockey in the past, and he put her in touch with 10 other people to talk to, including New Jersey general manager Tom Fitzgerald and Kate Madigan, then the Devils director of hockey operations.

Advertisement When speaking with Duggan for the first time, Fitzgerald was instantly struck by her hockey IQ and passion for the sport.

She had a matter-of-fact attitude, and Fitzgerald liked her playing experience.

He also knew she was talking with the Philadelphia Flyers and the Penguins.

After the call, he spoke with assistant general manager Dan MacKinnon and Madigan, now an assistant general manager.

We need to hire her before someone else does, Fitzgerald told them.

I dont want to lose her.

Fortunately for the Devils, they didnt.

In May 2021, Fitzgerald hired Duggan as manager of player development, a newly created role, making her the first known openly gay person to work in an NHL front office.

A year later, the team promoted her to her current position.

Duggan, who is based in Toronto, views her job as dynamic.

It changes every day, which she loves.

Some days, shes at the rink with the Devils AHL players in Utica, at times getting on the ice herself to work with players.

She travels frequently, visiting and communicating with prospects playing at the college and junior level.

Ultimately the way I view my role is to really try to support and help maximize the talent of our young prospects and young pros, she says.

Shes a big help for our organization, adds 21-year-old Luke Hughes , one of the young players the Devils have developed.

Now that Duggan is in her fourth season with the Devils, she has seen players like Hughes go through the full evolution from prospect to player.

Defenseman Seamus Casey is another example.

Duggan first met him at the draft in 2022, when New Jersey picked him 46th overall.

Casey then went to the University of Michigan, where Duggan and development coach Eric Weinrich, now an interim assistant at AHL Utica, looked after his development.

Advertisement I was doing video with her and Weinrich and the skills coaches and stuff, Casey says.

It wouldnt be all the time.

...

Strategic is the right word.

It always felt like it was kind of at a time where maybe I needed to hear from them.

In the middle of Caseys sophomore year, for example, he found himself struggling offensively.

Duggan hopped on a Zoom call with him.

They watched tape and focused on his play with the puck at the offensive blue line, looking at instances in which he could have made plays.

A lot of times it helps to just look at it with different sets of eyes, Casey says.

Casey is still only 21, but so far he has developed well under the Devils watch.

He made the NHL roster out of training camp, scoring three goals in eight games before going down to Utica, where he has 14 points in 17 games.

The Athletic s Scott Wheeler ranks him as New Jerseys No.

3 prospect .

Casey says Duggan and the development staff have recently focused with him on the defensive side of his game.

Recently she encouraged him to be more physical on the puck.

Fitzgerald says Duggan has a plan for every prospect in the organization, and she, Fitzgerald and the front office go through those plans to make sure everybody is in sync.

He calls Duggan the maestro of the orchestra.

Shes making sure the skating coach is with so-and-so, and the skill and development coaches are working on X, Y and Z and our assistant coaches are working on wall play, in-game development, Fitzgerald says.

It really is a fine-tuned machine.

Along with her Devils responsibilities, Duggan works as a special consultant to hockey operations for the PWHL .

Her focuses include rules and competition, how to evolve the game and, of course, player development.

Duggan juggles her professional responsibilities with raising three kids under the age of 5.

Duggan and her wife, three-time Olympic gold medalist Gillian Apps, rely on full-time help, as well as family help, so they can both pursue their careers.

Duggan travels every week, and she sometimes brings her youngest child, 1-year-old Sophie, along with her.

Advertisement Im not going to sugarcoat it: Balancing being a working parent is really hard, she says.

But you find ways to make it work.

Though Duggan is early in her post-playing career, NHL teams have already taken notice of her.

She, Madigan and MacKinnon all interviewed for the Penguins general manager opening at the end of the 2022-23 season.

Fitzgerald remembers Duggan initially wasnt sure she wanted to take the interview, but he pushed her to take it.

The experience, he believed, would benefit her.

To put myself through something where I had to be so prepared and so sharp and (get) asked difficult questions, I really enjoyed it from a personal development standpoint, she says.

At this point in my career, thats really all I can ask for: ways to learn and grow and be put in scenarios where I can get better at what Im doing on the day-to-day.

Duggan doesnt know her exact timeline for becoming a general manager, but she views it as a set goal.

And, as shes shown throughout her life, she often finds a way to get where shes striving toward.

(Top photo courtesy of the Devils.).

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