It is a new era under the new General Manager of the New Jersey Devils, Sunny Mehta. After being named the successor to Tom Fitzgerald in New Jersey about a month ago, Mehta has made changes not only to the front of the ice but also to the coaching staff. While some of these changes were necessary as a new general manager likes his own staff, Mehta is retaining Sheldon Keefe as the head coach of the Devils.
It is newsworthy because of what we have seen: coaches like Craig Berube and Kris Knoblauch have already lost their jobs this offseason. In addition, the coaching carousel started towards the end of the regular season, with the New York Islanders moving on from Patrick Roy and bringing in Peter DeBoer. While the Vegas Golden Knights relieved Bruce Cassidy of his duties and brought in John Tortorella.
Sheldon Keefe Wants To Return as New Jersey Devils Head Coach But Will He?
So, given the uncertainty in sports these days, no one would have been surprised to see the New Jersey Devils move on from Sheldon Keefe. But this is a big prove-it year for Sheldon Keefe and the New Jersey Devils. The Devils players backed Keefe in the exit interviews at the end of the season. But let’s be honest here, we saw the same thing on the Island with Patrick Roy when Mathieu Darche came in.
Evaluate the coach throughout the season, and if a change is necessary, get ahead of the game. But Keefe has shown what he can do, despite the flawed roster construction and injuries this past season. We are going to find out if it was Tom Fitzgerald asking Keefe to coach differently or Keefe’s system itself.
But part of that question may have already been answered, given how the New Jersey Devils played coming out of the Olympic Break, when the team played at a more up-tempo pace. So, for now, Sheldon Keefe is safe as he has two more years left on his deal. However, given that Brad Shaw and Jeremy Coliton remain on the staff, the results now fall on Sheldon Keefe’s feet.
Sheldon Keefe: “I Believe I Can Be Part of the Solution“
So while the head coach is staying and getting a little more evaluation time, Mehta didn’t need to see any more from Dave Rogalski to know a change was necessary. The Devils announced Rogalski was relieved of his duties as goaltending coach on Tuesday. In addition, Sergei Brylin will be moving to another position within the organization, off the bench.
Rogalski has been under fire from the fanbase over the past several seasons, given how the goaltenders have played. Now, to be fair, he never truly had a number one goalie, but given how former goalies like Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood are playing, it speaks to his development of goalies.
And this move was long overdue, given the struggles of Jacob Markstrom last season. Remember, Fitzgerald, before being fired, signed Markstrom to a new two-year extension at $6 million AAV with Jake Allen as the backup. The previous year, this tandem brought the Devils back to the playoffs. This past season, the Devils missed.
Many were surprised that no changes were made to the staff during the season, especially to the goalie coach. Around the league, teams were making changes to help their goalies improve, none bigger than with the Islanders and Ilya Sorokin. Piero Greco was fired, and Sorokin’s KHL goalie coach Sergei Naumovs was promoted from the NHL.
The Writing Was on the Wall for Tom Fitzgerald To Lose His Job in New Jersey
In addition, the Montreal Canadiens, who are now in the Eastern Conference Final, moved on from their goalie coach, Eric Raymond, and promoted Marco Marciano to interim goaltending coach for the remainder of the season. That move has paid off in spades for the Canadiens and goaltender Jakub Dobes.
So any change would have been good to help Markstrom and raise that .883 save percentage. Something needed to give this past season, and it didn’t. Now, Mehta, who moved on from assistant general manager Dan MacKinnon, and Senior Advisor Chuck Fletcher are making the staff their own, as he brought Braden Birch with him from the Florida Panthers to be an assistant GM of the Devils and the GM of the AHL’s Utica Comets.
It’s clear that Sunny Mehta wants to bring a winning mindset and good decision-makers to the organization. That is just off the ice. The expectation is that Mehta will make other changes to the roster to get the Devils back into the playoffs.
