New Jersey Devils: Ray Shero's Past Could Determine John Hynes Future

The New Jersey Devils were the 2019 offseason champions. After winning the lottery and landing Jack Hughes, trading for P.K. Subban and Nikita Gusev, and signing Wayne Simmonds, expectations were high.

Most sportsbooks set the Devils point total at 90.5 after all the moves. A reasonable expectation given questions in net and players with no NHL experience like Hughes, Gusev, and Boqvist jumping into the lineup.

Now they’re off to a rocky start, 0-3-2, with two losses at home where they gave up late leads to lose in the shootout. It’s certainly too early to overreact, and too early to fire John Hynes, but it’s not too early to take a look at the possibility, and specifically the history with Ray Shero.

First, lets talk about the Devils throughout John Hynes tenure. Hynes took over before the 2015-16 season. We should scratch that season since the roster was, to put it lightly, brutal. To be fair it takes time to install a new system.

Since 2016-17 the Devils rank:

25th in point %

27th in CF% at 5v5

19th in xGF% at 5v5

18th in PP GF/60

22nd in PP xGF/60

Considering the talent, some of this isn’t that bad, but there is certainly reason for concern.

More from Pucks and Pitchforks

During the 2015-16 season the Toronto Maple Leafs started 1-1-3. Coach Mike Babcock stated after the start his goal was to take 6 points every 5 games. That’s a 98 point pace, which doesn’t guarantee a playoff spot but anything over 95 gives a team a very good chance at making the playoffs.

What does that mean for the Devils? 93 points in 77 games. What does that look like? A 45-29-3 record. Not impossible, but for a bubble team projected at 90.5 points, the deeper the hole the harder its going to be to get out.

So now the tables been set for Hynes, but what has Ray Shero done in similar situations?

Shero took over the Penguins in 2006, where he inherited Michel Therrien as his head coach. Therrien lasted until the 2008-09 season when he was fired midseason after coaching the Penguins to a 27-25-5 record. Therrien was replaced by Dan Bylsma who had just assumed his first full time head coaching gig in Wilkes-Barre.

After Bylsma took over the Penguins, they finished the regular season 18-3-4 on the road to the Stanley Cup. Don’t get the wrong idea here. The Devils are not the 2008-09 Pittsburgh Penguins, as they don’t have Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

Next. Pavel Zacha Crucial To Devils Success. dark

Firing John Hynes doesn’t automatically fix everything and doesn’t make them a playoff team. However, the precedent has been set. Ray Shero is willing to fire underachieving head coaches.

Not only is he willing to do so, but he showed he wasn’t afraid of promoting an AHL coach who was in the middle of his 1st full time head coaching job.

The Devils have a much more seasoned AHL coach than Bylsma at that point in his career. While Mark Dennehy is a head coach in the AHL for the first time, he has 13 years of NCAA division 1 head coaching experience.

Along with Dennehy, Bylsma is currently employed by the Detroit Red Wings, however its as an assistant coach. It doesn’t seem likely the Devils would be able to pry Bylsma away from Detroit midseason, but anything is possible.

Shero isn’t afraid to fire a head coach midseason, and he clearly isn’t scared of replacing them with someone with no NHL head coaching experience. This is a crucial season for the Devils. Wasting a season with Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier on ELC’s and Taylor Hall on one of the most team friendly deals that’s expiring would be far from ideal. Hynes has some time to turn it around, but there has to be a limit.

Statistics from Natural Stat Trick and Hockey Reference.

Home / Analysis