The New Jersey Devils have fired their head coach already this season. They are going to be looking hard for the right one, but a wise decision is pivotal.
There have been six head coaches fired so far this season. That’s a lot and it is only January. Some of them were because of misconduct or personal issues. The New Jersey Devils were one of those teams to fire their head coach. John Hynes is a good man but the reason was fired was because the team wasn’t good. His system was good for the team when they had a rough roster but it wasn’t fitting the personnel that is there now.
They have promoted Alain Nasreddine to be the interim head coach. Things started off poorly for him, but that was expected. It is hard for a guy to step up and implement a new style while the games are still coming in bunches. It took some time but it seems that the Devils are beginning to play much better. They have six wins in their last ten games with a 6-3-1 record over that span. They have turned it around and the relieving of John Hynes along with the Taylor Hall trade both seemed to have changed the way this team plays.
This team needs a system that will allow them to play to their strengths. There are speedy youngsters like Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, and Nikita Gusev that need to be free. Not every coach has a style that will allow them to do that. For that reason, the Devils need to make sure that if they let Nasreddine go in the offseason they need to have the right guy in place. Avoiding these three free-agent coaches would be a great start: