The San Jose Sharks are still to this moment one of the biggest disappointments in the league. They sit near the very bottom of the Western Conference with a record of 19-21-4. This is a team that was in the Western Conference Finals last season and had similar hopes this year. They just haven’t lived up to those expectations and they fired their head coach Peter DeBoer because of it. He was a good coach with the Sharks for a long time now but things weren’t well this season and they needed to do something.
As you probably know, DeBoer is a former head coach of the New Jersey Devils. He coached in 248 games with New Jersey over parts of four seasons. He had a record of 114-93-41. He also led the Devils to the Stanley Cup Final in 2012. He made the playoffs in every full season he was the head coach of the Sharks as well. In one of those years (2016), they made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. He had a good run in both cities but it had to end both times.
The reason he wouldn’t be a good fit for the modern-day Devils is that the Devils just need to move on. They don’t need to be hiring anyone that used to work for them. The league is changing and they need to change with it. They have some great young players that are going to be elite in this league so they need the right guys to come in and help them. DeBoer is a fine coach but bringing him back to New Jersey is not the answer.
The NHL is a beautiful league but too many teams suffer from recycling the same old coaches. The Devils need to look forward instead of backward. If a recyclable coach becomes available that is the right guy, like Jon Cooper, then they should go after him. If not, they could go the college route or give a new guy a chance to come in and coach. Look at what Mike Sullivan did for the Pittsburgh Penguins during his tenure. DeBoer coming back would seem like this team is going backward so they should probably look ahead to someone new.