Hire An Awesome Coach
If the New Jersey Devils hire a coach that is going to send them in the right direction, this season will eventually be known as the season we finally found the right coach. Who knows who that might be. It could be Gerard Gallant (yes, please) or Peter Laviolette (less enthused) or Mike Babcock (completely unenthused). No matter what, the Devils need to find the right coach for this crew.
All season long, we’ve talked about the possibility of Jon Cooper joining the Devils. Obviously, it looked a lot more possible before he took his team on an insane run back to a playoff spot. However, if the Tampa Bay Lightning get the Boston Bruins or Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round, we could see them getting knocked out again and Cooper losing his job.
It doesn’t have to be Cooper. It has to be somebody that’s going to take this Devils team into the right direction. Rikard Grönborg is a name we’ve been seeing more often, and could be really good. We will go into him more in a future article.
The Devils need to get their coach. John Hynes was not the right fit, and it looks like the coaches that are available compared to who might be a good fit, or who might want to come to New Jersey, and it’s all not seeming to fit right now. They need to find a coach. There are only going to be 32 of these jobs. Someone is going to swoop in and take a different coach (although the only other coaches hired are Devils retreads).
If the Devils hire an awesome coach, we’ll feel a lot better about the future.