New Jersey Devils: 5 College Coaches Who Could Be Head Coach

Greg Carvel – University of Massachusetts

Greg Carvel is the type of college coach we really look for. He jumped from the NHL coaching ranks (assistant coach with the Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators from 1999-2011) to the college ranks to get a head coaching job. He has that background in the professional leagues, then went to college to get head coaching experience.

He’s been with UMass for three seasons now. In his first season, they won just five games. He brought them back from the dead, winning 31 games last season and going all the way to the NCAA Championship Game.

This season, he’s had the Minutemen in the Top 15 the entire season, and was going to be a contender once the Frozen Four Tournament was expected to start. Now, obviously, that’s not the case.

Unlike most of the coaches on this list, Carvel doesn’t feel like a lifetime NCAA coach. He’s been in the Stanley Cup Finals twice as an assistant coach. He’s shown he can take a franchise from obscurity to propensity in really no time at all. This would be a very intriguing hire for the Devils.

His team has the seventh-best scoring margin in the country, and he just got done coaching up Cale Makar to be the player he is now, which is one of the best defensemen in the league in his early 20s. He’s proven he can develop the best of the best, which he’s getting in Hischier and Jack Hughes.