New Jersey Devils: Without More Answers, Jim Montgomery Should Be Off The Table
By Nick Villano
The New Jersey Devils should skip Jim Montgomery in their coaching search.
The New Jersey Devils seem to be leaving no stone unturned when it comes to their head coaching search. They don’t even have a full-time general manager, but they are going forth with interviewing a collection of candidates including former head coaches like John Stevens and Gerard Gallant. We wouldn’t be surprised if in the coming weeks and possibly months we hear they reach out to some names like Peter Laviolette or even a slim possibility of interviewing Mike Babcock.
One name they should probably just leave on the table is former Dallas Stars head coach Jim Montgomery. He’s a name that’s come back into light this week after an interview with Pierre LeBrun of TSN.
Montgomery was unceremoniously fired as head coach of the Dallas Stars in the middle of this season. It wasn’t because of something that happened on the ice, but absolutely something that happened off of it. Here’s the thing, unlike with Bill Peters with the Calgary Flames, who had a lot coming out after he was let go. The same goes with Babcock, who had some situations come out that were less than ideal. Montgomery’s transgressions never became public knowledge.
Even in this interview with LeBrun, Montgomery just says he’s been dealing with his alcoholism and hopes to become a head coach again one day. He says a lot of the right things. He claims the Stars made the right move and that he wouldn’t change history if he could. However, Montgomery can’t get a high-profile job with so many questions surrounding his situation.
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Forever we will ask what happened. Did he do something that is downright heinous, to the point of disguise? Was it something that could be chalked up to a misunderstanding gone terribly wrong? How far across the line did Montgomery go? If we never know, then he’ll never get past it. Never is a long time, and it’s a word that’s overused in media. This is the true version of never. He’s a very good coach, but nothing is worth the way Montgomery will make the franchise look at this point.
The Devils should just skip the situation entirely. Even if Montgomery is willing to tell the Devils what happened, without public knowledge there’s no point in even going down this path.