Lindy Ruff should be the last option the New Jersey Devils want as head coach.
This New Jersey Devils head coaching search has gone on for a long time now. Now that the season is officially over, the Devils have reportedly interviewed five candidates for the position, and depending on who you ask may have inquired about a sixth. John Stevens, Gerald Gallant, Peter Laviolette, and Alain Nasreddine have been interviewed according to multiple outlets.
On Tuesday, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported that the “mystery candidate” was New York Rangers’ assistant and former Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff. It’s no secret why he would remain a “mystery” since he was apparently interviewing with a rival.
When a rival looks to take something from another rival, usually the fans are pretty upset. Leaving for the most hated enemy is sacrilege. However, that’s not what’s happening here. Rangers fans have more of a “they can have him” mentality when it comes to Ruff. That’s not good.
Ruff has been in charge of the Rangers power play and defense, a similar job that Nasreddine once held with the Devils. As you may know, the Rangers defense has been putrid at times and mediocre at best. The Devils need someone who could actually fix the issues they have on defense, and Ruff did not do that in New York. Jacob Trouba got worse in his first year there, Kevin Shattenkirk was so bad he was cut, and Marc Staal basically watched his career end. Sure, Tony DeAngelo and Adam Fox have been good this season, but they tend to feel like outliers overall when looking at the big picture.
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Ruff was the long-time head coach of the Sabres, taking them to the Stanley Cup Finals on the back of Dominik Hasek back in 1999. He had his time in the NHL, but he’s definitely someone who feels like the game has passed him by.
He is 60 years old after all. How much longer can he be the man behind the bench? Joel Quenneville is currently 61 years old, so he’s got Ruff beat. However, he went to a Florida Panthers team that acted like it was going to be ready to compete with some quickness. They signed Sergei Bobrovsky and had a very nice team around him. Ruff would be looking to implement a system during a pandemic, while they go through one of the weirdest offseasons imaginable.
Is he going to coach past the age of 65? Should anyone coach past that age? And being that he’s the age that he is, should the Devils be worried about putting him at risk during a pandemic by making him head coach, a position that cannot go without during any long stretch. The Devils would need to be careful as Ruff is close to the hot zone deadly COVID-19 cases. We know it seems a little premature, but that’s the world we live in now.
Ruff is just not the right candidate, and honestly, there were better options to interview. It seems like the Devils were trying to go for “anti-John Hynes” with their choice. They took a chance to hire a coach with no NHL experience. It could have worked, but he just fell off the reservation at the end. Now, they want experience or nothing. Unless you believe the rumors the Devils called about Rickard Gronberg. Point being, there’s better experience out there. Ruff is not the right person to lead this team.