New Jersey Devils Most Important Position To Fill Is Goaltending Coach

The New Jersey Devils no longer have Roland Melanson on staff.

The job done by now-former New Jersey Devils goaltender coach Roland Melanson was no short of miraculous. He often fell under the radar, but look back at what he was tasked with. The goalie position has been the weak spot for most of the past three seasons when Melanson was here, but he hasn’t been given chicken salad if you know what we mean.

Start with Cory Schneider. Melanson came here from Vancouver as someone who’s been with Cory Schneider when he was at his very best. When the Devils traded for Schneider, he was one of the elite goalies in the league. The only reason he was traded is the Canucks already had one of the best in Roberto Luongo in net.

When Melanson took the Devils job, Schneider was coming off his first disastrous season in net. In 2016-17, Schneider posted a .908 save percentage. If was the first year he had a save percentage under .920 with the Devils. Something felt extremely off, but it was hard to figure out why. The next season, the problem persisted. He actually started the season in really good shape.

Schneider had a .920 save percentage going into the New Year. However, John Hynes played him for a ridiculous amount of games in a row as he was riding a wild hot streak at the end of December. It seemed that move ended up putting serious wear on his hip, and the next three months was a roller coaster of injury stints, terrible play, and playing cheerleader for Keith Kinkaid. Melanson spent a lot of time trying to get Schneider back in his game.

More from Pucks and Pitchforks

Obviously, that’s been the case for most of Melanson’s time with the Devils. He’s seen Schneider go everywhere from playoff dominance to wild optimism all the way down to worst goalie in the NHL. Schneider’s wild ride has to put a lot of stress on his coaches.

Also, during his time with the Devils, Melanson had to work with youngster Mackenzie Blackwood. It feels like forever ago, but Blackwood was once thought of as a lost cause after a terrible stint in the AHL. He was even demoted to the ECHL at one point. However, Blackwood persisted and now looks like one of the better young goalies (although there is a lot of competition) in the league. That turnaround is partially thanks to the goalie coach working with Blackwood night in and night out.

Keith Kinkaid played his best under Melanson and hasn’t been the same since. There’s not much we have to explain here.

Now, the Devils are in a strange position. Are they going to keep Schneider without the coach that knows him best? It’s intriguing to say the least. If they do decide to keep Schneider this offseason as the team’s backup, then whoever replaces Melanson as the goalie coach has a lot of work to do with Schneider. He had a decent end to his season, but he was forced to play a large part of his season in the minors. The next coach needs to see if they can get the late-season Schneider to play from start to finish.

Also, it’s not a guarantee that Mackenzie Blackwood is going to come out of the gate like he did all last season. Remember, part of the reason for the Devils absolute dismal season is Blackwood was awful to start, just like Schneider. He had a .871 save percentage in October and a .908 save percentage in November. He’s extremely inconsistent still. It’s what is expected from a 23-year-old goalie.

Next. 5 Devils Targets On Trade Bait List. dark

Whoever comes in here next will have to make sure that Blackwood becomes a .920 goalie over a season instead of over a month. The Devils need someone who can do this every night instead of dominating one month then being a liability the next month.

Whoever takes over after is the most important decision for Lindy Ruff‘s staff. If the Devils don’t have a good goalie, the rebuild doesn’t matter. Maybe Ruff will bring back Jeff Reese, who was his last goalie coach in Dallas. With a run to the conference finals, Reese is doing well with his duo in Dallas. He stuck around Jim Montgomery‘s staff, but there are still questions whether the Stars are going to keep Rick Bowness. It’s still a strange situation and the Devils could bear the fruits of that situation.

Either way, whoever ends up taking the job needs to know how important it is. If the Devils goalie coach does a bad job, losing Melanson will hurt even more. Melanson did a good job with a bad situation. He’ll get a job in seconds if he wants one.

Home/Editorials