John Hynes and Alain Nasreddine Coaching Grade: C+
Before Lou’s departure from New Jersey, the Devils would hire former Penguins GM Ray Shero to be their new general manager. Shero would hire John Hynes, who also worked under the Penguins system with their minor league team in Wilks-Barre/Scranton.
The Devils looked awful under Hynes in his first year. The Devils scored only one goal in three of the first four games. Hynes didn’t get his first win until his 5th game against the Rangers in Madison Square Garden. Hynes’s first season finished off with a 38-36 record. Due to the roster not having enough talent, Hynes couldn’t make this roster look good during that year. However, after the addition of Taylor Hall in the offseason, the Devils had a star that Hynes could try to coach a team around.
Unfortunately, Hynes’s second season turned out to be the worst full season as a coach in his career. Even though Taylor Hall went as advertised, scoring 53 points, the team was so horrible to watch that they had multiple five-game losing streaks that year. When the 2017-18 season came around, it seemed Hynes had finally had an excellent team to work around. With Taylor Hall leading the team, Hynes ultimately led the Devils to their first playoff appearance in 6 years. Even though Jon Cooper and the Tampa Bay Lightning knocked the Devils out of the first round, many were happy with that season’s results.
Like, DeBoer, Hynes had hope going into next season. While the 2018-19 season had a promising start for Hynes as they went 4-0, hope faded quickly as the Devils failed to go back to the playoffs. Even though they could not make the playoffs, optimism quickly came about the 2019-20 season. While Hynes enjoyed being up 4-1 in the first game against the Winnipeg Jets, his coaching after the 2nd intermission started his major downfall. The line changes caused the Jets to come back and win the game. Hynes didn’t get any better as more losses stacked up.
The final straw for Hynes came at a 7-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres, and Hynes and Shero got fired shortly after. For the rest of that season, assistant coach Alain Nassreddine took over. While Nassreddine didn’t turn the team around, they look a lot better as a team. Players like Nikita Gusev and Kyle Palmieri managed to stand out with Nassreddine’s coaching ability. Nassreddine managed to stay above .500 while the pandemic canceled the regular season. Nasreddin was allowed to remain on the coaching staff as an assistant coach.
While Hynes would get another coaching gig with the Nashville Predators, he will always be a Devils coach who did extraordinary things. It’s a shame that he didn’t become a better coach as time moved on for the Devils because he did give them some great memories. His coaching grade would’ve been an A had he led the Devils to more appearances.