New Jersey Devils: 4 Coaching Situations Team Should Pay Attention To
The New Jersey Devils coaching situation is untenable. It seems hard to believe Lindy Ruff is the head coach next season. With rumors swirling that there are many coaching situations that could change, the Devils should pay attention to many situations around the league.
What a terrible week it’s been for the New Jersey Devils. We don’t have to go through it again. Hopefully, one day this won’t even be a weekend we remember. The Jack Hughes injury is unfortunate. Losing these three games officially knocked them out of the playoffs. Andrew Hammond’s first performance in a Devils uniform was memorable for all the wrong reasons. However, there is only one thing that will really come out of this weekend, and it made it impossible for the Devils to move forward with Lindy Ruff as head coach.
There were murmurs that the Devils could make a case to keep Ruff for another season. It’s hard to put all of the blame for this season on his shoulders. He didn’t want to play seven different goalies this season, all somehow worse than the previous one. However, there is a lot that can fall on his shoulders. The inability of this power play comes down to the scheme.
The Devils are likely moving in a different direction after the season. Ruff just wasn’t the right fit. Honestly, when they hired him, it seems like the right fit wasn’t out there. To be fair, most coaches wouldn’t be able to make a winning tandem out of Andrew Hammond and Jon Gillies.
Which coaching situations could give New Jersey Devils clues to who could be our next coach?
Ruff is hardly the only coach on the hot seat. There are several situations where teams could be looking for a change. There are too many situations where teams recycle coaches, but with where the Devils are as a team, it might make sense for the team to recycle a coach this year. They still need a veteran voice to help this team take another step. They need to make the playoffs in the worst possible way. They need someone who can take them there, and that person might be behind a bench right now, but won’t be once the season ends.
Vancouver Canucks – Bruce Boudreau
It’s pretty much known at this point that Bruce Boudreau’s contract is basically a one-year deal with a ton of different options. Jim Rutherford and Patrick Allvin are going into their first offseason in charge, and Boudreau is the main reason why this Vancouver Canucks team even had a sliver of hope to make the postseason. He is going to come up short in the end, but he got people in the building, got the most out of Elias Petterson, and turned a lot of the star players around. He’s getting the best out of J.T. Miller, and the team has a lot of promise going into next year.
Despite all that, there are rumors the Canucks could look elsewhere to find a new coach. Should the Devils jump on the chance to have Bruce Boudreau be the team’s head coach?
Boudreau might not be the head coach to take the Devils to the Stanley Cup Championship, but that can’t be the goal right now. The Devils made the playoffs once since going to the Cup Final in 2012. They’ve won one playoff game. Can’t Boudreau get them to two playoff wins at least?
The Devils need to figure out what’s next before making a decision like hiring Bruce Boudreau. Maybe they would rather have a coach grow with this squad after taking a chance on Ruff, but there isn’t really patience for that at this point. The Devils are paying the big bucks to Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes. They can’t just waste time anymore. Boudreau can at least get a positive regular season out of this group. At this point, that needs to be the goal.
New York Islanders – Barry Trotz
We would say this is an insane long shot, except it is impossible to know what is going on in the mind of Lou Lamoriello. Barry Trotz has been the best coach in the league prior to this season. He’s gotten the most out of the Islanders roster after they lost John Tavares to the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was able to bring in Trotz immediately after he decided to leave the Washington Capitals after taking them to a Stanley Cup. He’s proven he can win in the playoffs, and he would get the most out of this Devils roster.
This is the ideal scenario. The Devils could offer Trotz proximity so he wouldn’t even have to move. Trotz has a son with special needs, and if he were to lose his job with the Islanders, it likely means a lot to him to stay close to the area to keep things similar. This gives the Devils a shot to get his services despite so many teams likely wanting to get the services of Trotz.
Trotz shouldn’t get fired. He’s done enough to get some equity in this league, but after a disastrous season for the Islanders and watching the direction the Rangers are going, there’s no telling how Lamoriello will react. He is predictably unpredictable. This gives it hope that he could make a move that would be beneficial to the Devils in the long run. Maybe he could do us this favor since he was leading the Devils for so long. We would be eternally grateful.
Toronto Maple Leafs – Sheldon Keefe
This one also seems like a massive long shot, but think about this; the Toronto Maple Leafs are heading for a collision course with the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the playoffs. It would be sweet for Maple Leafs fans to make that their first playoff series win in 2004. Since Keefe took over for Mike Babcock, the Leafs lost the qualifying round to the Columbus Blue Jackets and a first-round series with the Montreal Canadiens. It’s going to be hard for Keefe to survive another first-round exit when the Maple Leafs are watching the prime of John Tavares disintegrate into his $11 million per year contract.
The Leafs were the favorites against the Blue Jackets and Canadiens. They likely wouldn’t be against the Lightning despite the last game where they destroyed them.
The Maple Leafs always have high expectations that grate on the team. It grinds down even the best of coaches, and players have struggled to meet those expectations. Some players thrive on it. Auston Matthews doesn’t seem to be bothered by it. However, sometimes people are happy to get out of the pressure cooker.
Sheldon Keefe will have a lot of teams to choose from, but he might want to go from a pressure cooker to a very soft landing in New Jersey. It’s not like this is likely to happen, but it’s worth paying attention to come playoff time.
Montreal Canadiens – Marty St. Louis
The Montreal Canadiens look like a completely different team since Marty St. Louis took over as the head coach. He’s getting the best out of their star players, and despite so many players still being out of the lineup including Carey Price, he’s getting them to win games. He’s never going to get that team to contention this season, but he got them to a place where they could be competitive on a nightly basis. They just weren’t there earlier in the season.
St. Louis has said he plans to be the Canadiens coach for a long time. It’s likely going to end with St. Louis signing to be the long-term head coach for one of the NHL’s proudest franchises. However, we’ve seen these things turn sour before, and the Devils would be happy to swoop in and take on an outside-the-box head coach.
The Devils would love to get the scoring output from some of their players that St. Louis is getting out of Cole Caufield. St. Louis clearly gets something different from his team. Maybe he won’t know the Xs and Os as much as veteran coaches, but he seems to be a master motivator and can help the forwards in tough spots.
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This seems like the most unlikely in a series of unlikely scenarios, but it’s still worth watching. It takes just one fight about money for the Devils to swoop in and take this opportunity to get the right guy in house. Just look at what happened with the Capitals and Trotz, and he won a Stanley Cup.