The New Jersey Devils came out victorious in the Sunny Mehta sweepstakes, as they battled with the Toronto Maple Leafs to bring in the hockey mastermind. For the last two weeks or so, it seemed like Sunny Mehta was the favorite to join the Toronto Maple Leafs and fix the hot mess they have over there. Luckily for the Devils, the New Jersey native decided to go back home and become the head of hockey operations.
Sunny Mehta spent the last six seasons with the Florida Panthers, helping them win two Stanley Cups. Mehta became the assistant general manager and head of analytics just three years ago; Florida won back-to-back championships during that time. There is a reason why the push from both New Jersey and Toronto to bring a guy like this in was so huge. Two teams that have underperformed are desperate to go back to winning ways. Sunny Mehta is the guy for that.
In Elliotte Friedman's latest episode on his podcast "32 Thoughts", he mentioned that Toronto's interest in Sunny Mehta was definitely there. Right after that, the Devils let go of Tom Fitzgerald.
"What happened was, a couple Saturdays ago, we mentioned on Hockey Night (in Canada) on the headline segment that Toronto had interest in Sunny Mehta, and they definitely did. And two days later, (the Devils) announced that Tom Fitzgerald wouldn't be returning and that they had an open search. I don't think those two things are a coincidence. Mehta was going to be a candidate in Toronto. The Maple Leaf were interested and the Devils wanted to have him back. And you know, I think what happened there is that the Devils were looking at Mehta, they were looking at John Chayka and New Jersey didn't wanna miss, they really liked the idea of the local guy who I think, I think that was his first choice. "Elliotte Friedman, 32 Thoughts Podcast
It seems like New Jersey had the upper hand in a situation like this, given that Sunny Mehta has worked with the Devils organization before. Mehta worked for the New Jersey Devils back in 2014 as the Vice President of Hockey Strategy and Analytics. He was the reason why Jesper Bratt is a Devil today, drafting him in the sixth round back in 2016.
Coming back home just made too much sense for both sides, especially for Sunny Mehta. He has a ton of work to do with a team that played well under expectations.
A proven winner at the helm will absolutely do wonders for New Jersey going forward. Sunny Mehta, a former professional poker player, works perfectly with what the Devils have going on; he has to implement risk-taking and long-term thinking into roster management.
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