5 assistants that Sheldon Keefe should target with New Jersey Devils

3. Mark Giordano

Sticking to defense, there are always former players who follow their favorite coaches when they want to make a jump into head coaching. We might not know of another player who would be as great a head coach as Mark Giordano.

The former star defenseman did not have it easy, and those are usually the players who make great coaches. He wasn’t a superstar prospect. He didn’t even get drafted despite having a decent juniors career. Then, he was going to go back to college to figure out what he was going to do with the rest of his life. The Calgary Flames gave him a lifeline, inviting him to training camp, and he stood out.

Fast forward 20 years, and Giordano is 40 years old and likely going to call it a career this offseason. He hasn’t been as effective in years past, and he’s made more than $64 million in his career. If he’s satisfied, jumping into coaching makes a ton of sense.

If that’s the case, what better landing spot than a very talented New Jersey Devils defense that now has Giordano’s former coach building a new staff? It feels like a perfect landing spot. He is young enough to relate to players like Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec, but he’s also someone who has been the captain of the Flames for eight seasons (and the first captain after Jarome Iginla). He was also the first and only captain in the history of the Seattle Kraken. This is a leader of men and would be a great compliment for the Devils.