6 Moves New Jersey Devils Must Make To Have A Perfect Offseason
By Nick Natale
Hire Mike Sullivan or Joe Sacco
With Ruff gone and Green looking more and more unlikely to get the full-time gig, the Devils will be at the front of the queue for a new coach. We highlighted before some of the reasons why the Devils job is one of the best ones available this summer. Fitzgerald's search should reach far and wide, and whoever he decides to hire NEEDS to be the one to get this team over the hump.
However, in this exercise, the choice is Mike Sullivan or Joe Sacco. Again, we went into depth as to why either would make for a great fit with the Devils, with Sullivan being the top choice. The current Pittsburgh Penguins head coach has an elite pedigree with two Stanley Cups. He has shown he can work with superstar players while getting them to play within a structure. This Devils team is crying out for a new voice in the locker room, and he would command respect inside the locker room. With the Penguins in a tailspin and on track to miss the playoffs for a second year in a row, GM Kyle Dubas could continue to put his stamp on the team and find a new head coach.
In a scenario where Sullivan is retained, the Devils still have good options. There's a handful of solid coaches who were fired this year (Craig Berube, Jay Woodcroft, Dean Evason), but if they decide to go the assistant coach route, then there may be no one better than Joe Sacco of the Boston Bruins. The former Colorado Avalanche and Team USA head coach has been an assistant with the Bruins since 2014. He's overseen one of the best defensive and penalty-kill units in the league over the past decade. Fitzgerald has praised the Bruins organization in the past, so it'd only be fitting he'd snag their top.