The New Jersey Devils had an interesting season. They were well below their expectations all season long so there were some changes made to the coaching staff.
Lindy Ruff and Travis Green are both gone. They were replaced by Sheldon Keefe not long after the Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated.
Now, Keefe is done building his coaching staff as it was announced that Jeremy Colliton was hired to be an assistant coach. He will be in charge of the forwards and power play.
Colliton was coaching in the Vancouver Canucks organization as their AHL guy before this. He has head coaching experience in the NHL as he succeeded Joel Quenneville for a few years in Chicago.
Jeremy Colliton is going to help the New Jersey Devils more than people think
When he was with Chicago, their offense was no joke. Both Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews had their career-best offensive years in Colliton's first year.
The problem there is that they couldn't keep the puck out of their net. Their systems were not effective with the roster that they had and they did a lot of losing as a result.
Those defensive issues won't be a problem with New Jersey because he is working with the offensive players on this team. If they are bad defensively, it won't be Colliton's fault.
There are a lot of reasons to believe in Colliton's growth as a coach overall. He was fired in Chicago but he moved on and Vancouver did a better job developing depth with him in the AHL.
Knowing he is in charge of the power play is a little scary because he didn't make adjustments to Chicago's power play when they struggled. Again, that goes back to his development as a coach though. You'd think that he now knows better about how to handle those adverse situations.
New Jersey has high-end forwards on this team. Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, and Jesper Bratt are all guys who can be difference-makers on every shift. They will have good depth if everyone reaches their potential.
On the power play, Luke Hughes, Dougie Hamilton, and Simon Nemec will deal with Colliton as potential power-play guys. If he learned how to change things up with the man advantage, the Devils have a lot of personnel that can help them score.
On the surface, people may just remember that the Hawks lost a lot when Jeremy Colliton was their coach. After some deep thinking, it is obvious that he can help them.