It’s been a little more than two weeks since the New Jersey Devils welcomed Sunny Mehta officially to the family. The former fan was now the current general manager, Starter jacket and all. It was all fun and games at the press conference (unlike the Toronto Maple Leafs’ press conference for John Chayka and Mats Sundin), but he has some really hard decisions to make.
The hardest early decision, outside of trying to find the right value for Nico Hischier, is whether or not he should keep Sheldon Keefe on the bench. There was a time this season where the team looked like they straight up quit on the head coach. Down the stretch, the Devils looked much better.
The way the Devils played after the Olympic break might have saved Keefe’s job, but we don’t know that for sure. If Keefe is sticking around, what is taking so long for Mehta to make that decision?
He’s already made changes to the front office, letting Dan MacKinnon and Chuck Fletcher go last week. He’s cutting the people who no longer make sense for this organization. Does that include Keefe? It’s possible that Mehta doesn’t have all the data he needs to make a decision, i.e. there’s a head coaching candidate who could become available.
That candidate is Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. Did you know the Devils have won a playoff series since Cooper and the Lightning have won one? Since beating the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2022, they’ve lost five playoff series in a row. The one this year to the Montreal Canadiens especially hurts since they seemed like the better team.
When a team loses to a team that most assume they are worse than, the coach usually gets on the hot seat. However, the coach is not often a two-time Stanley Cup champion.
If the Devils ever had the opportunity to choose between Jon Cooper and Sheldon Keefe, the conversation would start and end with one thing: impact. The kind that gets built over a decade of winning when every spring matters and every weakness gets exposed.
That’s why Cooper would immediately jump to the top of the list of candidates who Mehta would target as a head coach. Mehta saw the growth of the Sunshine State battle between the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning. Despite the playoff disappointments, Cooper is still one of the best coaches in the league.
The success of John Quenneville shows that a great head coach doesn’t lose his fastball (ignoring all the bad that comes with Quenneville, of course). Mike Sullivan hurts that argument, a bit, but there are bigger issues at Madison Square Garden.
The New Jersey Devils might be waiting for the right head coach
The Devils don’t need someone to get them from 85 points to playoff contender. They already know this core can score. They already know Jack Hughes can dominate shifts and that Nico Hischier can drive two-way play. What they need is someone who can succeed on a consistent basis.
Keefe just doesn’t have that on his resume, and his Devils tenure has only hurt his aura. Cooper, on the other hand, still has a lot of hockey left in him, and the Devils would provide him with an interesting challenge.
Cooper walks into a room with instant credibility because of what he’s done with the Lightning. Years of sustained contention in a salary-cap league designed to destroy continuity shows he can adapt. That matters when expectations in New Jersey are no longer theoretical.
Keefe still carries questions that haven’t completely disappeared just because Tom Fitzgerald is no longer here. Fair or unfair, playoff shortcomings follow coaches just as aggressively as players. Cooper doesn’t have that baggage.
And that might be why Keefe hasn’t received the vote of confidence. The Devils are waiting on the Lightning. Will they fire Cooper? It’s hard to tell, but bigger surprises have happened, and the Lightning don’t love that they haven’t seen second-round playoff revenue since 2022.
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