The New Jersey Devils have their man in the saddle, and just a little over 24 hours after his first news conference, the fanbase is as excited as ever. Sunny Mehta is a New Jersey boy and a Devils fan who was winning Stanley Cups with the Florida Panthers before taking a job back home. The boy from Metuchen with the Devils Starter jacket is now running the team in its most important era since the early 2010s.
This is a pivitol era of Devils hockey. Tom Fitzgerald had moments, but it ultimately wasn’t good enough. The loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in 2023 ultimately changed his philosophy, and he made multiple mistakes in the big chair. This forced the Devils to fall way down in the standings in two of the past three years, and last season, they only made the playoffs because the Metropolitan Division was awful.
Many targeted Mehta as their prime target for the general manager job because of his previous experience with analytics. Others look at his time with the Panthers as proof that his style of leadership works, alongside Bill Zito. On Tuesday, he proved that he wasn’t just a numbers guy.
The new Devils general manager spoke to that pretty directly.
“I totally understand why I get kind of put into the analytics bucket, labeled as the analytics guy,” Mehta said. “But it’s really funny; I think, if you actually look at my path, my background, even my own path to analytics, is considerably different than the typical analytics person in sports.”
Most people know his background by now. He’s a bracelet winner at the World Series of Poker. He worked in stock trading for a bit, and he got a job with his first true love: hockey.
Sunny Mehta's take on analytics is refreshing for all New Jersey Devils
“Truly, where I learned statistics was on the job, like at the poker table, on the trading floor, and in hockey front offices,” Mehta continued. “To me, the reason that I ever even cared about analytics, statistics, probability is because it helped me win.”
This is why Mehta is perfect for today’s brand of hockey. You can’t just look at a computer and think that will tell you if a player is good or bad. That’s how you put all your chips in the Beau Bennett basket. A great executive has to understand the nuances to decision making when it comes to personnel.
“Yes, data does undoubtedly give a huge advantage in hockey, in terms of projecting future performance of players, but you have to understand all those same things; the character, the locker room, the culture, the intangibles, all that stuff matters,” Mehta said.
At the end of the day, Mehta has a lot of work to do for the Devils. He will be busy with the upcoming NHL Draft, free agency, and he has to make trades to upgrade this roster. Where will he start? We trust his gut because he’ll back that instinct with numbers.
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