The New Jersey Devils had a busy day on Wednesday. It started with signing the top available free agent in the class, Anthony Mantha. He’s coming off a 31-goal season where he helped the Pittsburgh Penguins make the playoffs. Then, they learned about their home opener, where they’ll take on the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday, October 1st.
However, the most consequential change came when the Devils announced additions to the coaching staff. Since Sunny Mehta took over as GM, the Devils saw the departures of Dave Rogalski, Jeremy Colliton, and likely, Sergei Brylin.
The Devils and Sheldon Keefe had work to do to revamp the staff with only Brad Shaw remaining from the previous season. On Wednesday, we saw the fruits of that labor.
The bench boss has his crew.
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) July 15, 2026
The Devils hired an entire new coaching staff for head coach Sheldon Keefe
The most popular name added to the Devils’ staff is Ted Donato. He was the head coach of Harvard University hockey for 22 seasons before making the jump to the Devils. He’s coached many future NHL players, including Adam Fox, Alex Kerfoot, John Marino, and Alex Killorn.
It’s interesting to bring someone with such extensive head-coaching experience into an assistant role, but Keefe will lean on Donato, and that experience will help. That role often is given autonomy to create plays down the stretch and build a power play.
They also announced the hiring of AJ MacLean. He’s spent the past three seasons as an assistant coach with the Syracuse Crunch. The 42-year-old was a member of Sheldon Keefe’s staff with the Toronto Marlies from 2015 to 2020, when Keefe took over as head coach of the Maple Leafs. He was also on Keefe’s staff with the Soo Greyhounds.
The most interesting move the Devils made was their revamp of goaltending coaching. After Rogalski spent years as the lead goaltending coach, Mehta took a different approach. He hired Leo Luongo to oversee all goaltending operations for the organization, reporting to Martin Brodeur.
Joining Luongo is Dan Stewart, who was previously a goaltending coach for the St. Louis Blues. Noted, Stewart was a part of the Blues organization when Martin Brodeur was still there prior to 2022. He was also a goaltending coach for the Soo Greyhounds, but that came after Keefe had already left for Toronto.
The Devils are making big moves and expect this to be a good season, the first under Mehta. Getting the right coaching opportunities in place was an important step towards contention.
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