The New Jersey Devils' coaching staff transformed this week with announcements that coaches Dave Rogalski and Sergei Brylin will no longer be behind the bench. Goaltending coach Rogalski was relieved of his duties altogether, while Brylin will be thrust into another position within the front office.
With that, it was announced that head coach Sheldon Keefe and assistant coaches Brad Shaw and Jeremy Colliton would be staying put, at least to begin the 2026-27 season. For context, Shaw helms the defensemen and penalty kill, while Colliton is in charge of the power play and forwards.
While some wanted a full-on top-down change, keeping the coaching staff consistent heading into next season is the smart move. Keefe showed that, when healthy, the Devils can compete with the best of the best on a nightly basis. Shaw turned Dougie Hamilton -- a noted defensive liability for much of his career -- into not just a serviceable defender, but an apt one, and oversaw a significant resurgence from Brenden Dillon.
Then there is Colliton, who has strangely gotten some flak from some with respect to his two-year tenure as the power play and forwards coach. I'm here to say that keeping him was an extremely smart decision.
Let's first start with the Devils' power play, which ended the 2025-26 season as the 13th-best squad in the NHL. That is a good-not-great result, to be sure, but the underlying numbers paint a picture of a power play unit that -- shocker -- was simply struggling to finish their chances.
In terms of xG generation, the Devils sat third in the league in expected goals for per 60 minutes (xGF/60) on the man advantage, being just one of four NHL teams to generate 10.00 xG or more in that regard. The Devils also sat third in the league in shot attempts generated per hour (CF/60) and second in the league in all of shots on goal per hour (SF/60), scoring chances for per hour (SCF/60), and high-danger chances per hour (HDCF/60).
Suffice to say, the Devils' power play in 2025-26 was elite outside of the one elephant in the room that plagued their entire season at all strengths: finishing. Despite the underlying dominance, New Jersey sported a shooting percentage of just 13.01%, good for ninth-worst in the league.
In 2024-25, Colliton's first season with the Devils, New Jersey had one of the best statistical power plays of the modern era. Their 10.82 xGF/60 was the second-best of all-time, trailing only the 2025-26 Edmonton Oilers. They generated the most SCF/60 of any power play ever recorded and the sixth-highest SCF/60.
It's abundantly clear that Colliton is more than capable of blueprinting an elite power play, something that he has shown for both seasons in which he was in the position he will be in entering 2026-27. On an individual scale, whether it is due to Keefe or Colliton, we have seen underlying excellence by practically everyone who has entered the top six. Jack Hughes took strides defensively and looked like a world beater following his Olympic heroics. Jesper Bratt and Nico Hischier somehow leveled up from a play-driving perspective. Timo Meier, snakebitten as he is, has always sported strong numbers under the hood as well. Rookie fan-favorite Arseny Gritsyuk had excellent two-way impacts in his first season in the NHL.
With all that in mind, it's no wonder that Colliton was brought back in the same capacity entering next season. He was well deserving of the renewal, and, assuming good health and normal puck luck, the Devils' power play should flourish once again and their core forwards should bounce back in a big way.
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