A mediocre season has led to the New Jersey Devils making a big change.
On Monday, the team announced they had relieved Lindy Ruff as head coach.
Associate coach Travis Green has been named interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
It has not been a great season for a team that made it all the way to the second round of the playoffs last year. After starting the season around the .500 mark, the Devils have been unable to keep up with the top teams in the Metropolitan Division, nor other postseason contenders in the Eastern Conference.
“I hold our entire organization to the highest levels of accountability to focus on being a competitive team that expects to be a perennial playoff contender,” general manager Tom Fitzgerald said in a release. “Unfortunately, we are not currently at that level, and I needed to make this decision.
The Devils (30-27-4) are sixth in the Metro, seven points back of the Philadelphia Flyers for third, and eight behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for the last Wild Card spot in the East.
The 64-year-old signed a multi-year contract extension with New Jersey back in October.
Ruff came to New Jersey in 2020 after a couple of seasons as an assistant with the New York Rangers. In three-plus seasons, the 2006 Jack Adams award winner coached the Devils to a 128-125-28 record, going 5-7 in last year’s playoffs.
“This was an extremely difficult conversation to have with Lindy based on the relationship that he and I have. He was the right coach to develop our young players on the ice, and above all else, he is a tremendous person.”
The Devils hired Green to join Ruff on the bench in June of last year. This is the first time the 53-year-old will wear a head coach’s hat since he was fired by the Vancouver Canucks late in the 2021-22 season. In over five seasons under Green, the Canucks went 133-147-34, making it as far as the second round of the 2020 playoffs.
“Travis has key experience running benches at the junior, AHL and NHL levels and knows that there are no shortcuts to success,” Fitzgerald stated. “He is a high-demanding individual who is familiar with the group and excited about working to get us back on track.”
Fitzgerald and Green were previously teammates with the New York Islanders (1992-92), Toronto Maple Leafs (2002-03) and Boston Bruins (2005-06).
Green will make his debut as the bench boss on Tuesday night, as the Devils host the best team in the NHL, the Florida Panthers.
More must-reads: