Devils Announce New Additions To Coaching Staff

Sheldon Keefe‘s coaching staff in New Jersey is complete. General manager Sunny Mehta has rounded out the group, hiring Ted Donato and AJ MacLean as assistant coaches, Dan Stewart as goaltending coach, and Leo Luongo as Director of Goaltending, the team announced.

Donato is the marquee addition, arriving after an accomplished 22-year run as head coach at Harvard. He leaves as the winningest coach in program history with 334 victories, having guided the Crimson to eight NCAA Tournament appearances, a Frozen Four berth in 2017, and four ECAC Hockey titles, along with a 2017 Beanpot crown that was the program’s first since 1993. His ties to the school run deep: a standout forward at Harvard from 1987-91, Donato captained the Crimson as a senior and helped the program to an NCAA championship in 1989. The Boston Bruins selected him 98th overall in the 1987 draft, and he went on to play parts of 13 NHL seasons across seven franchises, recording 347 points in 796 games. He also represented the United States internationally on several occasions, including the 1992 Winter Olympics. Donato is the father of current NHL forward Ryan Donato.

MacLean brings a long history with Keefe. The son of former NHL head coach Paul MacLean, he served on Keefe’s staff with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, where the two captured a Calder Cup in 2018, and earlier alongside him in junior with the OHL’s Soo Greyhounds. Most recently, MacLean spent three seasons as an assistant with the Tampa Bay-affiliated Syracuse Crunch, reaching the Calder Cup Playoffs in each. His reunion with Keefe adds a familiar voice to the New Jersey bench.

On the goaltending side, Stewart joins after six seasons in the St. Louis organization, where he served as the Blues’ goaltending development coach and the goaltending coach for the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds, working with NHL netminders such as Joel Hofer and Charlie Lindgren along the way. He’ll operate under Luongo, who takes over as Director of Goaltending and will oversee the organization’s goaltending development while reporting to executive vice president of hockey operations Martin Brodeur. Luongo spent the previous decade with the Florida Panthers at both the AHL and NHL levels, rising to head of goalie development and scouting and earning two Stanley Cup rings during the club’s back-to-back championship runs in 2024 and 2025.