New Jersey Devils to hire just-fired head coach to lead bench

In a report from "Rear Admiral" of the popular hockey podcast "Spittin' Chiclets" and later confirmed by TSN’s Darren Dreger, the New Jersey Devils are set on making Sheldon Keefe their next head coach. Dreger later reported that it would be a four-year deal for Keefe in New Jersey, including the two years remaining on his old contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

For the entirety of his coaching career at the professional level, Keefe as only known life inside the Maple Leafs organization. After a successful stint with the Soo Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League, Keefe was named head coach of Toronto’s AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, at the start of the 2015-16 AHL season. In four and a half years, Keefe coached the Marlies to a 200-89-22-9 record over 320 games, including the team’s only Calder Cup Championship in 2018.

After former head coach Mike Babcock was unceremoniously let go by Toronto partway through the 2019-20 NHL season, Keefe was given the job, keeping his position until only a few weeks ago. In 349 games spent behind the bench for the Maple Leafs, Keefe coached the team to a 212-97-40 record including a North Division title in his first full year.

Unfortunately, just like the 21 head coaches preceding Keefe in Toronto, he could not coach the team to the Stanley Cup Finals during his tenure, even while boasting one of the best lineups on paper. In 37 postseason games, while coaching the Maple Leafs, Keefe could only accrue a .432 win percentage, making it beyond the first round once in five years.

Now moving to New Jersey, Keefe will once again have star-studded talent at his disposal. After an exciting 2022-23 regular season for the franchise, the Devils had a dramatic 31-point drop, finishing well below expectations.

Because of this, the General Manager of the Devils, Tom Fitzgerald, decided to relieve Lindy Ruff of his head coaching duties after 61 games of the 2023-24 season. With interim head coach Travis Green not faring any better in the last 21 games, New Jersey’s front office pursued a bigger fish.

Heading into the 2024-25 NHL season, the Devils already look to be one of the non-playoff teams from this season to make it into next year’s postseason. Possessing top young talent such as Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec, New Jersey also holds top veteran talent such as Timo Meier and Dougie Hamilton. If the Devils can procure a top goaltender this offseason, Keefe should find quite a bit of success with this organization.