The New Jersey Devils are hoping to have more clarity on the next head coach of the franchise in the next 7-10 days, per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic. The Devils fired head coach Lindy Ruff on March 4 during the 2023-24 regular season. That came after a 5-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings. Ruff was replaced by Travis Green for the rest of the regular season.
The Devils would finish 38-39-5 with 81 points, missing the playoffs. New Jersey was tied for the second-best odds to win the Stanley Cup going into the 2023-24 season. The Devils had finished 2022-23 with 112 points, the most in franchise history. New Jersey would go on to defeat the New York Rangers in the first round of the 2023 playoffs before losing to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Ruff was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award for most outstanding head coach in the 2022-23 season. After being fired by the Devils, Ruff returned as head coach of the Buffalo Sabres. He had previously coached the Sabres from 1997 to 2013 before being fired. Ruff completed his tenure as Devils coach with a 128-125-28 record, failing to make the playoffs in three of four seasons. Green, who went 8-12-1 in the final 21 games of 2023-24, was hired by the Ottawa Senators to be their next head coach on May 6.
The Devils enter a very key offseason and the head coach should be the first priority on GM Tom Fitzgerald’s list of things to do. LeBrun mentions the 7-10 day timeline and we have a good sense of why that exists. There were rumblings the Devils are high on Craig Berube, the former Stanley Cup winning coach of the St. Louis Blues. Berube is reportedly linked to the Toronto Maple Leafs, who could part ways with head coach Sheldon Keefe after another first-round exit in the playoffs.
If Berube is the top target, we could see an announcement next week. As a Devils fan, Berube feels like a perfect hire. He’s one of just two interim head coaches to win the Stanley Cup, the other one being Larry Robinson with the Devils back in 2000. Berube was a tough forward in his playing days and should bring that much-needed toughness to New Jersey.
Many believe a big reason for the Devils regressing this season was a lack of toughness after the departures of Miles Wood, Damon Severson, Ryan Graves and Tomas Tatar from last season. Nathan Bastian spent most of the season injured. Michael McLeod left the team after 45 games and shouldn’t return. Fitzgerald can bring in a great hockey mind in Berube to retool and revitalize a team that should have been Cup contenders in 2023-24.
If it isn’t Berube, there are other candidates. Gerard Gallant doesn’t have a job at the moment. Many fans are lobbying for Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan, whom Fitzgerald worked with in Pittsburgh. It feels unlikely Sullivan would be fired or leave the Penguins but not out of the question.
Fitzgerald should be looking for a proven and established head coach, not a first-year head coach. If he does go that route, David Carle of the University of Denver could be a good fit. Denver has won two of the past three National Championships in college hockey. Before Carle was Jim Montgomery, who is the current head coach of the Boston Bruins and reigning Jack Adams Award winner. Montgomery was fired suddenly by the Dallas Stars but immediately found success after the COVID-19 pandemic with Boston.
Carle was supposed to go into the NHL back in 2008, but was unable to continue his playing career due to a heart condition. Instead, Carle went into the coaching ranks as an assistant with Denver, also having a short stint with the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL before returning to his Alma Mater under Montgomery.
Berube feels like the best option still but Carle isn’t a bad route to go for Fitzgerald and the Devils. It’s a bit more risky but could pay dividends based off of Carle’s success as a head coach in a short timeframe with Denver. He’s also had to battle through plenty of adversity in his life and that could be very inspiring to a young team. The fact Carle is only 34 years old could raise some concern but also could be a plus since New Jersey’s roster is very young. The players were said to have loved Ruff but given the age gap, there had to be some disconnect there.
