Sheldon Keefe is Going to be the Head Coach of the New Jersey Devils

Sheldon Keefe will take over as head coach of the New Jersey Devils, according to reports that surfaced earlier this evening. This is a mainly favorable response to the news, given that Keefe was undoubtedly the greatest coach still in place.

Earlier this evening, the word broke that General Manager Tom Fitzgerald has found his new head coach. With Lindy Ruff fired and now with Buffalo and Travis Green signed with Ottawa, the New Jersey Devils needed a new head coach. Ideally, they wanted to hire one ahead of the 2024 NHL Draft and free agency. Fitzgerald and his staff did it. Sheldon Keefe is going to be the new head coach of the New Jersey Devils.

I first saw this from James Nichols on X and it has since been confirmed by Sportsnet – which acknowledged the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast for breaking the news, so they got one – and by TSN. Per TSN’s article, the Devils have signed Keefe to a four-season contract that includes the two seasons remaining from his previous contract with Toronto. Toronto did fire Keefe but he was owed that money. TSN’s article also had a comment from Pierre LeBrun pointing to the Devils giving Keefe a raise. Not only did the Devils hire Keefe tonight but the narrative that the Devils ownership and/or management are too cheap to hire a coach also died this evening. A narrative presumably spread by people unaware that the Devils have been a salary cap ceiling team for two seasons and counting.

Fitzgerald and his staff can legitimately claim that they held an in depth coaching search. Per Nichols, the team interviewed Craig Berube (now with Toronto), Jay Woodcroft, Todd McLellan, and Ryan Warsofsky. There was some hope – I shared in this hope – from some of the People Who Matter that Mike Sullivan could become available. The thinking was that Kyle Dubas’ power play in Pittsburgh over Mike Sullivan’s coaching staff on top of Pittsburgh narrowly missing the playoffs for a second straight season would lead to Sullivan being fired. Dubas could then re-hire Keefe as he did in Toronto and Sullivan could come to New Jersey with a big chip on his shoulder. That did not happen. And so Fitzgerald correctly focused on coaching candidates who were available and hired Keefe.

This is a really good decision and hire by Fitzgerald in my opinion. The big criticism of Sheldon Keefe will be surrounding Toronto’s lack of playoff success. I would argue that Keefe is still the only coach of the Maple Leafs that bossed his team past the first round since 2004 back in 2023. Which they did, only to get Bobrovsky’d out of the postseason in 2023. The 2023-24 Maple Leafs were an OT away while missing their top player (Auston Matthews) and goaltender (Joseph Woll) of a huge comeback series win over Boston that could have spelled Jim Montgomery’s end if Toronto won that game. He’s 1-for-5 in that regard. Which was far better than Mike Babcock’s tenure, Randy Carlyle’s tenure, Ron Wilson’s tenure, and Paul Maurice’s tenure. I think a coach that cannot get it done in the playoffs does not get close to getting it done or having actually done it. Memes about Toronto’s playoffs aside, management is arguably more at fault for their many short playoff visits – especially this year’s – than anything Keefe did. There is a lot to like from Keefe regardless