After going winless in the team’s first nine games, the New Jersey Devils have fired Kevin Dineen as the head coach of the Utica Comets. Ryan Parent has been named as the interim head coach. This is a quick post to react to the news.
Big news from the American Hockey League. The New Jersey Devils have fired Kevin Dineen, the head coach of their AHL affiliate the Utica Comets this afternoon. Per the Devils’ announcement on their own website, assistant Ryan Parent will take over as the team’s interim head coach. The team also added Eric Weinrich as an interim assistant coach to join David Cunniff in Utica. The changes will begin tomorrow.
Why Dineen was fired was easy: the Comets have been horrible to start this season. Devils assistant GM Dan MacKinnon oversees the Comets and stated as such in the announcement:
“Unfortunately, after the start we had to this season, the organization felt it was time to make a change while the season is still young,” said MacKinnon. “We thank Kevin for his time with Utica and wish him and his family all the best moving forward.”
To call the start unfortunate is putting it lightly. They are the only winless team in the AHL with an 0-8-1-0 record. They have scored 16 goals and allowed 40. They have been run over despite a roster full of AHL experienced players. Dineen has been in charge of the Comets since the Devils took over the affiliate in Utica for the 2021-22 season. The team’s results have been mixed. They won their division in 2021-22, they made the playoffs and won a playoff round in 2022-23, and they missed the postseason in 2023-24 by a five points. The team was trending down but this start was somehow below rock bottom. Historically, the Devils seemed to be more content with their AHL team developing players than going for the Calder Cup. Again, this was the furthest thing from that.
With that said, I can understand the change. If not now, then when? It does not make sense to sink an entire season hoping for a veteran like Dineen to figure it out after three seasons of heading in a downward direction. Parent as an interim head coach is a logical short-term choice. Parent has been an assistant with New Jersey’s affiliates since 2018. He presumably understands the expectations of MacKinnon. He knows he needs to turn this team around to at least win some games. He will get his first crack at that on Friday when they host Cleveland.
Best of luck to him to do that. Especially with the knowledge that there could be a player call up soon for an injured Nathan Bastian. I do wonder if the parent organization will try to help Utica in some way beyond just changing coaches. Perhaps New Jersey can do Parent a favor and send down an idle Simon Nemec to help stem some of the bleeding.
In the meantime, I want to know what you think. Especially if you follow the Utica Comets. What do you make of the decision to fire Dineen? Was it warranted given the bad start? Do you expect the Devils to make any other moves to help the Comets find some positive results? Please leave your answers and other thoughts in the comments. Thank you for reading.