The Devils enter the 2024-25 season with a new head coach, a new assistant coach…..and status quo in regards to the rest of the coaching staff and upper management. What should we expect from the Devils braintrust?
The New Jersey Devils are entering a critical season in 2024-25.
Expectations were high coming off of the successes of the 2022-23 season, but the team face planted last year. As a result, many changes were made on the personnel side. Those changes weren’t limited to the players though, as Lindy Ruff was dismissed as the head coach on March 4th. Travis Green didn’t have any better luck with the roster down the stretch and ultimately got an opportunity with the Ottawa Senators, while Ruff landed on his feet with the Buffalo Sabres.
While there were changes with those two, the rest of the coaching staff, management, and ownership group remained status quo, for better or worse.
This portion of the Devils 2024-25 season preview will take a look at ownership, management, and the revamped coaching staff.
Ownership & Management
Owners – Josh Harris & David Blitzer (Harris-Blitzer Sports & Entertainment)
The New Jersey Devils continue to enjoy stable ownership with Josh Harris and David Blitzer leading the way.
John wrote about the duo last summer as they quietly celebrated their 10 year anniversary of purchasing the team from Jeff Vanderbeek in 2013. I won’t rehash everything that John wrote but I believe that ownership has been a net positive for the Devils since they took over.
It wasn’t too long ago that there were reports of the Devils potentially being taken over by the NHL due to their debt. Not ideal for a franchise with a relatively new-ish arena in the NYC metropolitan area. And while I’m trying not to bury Vanderbeek now that he’s no longer here, the reality of the situation is that the Devils haven’t had any of these issues in regards to debt and payroll since HBSE took over.
Business has been significantly better at the arena since 2013. HBSE has made investments into the arena to make it a world-class facility and attract top draws in all fields of entertainment. And just as importantly to Devils fans, the team has made investments in players the last few years, spending up to the salary cap ceiling the last three seasons. All while maintaining a mostly hands-off approach in the day-to-day operations with the team.
I feel that this hands-off approach can be a bit of a double-edged sword. You don’t want ownership that is seemingly talking to the media every other week (like Jerry Jones with the Dallas Cowboys) or an owner who has been accused of meddling (like James Dolan with the Knicks and Rangers). But you also don’t want absentee ownership either that is just rubber stamping whatever the people they hired want to do while they deal with the other ten teams or so that they happen to own controlling stakes in.
Blitzer, who appears to be the public face of ownership more so than Harris is these days….at least in regards to when the team addresses the media, falls more in the “hands off” than “absentee” ownership group that I mentioned. This is preferable. He also seems like a sharp guy when he addresses the media. How much of that is PR prep and coaching, I couldn’t tell you. But I think he genuinely believes he has the right people in place to lead this team moving forward. I’m not trying to shill for the organization and I’m saying all of this from the outside, but I believe he is listening to his hockey people when they make suggestions. I believe he is asking the right questions when Fitzgerald and his staff come to him with something. And now that the team is trying to contend, the team has given Fitzgerald the financial resources to address any needs that need to be addressed.
I do think there are certain areas where one can nitpick. When I recapped Fitzgerald’s press conference back in January while the team was sputtering on the ice, Blitzer was sitting right next to him when he said he was “very patient”. My opinion at the time was that the Devils were teetering closer to negligence than patience and that it had potential to cost them the season. There’s patience, and there’s a complete lack of urgency, and the Devils were the latter a season ago. It was a comment that a key figure in the Devils organization made that begged for a follow up question with the season spiraling out of control. It’s also really easy for one to question ownership whether or not they give a damn when stuff like this happens late in a lost season, especially when we’re nine years into this thing at this point and the results continue to not be there.
I don’t care about Joe Gibbs Racing or the Philadelphia 76ers or the Washington Commanders or the Cleveland Guardians or any other property Harris and/or Blitzer invest in other than the Devils. I do care whether or not they’re as invested into the Devils, both financially as well as on the ice, as we are since we all live and die with this team. But for the most part, the Devils have stable ownership that spends money, isn’t meddling and doesn’t embarrass themselves or their brand every time they talk to the media. I think as a fan, that’s all one can ask for.
President, Hockey Operations and General Manager – Tom Fitzgerald
Tom Fitzgerald is entering his fifth full season as the Devils full-time general manager, and his 10th year in the organization as he was an assistant under former GM Ray Shero.
Fitzgerald didn’t enjoy much success in his first two seasons on the job, with the Devils missing the playoffs and his hand-picked goaltender in free agency not working out either year. Things were much better in Year 3 though. The Devils advanced to the Eastern Conference Semifinals before falling in five games to the Carolina Hurricanes. More importantly, it looked like the Devils were on track to go on an extended run of success, and the highs of that 2022-23 season earned both Fitzgerald and Lindy Ruff contract extensions.
Fast forward to last season and the Devils took a step back. They chose to go into the season with a Vitek Vanecek-Akira Schmid tandem in net that didn’t work. They made the right call to let veterans like Miles Wood, Damon Severson, and Ryan Graves leave in free agency, but it didn’t work in the short-term as the Devils got younger on the backend and they didn’t do much to replace any of them last year. Tyler Toffoli was an interesting swing for a team that thought they had another level to gain, and while he scored goals, he didn’t do a whole lot else before or after he was traded to Winnipeg for futures. The failures of the team led to Lindy Ruff being terminated as the head coach, and led to more players being shown the door after the season, from John Marino to Alexander Holtz to Brendan Smith to the aforementioned Schmid.
It raises the question whether or not Fitzgerald is on the proverbial hot seat heading into 2024-25, and really, how can the seat at a bare minimum not be warming up?
Yes, Fitzgerald signed an extension, but that is barely worth the paper its printed on. The Devils showed with Ruff that they’ll move on from an extension if they need to, which brings us back to Fitzgerald.
I think Fitzgerald has done a lot of good as the GM of the Devils. Fitzgerald said back in the spring that he knew exactly what this team needed, and he certainly made a bunch of moves towards fixing what his perceived holes were. Every signing or trade this summer made sense to some extent, including the Holtz for Cotter swap which was probably his most controversial deal. And prior to this year, he had gotten Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, and Timo Meier to sign long-term contract extensions. He had gotten Dougie Hamilton and, to a lesser extent, Ondrej Palat, to pick New Jersey at a time when a lot of players in their position wouldn’t.
But this is a results-oriented business. And the truth of the matter is that the results just haven’t been there through the first four years of Fitzgerald’s tenure. A 136-137-29 regular season record isn’t going to cut it, nor should it. One playoff appearance in four years isn’t going to cut it, nor should it. Not with the investments that ownership has made in the group. Yes, part of that span does cover a period of time when the Devils were still in rebuild mode, and it’s not Fitzgerald’s fault that previous regimes let things get as bad as they were. But results have to matter at some point.
I do think the Devils will bounce back and be in the mix for a playoff spot this year. And I do think with that, Fitzgerald’s hot seat will cool down. But I also need to see it to believe it at this point. Fitzgerald’s tenure as GM has been highlighted by not fixing the goaltending (despite his many attempts to do so) and bad defensive play. He also played the “coaching change” card for the first time in his tenure as GM. The pressure is on him now, as John alluded to in Part 0 of the season preview.
We’re entering Year 5 of Fitzgerald’s run and the Devils have made significant investments all of those aforementioned areas. It’s time to put up or shut up, and as much as I like Fitzgerald, it might be time for someone else to get a chance running this team if they miss the playoffs yet again. 2022-23 was a great year, but its one of four years that was great versus three that were not so great under Fitzgerald’s watch. Hopefully, Year 5 is better.
Assistant General Managers – Dave MacKinnon and Kate Madigan
Dave MacKinnon joined the Devils organization back in 2016-17, first as the Director of Player Personnel and working his way up to Assistant General Manager / GM of the Utica Comets. Kate Madigan joined in 2017-18 as an analyst, working her way up the ranks to director of hockey ops, director of professional scouting, and assistant general manager. Both serve valuable roles as part of Tom Fitzgerald’s braintrust and inner circle.
The rest of the NHL has taken notice of the work MacKinnon and Madigan have been doing, as they’ve piqued interests elsewhere. MacKinnon made it deep into the Penguins search before they hired Kyle Dubas and was a finalist who lost out to Stan Bowman for the GM position in Edmonton. It would appear that its a matter of when, not if, MacKinnon gets a chance to be a GM with another organization. Madigan likely isn’t too far away from getting consideration of her own for potential openings as she gains more experience.
Senior Advisor to the President, Hockey Operations and General Manager – Chuck Fletcher
On August 1, the Devils announced that former Wild and Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher was being brought into the organization as a senior advisor to GM Tom Fitzgerald.
Fletcher’s runs as general manager were a mixed bag at best. Minnesota was a consistent playoff team under him in the mid 2010s but failed to get any further than the second round in any year before Fletcher was ultimately let go. Fletcher got another chance in Philadelphia and things went poorly enough there that their fans are now laughing at the Devils bringing him aboard. But hockey is an old boys network, there are apparently only 200 or so Hockey Men qualified for these types of jobs, and the relationship between Fitzgerald and Fletcher runs deep enough where the former is trying to do the latter a solid.
In actuality, Fletcher probably will have little to no influence on hockey decisions and will simply serve as one of the many, many voices that Fitzgerald will bounce things off of. Perhaps Fletcher will have some use as an intermediary if he has a relationship with another GM that Fitzgerald does not and will help there building a connection. And considering the aforementioned MacKinnon has been getting GM interviews elsewhere, this might be a bit of futureproofing on Fitzgerald’s part should MacKinnon or Madigan wind up taking a GM job elsewhere. But most likely, its one friend doing another a favor.
Executive VP Hockey Operations – Martin Brodeur
Martin Brodeur is a man who needs no introduction.
After a Hall of Fame playing career that saw him play parts of 21 seasons in New Jersey, earn recognition as one of the greatest to ever play at his position, and winning 3 Stanley Cups, Brodeur joined the St. Louis Blues as a player briefly in 2014-15 before retiring for good. He parlayed that into a role with the Blues as an assistant general manager, but returned to the Devils in 2018 as EVP of Business Development. He has since worked his way up on the executive side, first as an advisor and then as an EVP of Hockey Ops, where he is directly involved with personnel decisions, player recruitment, scouting, and overseeing the team’s goaltending department. Brodeur is entering his third full season in that role and is a part of Fitzgerald’s council.
The Coaching Staff
Head Coach – Sheldon Keefe
The biggest change the Devils made in regards to the coaching staff is the man leading the charge going forward. Former Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe was hired on May 22nd after a lengthy coaching search. After Toronto dismissed Keefe a few weeks earlier, it was obvious that Keefe was going to be a priority for the Devils now that he was available, and the Devils got their man a few weeks later.
John covered a lot of what Keefe will likely bring to the Devils in the post I linked above, but to recap, I would expect the Devils to remain a rush-based team. I would expect the Devils to be less “one and done” when it comes to offensive rushes because they’re better equipped to forecheck and win those battles down low and sustain prolonged possession. After all, the best defense is a good offense that doesn’t let the other team touch the puck, and Toronto’s teams had plenty of success with the fancy stats to indicate more often than not, you were chasing them when they had the puck. Keefe has also been known to be tough on his star players so I could see him doing a better job of holding players accountable than the previous regime, which only seemed to hold Alexander Holtz accountable. And while I think the Devils will still try to break out from their zone when they can, I think they’ll be a bit more selective when picking their spots and not put the goaltender out on an island as frequently as previous teams did.
Keefe had a lot of regular season success in Toronto despite top-heavy rosters with talented forwards, but what I don’t think gets talked about enough is the work Keefe has done rounding out the games of his star players. Auston Matthews has always been a goal scorer but he became a more well-rounded two-way forward under Keefe and earned Selke votes the last five seasons. He also has won a Hart Trophy, proving you don’t have to sacrifice offense for defense. Mitch Marner has consistently been one of the best defensive wingers in the league under Keefe’s tutelage.
The one knock on Keefe has been a lack of playoff success in Toronto, a knock that he shares with the Leafs players who remain there. And I’m not going to sugarcoat is, Keefe’s record is what it is. But I do think getting to the dance matters and the Leafs have consistently gotten to the dance in what is arguably the toughest division in the NHL. His 212-97-40 record is better than anything the Devils have had behind the bench in quite some time, and I don’t doubt that Keefe can navigate the ebbs and flows of a regular season. Particular now that he’s in “the real NHL” and he’s no longer in the pressure cooker that is the Toronto media market.
Keefe is entering a really good situation in New Jersey. Maybe the Devils high end talent isn’t quite as good as what he had in Toronto, but its not a slouch either. And the Devils have a deeper blueline than anything he ever got to work with in his 4.5 seasons with the Leafs. A Jacob Markstrom/Jake Allen duo might be better than anything he ever got in Toronto either.
It might take some time for Keefe to figure out how all the pieces fit together, but its a great landing spot for him and I think there’s a mutual benefit with the Devils players having him as the coach going forward.
Assistant Coach – Jeremy Colliton
On June 11th, the Devils announced that the only change to their coaching staff would be the hiring of former Chicago Blackhawks head coach Jeremy Colliton as an assistant coach.
Colliton replaces Travis Green on the coaching staff as he’ll coach the forwards and power play this upcoming season. And as John pointed out, his results on the power play were….fine, I guess. Keep in mind, the Blackhawks were a team on the decline as Colliton ran the show there. Their championship core was getting older and secondary pieces were leaving left and right. But most of their power plays as a team under Colliton were middle of the pack, at best, and we’re talking about teams that still had Patrick Kane and Alex Debrincat on them.
The Devils power play started out last season white hot but cooled off as the season went on and got more predictable and stale. Part of that might have to do with the injuries to Jack Hughes and Dougie Hamilton, and having both back should be an upgrade.
Assistant Coaches – Ryan McGill, Chris Taylor, Sergei Brylin, and Dave Rogalski
Surprisingly, Keefe chose to stick with most of the staff that he inherited when he took the Devils job. A case could be made that an incoming coach should pick his own staff, but his only new hire was Colliton. Let’s take a look at everyone else who is returning for another year in New Jersey.
Ryan McGill is entering his third season on the Devils staff and is primarily responsible for the defensemen and the penalty kill. McGill had a tall order with the aforementioned transition on defense from Severson and Graves to Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec, but I think he did as well as could reasonably be expected. It should also be noted that after his penalty kill finished 4th in 2022-23, they only dropped to 10th in 2023-24. Not bad, considering the Devils goaltending was a dumpster fire for most of the season.
Chris Taylor joined the staff with the hire of Lindy Ruff prior to the 2020-21 season. Taylor mostly served in the “eye in the sky” role his first few seasons before moving behind the bench when the team promoted Sergei Brylin to the coaching staff.
Sergei Brylin was promoted to the NHL coaching staff prior to the 2022-23 season after spending the previous nine seasons working his way up the coaching ranks at the AHL level. Sarge also served as a key role player on the Devils throughout his 13 year playing career and is one of a handful of men to be a member of all three Devils Stanley Cup championship teams. Brylin serves in the “eye in the sky” role that Taylor vacated.
All of that brings us to the much maligned Rogalski.
Dave Rogalski joined the Devils staff along with Taylor prior to the 2020-21 season, coming from the St. Louis Blues organization where Brodeur has familiarity with him. I have no idea if Rogalski is a good coach or not (although I’d guess probably not from his body of work), but the Devils thought enough of him to keep him around despite almost zero track record of success in net on the Devils staff. Sure, the Devils got a good half season out of Vitek Vanecek and a surprising run from Akira Schmid late in the 2022-23 season, but for the most part, the results have simply not been there.
Now, is that Rogalski’s fault? I wouldn’t argue with you if you thought it was. There was certainly a strong case against him. But there’s an equally compelling case that he didn’t have a whole lot to work with, from Mackenzie Blackwood to ten games of Jonathan Bernier to Vanecek to AHL fodder in Nico Daws and Akira Schmid to NHL washouts like Jon Gillies and Andrew Hammond. Is it Rogalski’s fault that he can’t squeeze blood from a stone? Was Rogalski also set up to fail with a flawed system that all too often put the goaltenders out on an island when the players failed to execute it? Or is Rogalski actually a bad coach? I’ll let you decide in the comments.
The Devils would’ve been well within their right to try anyone else. Keefe would’ve been well within his right to want to hire ‘his guys’ and punt the holdovers to the curb. Keefe, collectively with Fitzgerald, decided not to do that. We’ll see how the decision turns out, but with Markstrom and Allen on board, there should be no more excuses for Rogalski either.
Final Thoughts
I have a few lingering questions in regards to the Devils and the staff they’ve assembled that I think will be key to their success this upcoming season.
- How quickly can Keefe get the Devils players to buy in to his system and what they want to do? The Devils should offer a similar, yet different look to what they were two years ago (when they had a lot of success) and last year (when they didn’t have much). I’m not saying the players can’t or won’t buy in, but they need that level of buy in for this all to work and that does take time as players adjust to a new system.
- How long will it take for Devils players to adjust to a new system? If the dress rehearsal against the Islanders was any indication, they have work to do. I would caution against overreacting to preseason games but I do think it would be fair to point out that the team has looked flat so far in preseason contests. And the next time we see this group in action will be the opener in Prague. Eventually, the “its preseason” and “they’re still learning” excuses go away once the games count for real.
- Can Colliton fix what was a broken power play last season? I’m not saying the Devils need to have the best power play in the league, but I do need consistency from them and I do need them to not go through a prolonged drought where they’re a net negative over all because they’re on a 2-for-46 stretch. I think a lot of that comes from personnel and frankly, having a healthy Dougie Hamilton back where his shot from the point needs to be respected and accounted for should help matters.
- Can either goaltender get enough saves to where I don’t have to think or talk about Dave Rogalski ever again? A man can dream, can’t he?
- Can Fitzgerald survive another losing season? It’s easy to say that Fitzgerald TRIED to fix the goaltending. He TRIED to fix the defense. He TRIED to make the forward group deeper and more versatile and tougher to play against. He TRIED and he TRIED and he TRIED and poor ol’ Tom Fitzgerald just keeps getting unlucky.
Tough. Do or do not. There is no try.
The Devils need results and five years in, Fitzgerald has had plenty of opportunities to fix this. I do think there’s enough of a positive body of work where he deserves the chance to clean up the mess he made last season. We’ll see if he can.
There’s too much talent on the Devils roster to have another season like last year, and my patience for bad hockey is wearing thin after sitting through mostly losing hockey over the last decade. I do think Fitzgerald made the right moves to fix this, and I do think the Devils will indeed fix this and are right back in the playoffs, but time will tell if that is indeed the case.
That said, the Devils should have flexibility to go out and make additions at the deadline if necessary, and I would expect Fitzgerald to do that should the Devils remain in the race. They have minimal cap space at the moment but that should grow as the season goes on and the team accrues space. They don’t have their first round pick in next year’s draft due to the Markstrom trade, and the 2026 1st is tied up at the moment due to conditions on the 2025 pick, but the Devils do have extra second round picks from previous trades with Utah and Winnipeg at their disposal to add. They also have the third round pick they picked up from the Vegas Golden Knights in the Holtz-Cotter deal, which should help make up for not having their own third round pick from the Jake Allen trade. Assuming the Devils are in the race, I expect them to make another move or two at the deadline to add to this group.
That’s how I feel about the coaching staff and management team heading into the upcoming season. Perhaps you feel differently. Please feel free to leave a comment below, and thanks for reading.