(Newark) Sheldon Keefe becomes head coach of the New Jersey Devils, less than two weeks after being fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs.
A source close to the team confirmed the hire in a phone call with The Associated Press on Wednesday, adding that the official announcement would come Thursday.
Keefe is the Devils’ fifth coach since 2019 and third since March. They fired Lindy Ruff on March 4, replaced him on an interim basis with Travis Green and still missed the playoffs. Green was subsequently named head coach of the Ottawa Senators on May 7.
This is Keefe’s second NHL head coaching position. He spent over four seasons in Toronto, making the playoffs every year, but the Maple Leafs only won one series during that time.
These failures prompted the Maple Leafs to look for a new voice and hire Craig Berube, a Stanley Cup winner with the St. Louis Blues in 2019.
Keefe will try to bring the Devils back to the playoffs. They failed to qualify this year, having reached the second round in 2023.
The Devils were 38-39-5 in 2023-24, down 31 points from the previous season.
They suffered several injuries, the most serious being a torn pectoral muscle that limited defenseman Dougie Hamilton to 20 games. Defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler was also sidelined for 25 games due to a broken foot and a concussion.
Star forward Jack Hughes has missed 20 games, while captain Nico Hischier has been absent 11 times.
The Devils have also been without faceoff-killer Michael McLeod since February after he was charged in a sexual assault case that allegedly occurred in 2018.
Goalkeeping has been the team’s major problem as Vitek Vanecek, Nico Daws and Akira Schmid have lacked consistency. The Devils got some help late with the acquisition of Jake Allen, but net management still needs to be addressed before next season.
General manager Tom Fitzgerald’s roster is young and fast. Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, Hischier and Hughes are solid in attack. Among defensemen, Luke Hughes impressed in his first NHL season, setting a team record for a rookie with 47 points.
Ruff led the Devils to a team-high 112 points in 2022-23, a 49-point improvement from the previous year. They finished second in the Metropolitan section thanks to the best season of Jack Hughes’ career.
The team defeated the New York Rangers in seven games in the first round, but lost in five games in the next round to the Carolina Hurricanes.