Did the New Jersey Devils just make a smart move or a huge mistake?

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Well, Tom Fitzgerald continues to make changes to the New Jersey Devils, exactly something that he said he was going to do. Um, except he's not going to be making a change at the head coaching position. That's right. On Tuesday, we learned that Sheldon Keefe is going to be back behind the bench in the 2026-27 season. And look, if all goes according to plan for Tom Fitzgerald, I mean, there's a chance that Sheldon Keefe could fulfill the entire 4-year contract that he signed with New Jersey two seasons ago. But we're going to put a pin in Sheldon Keefe and we're going to, you know, start by talking about why we learned about Sheldon Keefe's future here on Tuesday, which is because the Devils actually fired Dave Rogalski from his goaltending coach position and are reassigning Sergei Brylin within the organization. He's no longer going to be an assistant coach in New Jersey. Now, moving on from Rogalski makes all the sense in the world, right? I mean, the Devils' goaltending has forever, for a long time really, it feels like, not been their strength. And, you know, it did look a little bit better in 2024-25, but 2025-26 was certainly not their season, especially when Jacob Markstrom was in goal. And look, perhaps this was just the straw that broke the camel's back with, you know, a new GM and and just seeing the results of how things have gone, you know, in in the crease in New Jersey for Rogalski's tenure. But I mean, you look at the list of goaltenders that he's been through, Mackenzie Blackwood's and Scott Wedgewood, two, by the way, goaltenders who are going to be helping the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Final this year. I mean, that's just certainly not a good look for starters.

[00:01:25]And then there's Aaron Dell, Eric Comrie, Andrew Hammond, Nico Daws, Akira Schmid, Jonathan Bernier, Vitek Vanecek, Jon Gillies, Jake Allen, Kaapo Kahkonen, and ultimately, uh, Jacob Markstrom was the last goaltender, uh, signed in New Jersey that Rogalski has his fingerprints on, um, up to this point.

[00:01:45]And it's going to end there for Rogalski. He's done in New Jersey. And the reason there is because, you know, the Devils' goaltending just did not improve under his tutelage and it was time to move on. It was no longer working for the Devils and Regalski. But zooming the lens out here, I mean, it makes a little bit of sense to see why, you know, guys like Regalski and Briere were, you know, removed from the Devils' bench as coaches. But, you know, you see guys like Calladine and Brad Shaw who are going to remain with Sheldon Keefe next season. And you have to remember when when Sheldon Keefe was signed to be the head coach of the Devils, he came in and inherited that entire coaching staff around him, right?

[00:02:24]Uh McGill was one, uh Taylor was another, and then he had, you know, Briere and Regalski by his side in the 2024-25 season. And then, you know, last summer, you know, Sheldon Keefe decided to move on from Taylor and from McGill and hired Brad Shaw and Jeremy Colliton. And those are his associate coaches. But Briere and Regalski remained, and you could kind of sense that perhaps that was a little bit of meddling from Tom Fitzgerald where, you know, you had Sheldon Keefe hired guys and guys who were there before Sheldon Keefe was hired. And you know, perhaps there just wasn't a a bit of gelling going on between that mix of coaches. But now going into next season, there are no more excuses. It's going to be an entire coaching staff that has been brought on by Sheldon Keefe. The search is underway, and they're going to be bringing in two new guys to fill those positions. And look, is this like a mistake by Sunny Mehta, or is this the exactly the way he wanted to do things?

[00:03:17]Does he have some sort of plan here? And look, if you ask me, I think that that Sunny Mehta is playing his cards exactly the way he should be by doing this and and keeping Sheldon Keefe on as head coach. And I say this for a few reasons. I mean, number one, you can look at last season what the New York Islanders did, um what Matthew Darche did with Patrick Roy, right? If things go well, great. Sheldon Keefe will stay behind the bench and continue to be the coach. And, you know, hopefully things don't fall apart last minute. But if they do fall apart last minute, kind of like how it did on Long Island, I mean, look what they did. They were able to cut bait with Patrick Roy. They brought in, you know, Peter DeBoer and now they have their new head coach, the hand-picked head coach by the general manager and, you know, it's almost like a get out of jail free card for, you know, Matthew Darche or what it would be for Sunny Mehta in this similar situation um because, you know, they could just point to the head coach and say this guy was not meeting the standard. But also, you know, I I'm not really surprised by this. I mean, if you think about it at, you know, Sunny Mehta's introductory press conference, Sheldon Keefe was there. questions about how Sheldon Keefe and there were a ton of answers about how Mehta and Keefe were had, you know, had a ton of conversation and and Mehta confided in Keefe and got a ton of information from him from Keefe. And look, of course, you know, they were going to have these conversations, right? He was the head coach and Sunny Mehta's coming into a new organization. So, he needs to learn.

[00:04:37]He needs to to understand what he was stepping into. Um but the way that, you know, Mehta went on about Keefe and talked about how smart of a a person he is and, you know, the the kind of relationship that they were already forming very quickly, it shouldn't be a surprise to see this happening. And then you have to also consider the way the 2025-26 season went. Started real well.

[00:04:58]There was that horrible middle and then it ended better, you know, it was the the Jack injury that really messed everything up. There was the pre-Jack injury Devils which were playing great.

[00:05:08]Then there was the injured Jack Jack Hughes Devils that were playing awful.

[00:05:12]Then there was the post uh Olympic Jack Hughes Devils which were playing better and like probably could have made the playoffs if they had more runway, you know, if they didn't give up, you know, by the time they knew it was, you know, too late to to make up as much ground as they missed. But, you know, you can look at the the the season last year as like three different stories and say, well, two of those three stories were led by Sheldon Keefe and they were actually playing pretty well. And then look, right? Sheldon Keefe has the history. I mean, he has five seasons under his belt making the playoffs out of his six-year NHL head coach tenure. I mean, that's pretty good. And he went as far as to say in his exit interviews that he was embarrassed by the fact that his team was not going to be playing after April in the playoffs. I mean, you know, he really took it to heart. I mean, he's he's a fiery kind of guy. And um you know, he certainly was again, he he meant it when he said he was embarrassed cuz you could see it in both his his reaction to, you know, the question and and to the season really.

[00:06:10]He he was certainly embarrassed. So, look, was this a mistake by Sunny Mehta to keep Sheldon Keefe on as the the head coach of the Devils? I I don't think so.

[00:06:19]I think what is happening here is Mehta wants to perhaps equip him with the proper roster that he hasn't been equipped with before. He wants to perhaps give him the full autonomy to hire a coaching staff that he sees fit, you know, not just half a coaching staff and you know, we'll figure out the rest.

[00:06:34]And certainly, you know, again, I think this plays into his hand real well where again, if it's his first year as the general manager and things aren't going well, he can just say, well, I got to cut bait with the head coach. That's going to be my first move and it's not on me, you know, the coach wasn't doing a good enough job. And look, at the end of the day, do I think Sheldon Keefe is a bad head coach? No, I I I don't. I think that, you know, he does have, you know, similar thinking to Sunny Mehta analytically, but also, you know, raw on the ice as well. And I do think he has the ability to help the Devils lean into their strengths as a high-skill speed rush team. Um and not just be this, you know, mundane defense first team that doesn't really score a lot of goals.

[00:07:16]However, that's not to say that the the leash shouldn't be short. And certainly, as soon as things get real tough and and perhaps decisions have to be made, they shouldn't be made quickly. But I want to hear from you guys. I want to know what you guys think. Do you guys think this was a mistake? Should Sunny Mehta have moved on to somebody new? Or was this right in his wheelhouse? Was this exactly the kind of thing he should have done, you know, given Sheldon Keefe that that runway, given him the autonomy, and and let's give him another year. Let's or you know, however many months maybe it'll take before they have to cut bait.

[00:07:44]Was this his first major move? Was it a bad one? You know, was it a good one?

[00:07:48]What do you guys think? I want to know.

[00:07:49]Let me know in the comments below. And listen, be sure if you like this kind of content to like and subscribe to the channel. Plenty more of this coming your way. You know, we got free agency coming. We got the NHL draft coming.

[00:07:59]Lots of content here at Devils' Ink Report. My name is James Nichols, Devils' Beat Reporter, and we'll talk soon.