Fan First Friday: Boss Man Edition

Tuesday, New Jersey Devils Introducing Sheldon Keefe, who faced a much smaller New Jersey media crowd than he often faced in Toronto. We didn’t learn much about Sheldon other than a few platitudes and the fact that he relied heavily on the analytics department. John Excellent summary So I don’t want to repeat his words here.

I just wanted to talk about my thoughts on Sheldon Keefe since not much else was going on with the New Jersey Devils this week. It should be noted that I really didn’t like it when Lindy Love was hired. Although I never want a coach to fail when coaching my favorite team. I just always thought of Love as a businessman to Dominik Hasek and his brief stint in Dallas didn’t change my mind. The worst part was that Rangers fans celebrated when Love was hired from behind the Rangers bench as an assistant coach to take over the Devils job.

The reaction to Keefe seemed to have a similar general idea:

Most people are talking about how the Maple Leafs spent about $50 million in cap space to sign five players. Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, William Nylander, and Morgan Rielly. This left the team to try to fill holes with other players on the roster. The defense was never particularly strong, and the strongest goalie Keefe had was Freddie Anderson, who as we know is not a playoff legend. The Maple Leafs have been trying to manage with a goalie that is essentially similar to the Devils’ goalie situation for the past few seasons. It’s no coincidence that Washington waived both Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov at the same time.

Now the irony is that many would say the Devils have a similar roster structure. Some of the expensive forwards are Timo Maier, Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, and Nico Hischier. Not to mention Doug Hamilton, who makes $9 million per year. But there is almost a $9 million difference between those five and the Toronto five. Furthermore, even though Doug Hamilton was primarily injured in two of his three seasons with the Devils, I am going to go out on a limb and say that Hamilton is an elite offensive defenseman who can completely change the dynamic of a game with his willingness to fire a fierce shot from anywhere on the ice at any time. Anyone who doubts what Hamilton can bring to the Devils only needs to look at last season’s results to see how he tilted the ice in the Devils’ favor.

Now, this comparison is a bit off, as Ondrej Palat’s $6 million AAV contract looks terrible, which puts the Devils even further behind the Maple Leafs’ five-man unit. However, given the age and curve of the Devils’ players, and the fact that Keefe has never coached a right-handed defenseman like Dougie Hamilton at the NHL level, I think Keefe’s roster situation will improve.

A lot can change between now and the start of the season. I do expect the Devils to fill the currently vacant No. 1 goalie position with Sheldon Keefe filling that spot if You can listen to his fascinating interview with Jeff MarekWhether it is Jacob Marktstrom ( Obviously my personal belief), or one of the many other goalies the Devils are on the market Rumor has it that they are chasingit will certainly happen. Even if Fitz ends up having to pay an exorbitant fee for the privilege.

Keefe should be able to work better under the microscope in Toronto, and hopefully that will work in his favor as well. Even if the good people of Toronto totally overstated this comment:

I don’t think he meant any disrespect to the Maple Leafs or the people of Toronto, but when you’re an original six-player team in the largest media market in Canada and you haven’t won Stanley Cup Not since Lyndon Johnson was President of the United States has the pressure of this position been absolutely suffocating. I think his players are often weighed down by the burden. But that doesn’t exist in New Jersey, where the first people to ask him questions after every game are members of the team (Amanda Stein, no offense). It’s like escaping the trash compactor in Star Wars and the weight of expectations. It’s not that we Devils fans don’t expect him to usher in a new era of championship hockey for the Devils, but his performance hasn’t been good enough, even if the flying chicken fingers suggest otherwise.

I like that Keefe didn’t use generalities and platitudes in his press conference and told us how he would run this team. He is a thoughtful guy who does his homework when determining his usage and scheme for the team. It may also depend on how two specific players recover this summer.

Maybe I’m just mentally scarred by all the injuries this season, but Hamilton’s pecs and Hughes’ shoulder have me worried. Watching Jack Hughes battle a possible torn shoulder blade in the final 30 games of the season has me concerned for his long-term future. I know this is a common injury among hockey players given the physical contact, but he couldn’t even get in a scrimmage or play center. Hamilton revealed after the season that there’s a good chance he won’t be able to return at all, even if the Devils make the playoffs. So forgive me for being nervous about our most important forward and our most important defenseman. These two will have a major impact on Keefe’s success (or failure) as a head coach.

at last, Keefe struggled in the playoffsHe has only won one playoff round in five seasons. To me, all a coach can do in the playoffs is make adjustments to put players in the best position to execute and win. While it’s debatable whether Keefe always did this with the Maple Leafs, one thing that stood out to me was his ability to transform the Maple Leafs from a team that was subpar in defense and goaltending to an offense-focused team to one that was almost solely focused on stopping the Bruins. He did this after the Bruins took a 3-1 series lead. His Maple Leafs locked up the Bruins in the next two games. Then the team languished in Game 7 when the pressure returned. If you remember, it took Lindy Love a long time to change the Devils’ style of play this season when he finally decided the team didn’t have the personnel or the ability to run and gun this year. When he finally made the change, the team seemed to get worse because they were so focused on defense that they forgot how to create offense. I don’t believe Keefe would do that, and he changed the structure of the team in the midst of a condensed playoff schedule and very little practice time. If there’s anything that makes me believe he can make a team transform itself, even with a roster that wasn’t built for it, it’s this one.

Ultimately, I really like the Keefe hire. I think he’ll apply all of his experience in Toronto to another young, skilled team that has a couple of absolute stars on defense, and a veteran team in Hamilton. All Fitz needs to do is add depth and speed to this team and grab the goaltending we’ve been craving for years.

The ball is in your court, Fitz. Thanks for reading. I’m going to take a couple weeks off as we work through the promotion season for my son and then will go on a trip. I’ll most likely be right back after the draft and hopefully Fitz will find that goalie that will get people talking about the Devils being a true contender. With that, expectations will rise for the Royal NHL.