New Jersey Devils should consider hiring Scott Stevens as head coach

With the New Jersey Devils perhaps being he NHL’s most underperforming team, a coaching change might be in the cards. Should Ray Shero take a look at franchise defenseman Scott Stevens?

On Draft Day 2019, I was one of the many New Jersey Devils fans who took to the streets out Newark outside Prudential center to watch the team draft future franchise cornerstone Jack Hughes. “This might actually be our year”, I thought to myself. Sure, I knew a Stanley Cup championship was a lofty goal, but a playoff spot might not have been too much to ask.

Now, with my team still winless, the outlook is looking much bleaker. Many Devils fans have begun to turn on head coach John Hynes, even chanting “Fire Hynes” after the Devils surrendered a three-goal lead Monday against the Florida Panthers in a regulation loss.

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My heart goes out to Hynes, for when a team underperforms, the coach is the easy scapegoat to blame. With the Devils in the position they are, especially after an off-season that drastically improved the team, it might be time to find a new head coach.

Yesterday, we took a look at some possible replacements for Hynes. The list included the usual suspects of the New Jersey Devils AHL affiliate head coach Mark Dennehy and Dan Bylsma.

Bylsma seems to have emerged as the front-runner, not only for his lengthy NHL resume, but also for his relationship with Devils general manager Ray Shero. Remember, both were Stanley Cup winners with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009 after a midseason turnaround.

Even with a Stanley Cup ring in tow, Bylsma might not be a perfect fit. For one, we can’t forget how he utterly failed at the rebuild of the Buffalo Sabres. Superstar Jack Eichel famously turned against his then-head coach, and that’s not the type of thing Devils want in their locker room of young talent among the likes of Hughes, Nico Hischier and even Taylor Hall, to a degree.

Also, Bylsma is currently employed as an assistant coach on the Detroit Red Wings. Even if his contract has an opt-out clause should a head coaching gig present itself, it’s hard to image the Red Wings would let him go without compensation.

Enter the surprising dark horse candidate – Scott Stevens. Stevens is royalty to the Devils fan base, so the move would be met with absolute enthusiasm. Usually, I’m not a fan of former players taking over coaching duties for the sake of nostalgia, but Stevens has himself a decent resume.

In addition to his storied career with the Devils, he served two separate stints behind their bench. First, from 2012-2014 as an assistant coach, and then from the end of 2014-2015 as part of Lou Lamoriello’s failed three head coach experiment, along with himself and Adam Oates. Stevens also spent 2016-2017 as a Minnesota Wild assistant coach.

Granted, none of the Devils’ teams Stevens ever coached ever made the playoffs, but those rosters were devoid of any real talent after years of terrible drafting the exodus of talent along with the likes of Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk.

If anything, the aging stop gaps that made up most of the teams overachieved. Even if this Devils team is far from perfect, it’s a night and day comparison to the dark times of the franchise after that last 2012 Stanley Cup Final appearance.

For a more fair evaluation, I took a look at Stevens’s tenure with the Minnesota Wild. In that one-year sample size, the Wild had the 11th ranked penalty kill in the NHL, although their 20th ranked power play could have been better. In a much more larger picture, that was the most successful year in Wild franchise history in terms of points and wins.

With the Devils’ worst problems this season coming with their special teams, Stevens’ stats would be a sizable improvement. Add into consideration Stevens was coaching under Mike Yeo, who has long been regarded as ineffective. With the freedom Stevens would get in Jersey as head coach, the result looks promising.

Stevens stepped down from his coaching role with the Wild to spend more time with his family, so would he really consider a return to coaching? It’s hard to believe he wouldn’t, as New Jersey is “home “in more ways than one for Stevens.

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Not only is it the franchise that he spent so many successful years in, but it’s also the same region where he’s currently employed as an NHL Network analyst. Even if Dan Bylsma is the main catch, Stevens should at least be on Ray Shero’s shortlist if he intends on sending John Hynes packing.

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