NHL rumors: What’s next for former Devils head coach John Hynes?

After being fired by the New Jersey Devils, what could the future hold for John Hynes?

Well, it’s official. John Hynes has been officially released of his head coaching duties for the New Jersey Devils. I’m fairly positive that most saw this coming. After all, in his four full seasons as head coach for the Devils, he only made the playoffs once. Worse yet is that two of the seasons resulted in the first overall pick that summer. Sufficed to say, it has not gone well for him in New Jersey.

While others may question who the Devils turn to next, what to do with the team or maybe even who else to hold responsible, I wonder what Hynes is going to do next. Often, we forget that these coaches, managers, and players are people too. It is true that the firing should have happened, but it’s also true that we haven’t heard the last of Hynes.

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Before I go on, I pose these questions. Did you know that John Hynes was a dominant coach in the minors? That he killed it coaching the US National Development team? Did you know that he crushed it as a coach for the Under-17 US Development team? That he took the World Junior coaching scene by storm?

It’s pretty easy for fans to sit back and just base opinions on what they see on the surface  They can naively decide that he has failed in the NHL and question what Ray Shero was thinking when they hired him.  But there are reasons people are hired in the first place. And, make no mistake, Hynes should have been the man for the job based on his coaching success on every level.

Now, like any sports news, the firing has been plastered all over the news. Fans and pundits alike breathing sighs of relief, jeering, or even cheering at the thought of a man out of a job. Don’t get me wrong, I totally agree with the move, but let’s show some respect to a man who has come to work every day trying to improve his club, whether his work came to fruition or not.

All that being said, I am certain Hynes will coach again. He can’t totally be blamed for the debacle over the past while in Jersey. Whether it be inexperience, injuries or not meshing well, the players of the Devils have to take some blame too. It is just so much easier to expel a coach than it is to overhaul a team.

Like I mentioned before, his coaching record before the NHL was excellent. If you add up the records of USA hockey and Wilkes-Barre, his record is 489-256-52-9. He also has three medals at the World Juniors. Hynes has to be doing something right.

There isn’t a single Stanley Cup-winning coach that hasn’t been fired before. Even the greats get fired. It’s inevitable. To think that someone being fired simply makes them bad at their job is not only wrong, but it’s just sad. Just because it didn’t work out somewhere, it doesn’t mean it will never work out.

So, what does the future hold for John Hynes? I may not have a crystal ball or tarot cards to give me the exact answer, but as mentioned earlier, he’ll be back. And if the Devils get better quickly, it doesn’t mean we all point the finger at Hynes and place the collective blame. He has simply had too much success early on to ignore another chance.

It may not be tomorrow, next week or even this season, but watch for his return soon.  Sure, he may have to take a minor league, assistant or special team coaching job, but eventually, he’ll be the main man behind the bench. This bump, like all of ours, is just part of the journey.