Sheldon Keefe and Lindy Ruff are very different coaches. During his time running the New Jersey Devils’ bench, Ruff employed very aggressive tactics in pursuit of success. He wanted his defensemen to swarm puck carriers in the defensive zone in order to end possessions quickly. He wanted his forwards to fly the zone in order to get into position for stretch passes that would lead to rush chances the other way. He wanted puck movement from low to high once his team set themselves up in the offensive zone. And unlike just about every other coach in the NHL, when playing with a lead, Ruff did not want his team to turtle. Instead, he wanted to keep his foot on the gas and continue to pressure opponents with tempo, aggressive defense, and rush offense, regardless of the score.
Sheldon Keefe, on the other hand, is a little more conventional. He employs a “Fight The Panic” style of play in the defensive zone, where instead of asking both defensemen to swarm the puck carrier, he asks one defenseman and one forward to tackle that duty. Once possession is won (this is where the “Fight The Panic” comes in), the puck is usually played back to the open defenseman and breakouts are executed methodically and safely, circling back numerous times if necessary until a high-percentage breakout chance presents itself. There is less focus on rush offense in Keefe’s system, instead putting more of an emphasis on dump-ins, cycle chances, and generating offense from behind the goal line as opposed to working low to high.
There is more to each system than this, but that’s the gist of each one. If you do want an in-depth breakdown, I recommend John’s piece from last September on what we should expect from a Sheldon Keefe-led team. So why am I bringing all of this up now? Because I wonder if the new additions prompt Keefe to adjust his style for this upcoming season.
The three most prominent additions the Devils made over the summer were Connor Brown, Evgenii Dadonov, and Arseni Gritsyuk. Barring anything completely out of left field, these players will be the most important new faces to the club this season. And while he’s not totally new, Cody Glass will play his first full season with New Jersey after coming over during last season’s trade deadline. He’ll be a vital piece as well. All of these players have differing styles of play and individual skillsets, but one skill they do seem to share is strong skating ability.
In his first article for the site over the weekend (welcome!), Tim discussed the value of speed and playing with pace. He pointed out that Brown, Dadonov, and Glass are all above the league average in both top skating speed and speed bursts over 20 mph. This tells us that not only are they faster than average in a straight line, but they are capable of playing an up-tempo game. If they were replacing players who were just as fast as them, this wouldn’t be notable, but that’s not the case at all. They’re replacing folks who were either below league average in speed and pace (Nate Bastian, Justin Dowling, Tomas Tatar) or couldn’t utilize their genuinely good speed because of injuries (Erik Haula, Curtis Lazar). The Devils’ forward group should be a much faster unit.
The wildcard here is Gritsyuk, as there isn’t really KHL data to draw from. We can only go by scouting reports, and from what I can find in this regard, Gritsyuk is generally considered to have average to above-average skating ability. He won’t be another Jesper Bratt, but I have to assume he will also be an upgrade over what the Devils had. And even if he turns out to have below average speed, he should still have more puck skills and scoring touch than any of the players New Jersey let go this offseason.
With these additions, New Jersey should be one of the fastest teams in the league, just like they were in 2022-23, the pinnacle of this current iteration of the Devils. Speed isn’t everything, but in the modern NHL it goes a long way toward becoming a top team.
So with this in mind, would Keefe change how he wants his team to play? It makes sense that tactics should change when personnel does, and if the goal of the offseason was to inject more offense into this team (which it absolutely was), then perhaps taking advantage of this newfound team speed is the way to do it. I don’t anticipate Keefe transforming his entire system to mimic Ruff’s, but I can see him asking his players to focus slightly less on certain aspects of his system and slightly more on new strategies. Fewer dump-ins, more controlled zone entries. Fewer regroups, more stretch passes. Fewer cycle chances, more rush chances. All for the sake of putting pressure on opponents.
That concept of pressure is key here. Tim referred to it as “Stress Hockey” in his article, and I think that’s a very fitting name for it. Applying pressure and stress, whether that be through a grinding forecheck or a relentless rush attack, can really wear down an opponent. Regardless of what method of applying pressure you want to use, it requires your team to play with speed and pace. Keefe has a lot more speed and pace at his disposal this season, and I think he would be wise to lean more into it when it comes to his tactics.
This could honestly be an entire article itself, but I really do believe that having a coherent identity is very important in today’s NHL. I don’t think there’s one specific style that is inherently better than others, but a commitment to that style is critical. And perhaps equally as important as having a team identity, you need the talent to successfully pull it off.
The Florida Panthers just won back-to-back Cups utilizing aggressive forechecking, physicality (although let’s be honest and call it what it is: stooping to playing dirty a LOT), and counter-attack offense as their main calling cards. A couple short years before them, the Colorado Avalanche won it all while playing almost the exact opposite way as the Panthers: A heavy emphasis on transition play, rush offense, soft skill, and up-tempo pace. The specific style does not matter, so long as the team is committed to the identity, and so long as the team has the talent to back it up.
Which brings us back to Keefe and the Devils. Perhaps there will be a lot of you who will disagree with this, but I really do believe this core is talented enough to win it all. Jack Hughes has obviously had trouble staying healthy over the past few seasons, but as he gets older and stronger, I think his injury woes should subside. And assuming they do, the league better watch out, because Hughes is a top-10 player in the league when he’s on his game. After him, Nico Hischier would be a decent top center on a championship team, but is hilariously overqualified in his current role as the team’s second-best center. Jesper Bratt is perhaps one level below the absolute top tier of wingers, but he’s not far off, and Timo Meier is close behind Bratt. On defense, while he hasn’t put it all together yet, I have faith that Luke Hughes will develop into the stud, number one defenseman that every team needs in order to win a championship. Behind him, Dougie Hamilton is still elite offensively, Jonas Siegenthaler is elite defensively, Simon Nemec has a world of potential despite a disappointing sophomore year, and Anton Silayev could quite possibly become the best of them all one day.
In my eyes, New Jersey has the talent. The next step is developing a team identity. They had it in 2022-23 but fell short. Now it’s time for them to develop a new style and commit to it. I’ve been advocating for Keefe to tweak his system a little to accommodate the upgrade in team speed he now has, and while I would still like to see this, the truth is this is not mandatory in order to win a championship. The Devils were one of the best teams in the league through the 2024 portion of the schedule, and that was while playing exactly the way Keefe wanted them to play. If Keefe can get them to play at that high of a level for the entire season, then changes won’t be necessary at all. But considering how much the team fell apart after Christmas, and considering how much speed and pace New Jersey added this offseason, I think some adjustments to the system are in order. Again, it does not have to be a complete overhaul. But incorporating more room for things like rush offense and controlled zone entries can help get the most out of the personnel Keefe currently has. But whether Keefe does this or not, I hope that he is able to reestablish an identity for this team and stick with it.
Do you think Keefe should make any system changes in 2025-26, or are you fine with all the strategies he employed last season? If you want changes, do you agree that leaning more on team speed should be an emphasis? Or do you want to see different changes made? As always, thanks for reading!