{"id":393792,"date":"2026-01-06T16:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T16:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/393792\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T16:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T16:00:12","slug":"is-sheldon-keefe-the-right-fit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/393792\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Sheldon Keefe the Right Fit?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone is looking for someone to blame for the New Jersey Devils<\/a>\u2018 struggles this season. Tom Fitzgerald has taken heavy criticism for his roster construction. The latest whipping boy was Luke Hughes<\/a>. However, is the head coach to blame for the poor on-ice product?<\/p>\n

Spittin\u2019 Chiclets and Game Notes co-host\/producer Pasha Eshghi joined the latest Devils Rink Report<\/a> to discuss the Devils\u2019 disappointing season and whether head coach Sheldon Keefe<\/a> deserves the bulk of the blame.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I don\u2019t think he should be spared of blame,\u201d Eshghi said. \u201cI don\u2019t think he is the number one problem. I think even if they were to fire him, they would still have a lot they\u2019ve got to clean up. So put it this way, they have a lot of issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eshghi has backed Keefe from the start\u2014but context matters. For the majority of his 1.5 years in New Jersey, he hasn\u2019t had the luxury of working with a healthy roster most of the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been a supporter of Keefe since day one, much like Fitzgerald. I don\u2019t think he\u2019s had a fair shake in the sense of the injuries last year, the injuries this year. It\u2019s hard to kind of judge a body of work when the team is just not even remotely fully healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, one trend stands out as troubling. Under Lindy Ruff, the Devils played a far different style<\/a> than they do now. The success in 2022-23 speaks for itself, just look at the Buffalo Sabres right now. However, the whole point of a coaching change was because something wasn\u2019t working, which was evident in 2023-24.<\/p>\n

Yet, has Keefe\u2019s structure changed too much, hindering the Devils\u2019 strengths?<\/p>\n

\u201cI am concerned that his coaching style has them playing slow. [The Devils] are a fast team. They were one of the best rush teams in the league a couple of years ago, and now they\u2019re one of the worst, and that\u2019s just not acceptable with this roster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack Hughes<\/a> is back in the lineup now, but even if he wasn\u2019t, the Devils have enough star power in Nico Hischier<\/a>, Jesper Bratt<\/a>, Timo Meier<\/a>, Dougie Hamilton<\/a>, and Luke to be able to sustain a high level of play.<\/p>\n

Yet, although there\u2019s been injuries, finding the back of the net this season has been a struggle.<\/p>\n

The numbers back it up.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing 32nd last year at 5-on-5 goals is not acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2025-26 specifically, the Devils rank 29th in the NHL, scoring just 2.64 goals per game.<\/p>\n

Eshghi sees strengths in Keefe\u2019s approach, but questions the fit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s a good coach, especially defensively, but I don\u2019t know if he\u2019s ideal for that roster makeup, because he has a fast team playing slow, and I think that is hindering them offensively.\u201d<\/p>\n

If nothing else, Eshghi say\u2019s a coaching change isn\u2019t off the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying fire Keefe, per se. I think a massive shake-up is needed. If [firing Keefe] is the move, I would rather that than no move and just more of the same that we\u2019ve been seeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He even floated a nostalgic replacement, one who is currently unemployed and fully available.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially since, like I mentioned on Game Notes, Peter DeBoer is out there, and he\u2019s my favorite coach in Devils history, so I would love to see him back behind the Devils bench. But I don\u2019t think firing Keefe is the one move that\u2019s going to fix all the problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly, a coaching change isn\u2019t the final answer here. The Devils came into 2025-26 with needs at forward, specifically in the top-six and up the middle, a third line center behind Jack and Hischier. <\/p>\n

Keefe deserves more runway. He deserves a trade from Fitzgerald, and he deserves to work with a healthy roster.<\/p>\n

Pump the brakes on removing Keefe. It\u2019s not his time.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tJames is the New Jersey Devils beat reporter for New Jersey Hockey Now on Sportsnaut and the PHWAs New … More about James Nichols<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everyone is looking for someone to blame for the New Jersey Devils\u2018 struggles this season. Tom Fitzgerald has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5109],"tags":[201,3723,5,576,151,5185,5184,4,886,3502],"class_list":{"0":"post-393792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-devils","9":"tag-devils-news","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-new-jersey","12":"tag-new-jersey-devils","13":"tag-newjersey","14":"tag-newjerseydevils","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-sheldon-keefe","17":"tag-tom-fitzgerald"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115848991625438177","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}