{"id":554827,"date":"2026-04-17T22:21:37","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554827\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T22:21:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T22:21:37","slug":"n-j-devils-hire-florida-panthers-analytics-boss-sunny-mehta-to-run-hockey-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/554827\/","title":{"rendered":"N.J. Devils hire Florida Panthers\u2019 analytics boss Sunny Mehta to run hockey operations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-franchises \">The Devils on Thursday hired Florida Panthers Assistant GM and Head of Analytics Sunny Mehta as their GM, and he \u201cwill be in charge of all hockey operations decisions,\u201d according to Emily Kaplan of ESPN.com. Sources said that this is the \u201conly move\u201d the Devils are expected to make at this time, and the rest of the department and coaching staff will \u201cremain under evaluation.\u201d Mehta <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/04\/07\/devils-part-ways-with-gm-tom-fitzgerald\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2026\/04\/07\/devils-part-ways-with-gm-tom-fitzgerald\/\">replaces Tom Fitzgerald<\/a>, who was \u201cousted earlier this month after the Devils missed the playoffs.\u201d Mehta had worked in the Panthers front office since 2020 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/story\/_\/id\/48507904\/devils-hire-panthers-exec-sunny-mehta-general-manager\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/story\/_\/id\/48507904\/devils-hire-panthers-exec-sunny-mehta-general-manager\">ESPN.com, 4\/16<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-franchises \">ANALYTICAL MIND: In Newark, Ryan Novozinsky noted Mehta was \u201cinstrumental\u201d in the Panthers\u2019 two straight Stanley Cup championships. He also worked for the Devils from 2014-18 as their director of hockey analytics &#8212; where he \u201cpieced together the first full-time analytics department in the NHL.\u201d Novozinsky: \u201cHis resume is unique. Mehta is a data scientist, former professional poker player, musician, two-time bestselling author and an options trader\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/devils\/2026\/04\/devils-hire-top-gm-candidate-nj-native.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nj.com\/devils\/2026\/04\/devils-hire-top-gm-candidate-nj-native.html\">Newark STAR-LEDGER, 4\/16<\/a>). THE ATHLETIC\u2019s Mirtle\u202f&amp; Baugh wrote Mehta is \u201cconsidered a hockey analytics pioneer and is one of the most prominent faces of the analytics movement in the NHL.\u201d In addition to his work with the Panthers and Devils, he was previously a consultant for the Coyotes and Capitals, as well as six MLB teams (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7203674\/2026\/04\/16\/new-jersey-devils-sunny-mehta-general-manager\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7203674\/2026\/04\/16\/new-jersey-devils-sunny-mehta-general-manager\/\">THE ATHLETIC, 4\/16<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-franchises \">OFF THE BOARD: In Toronto, Kevin McGran wrote Mehta was \u201cone of the names said to be on the\u202fMaple Leafs\u2019 wish list\u201d of GMs \u201cbecause of his use of analytics.\u201d Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment President &amp; CEO Keith Pelley said that the \u201cuse of data would be central to the Leafs front office\u201d moving forward. Mehta helped the Panthers \u201cfind players who had slipped through the cracks to aid them in winning the Stanley Cup the last two seasons\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/sports\/leafs\/devils-1-maple-leafs-0-new-jersey-hires-analytics-darling-sunny-mehta-as-general-manager\/article_7413a497-36cd-40bf-aa41-12a2866e87ce.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/sports\/leafs\/devils-1-maple-leafs-0-new-jersey-hires-analytics-darling-sunny-mehta-as-general-manager\/article_7413a497-36cd-40bf-aa41-12a2866e87ce.html\">TORONTO STAR, 4\/16<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Devils on Thursday hired Florida Panthers Assistant GM and Head of Analytics Sunny Mehta as their GM,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[62,57,5141,5,5472,4,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-554827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida-panthers","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-panthers","10":"tag-floridapanthers","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-leadership","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-panthers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116422383044482775","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554827","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=554827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}