1. Take the Puck and Skate’
There were a lot of roster changes made over the summer. Mehta and his staff worked to bring in players like forwards Luke Evangelista, Anthony Mantha, Evan Rodrigues, Jesper Boqvist and Amadeus Lombardi, defenseman Declan Chisholm and goalie David Rittich.
Though the roster is far from complete, the time has come for this particular group of players to get to work.
“Feel pretty good about not just myself, but my whole staff, the way we worked together to do that, to get more depth into the organization,” Mehta said. “I do think my job is never done, as I always say, but in particular right now, it's the players' time. This is now their time to take the ball and run with it, take the puck and skate with it.
“And my message to them was that I believe they will. I believe in them. So, that's just really exciting.”
As far as expectations, Mehta didn’t mince words.
“The Carolina Hurricanes have earned their reputation. The Florida Panthers have earned their reputation,” he said. “I expect us to try to compete with those teams, and I believe we will.
“At the risk of sounding however it might come off, my expectation is to win a Cup. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that's the mean or the mode expectation for this year or anything like that. But to me, that is the goal. That is my expectation for this organization.”
2. Forward Depth
With all the above mentioned players added to the fold, the Devils have an abundance of depth at the forward position. Judging from camp (and with the usual caveat that it’s only Day 1), the lines shook up as follows:
Meier – Hischier – Evangelista
Mantha – Hughes – Bratt
Gritsyuk – Rodrigues – Mercer
Lombardi – Glass – Brown
“I think even going all the way back to my first press conference, the goal was, I think of my role as having to infuse talent into the roster,” Mehta said, “making sure that the roster is flush with talent, I think is the way I said it.”
The question may be, how will Keefe find enough ice time for all his players. A fun problem to have.
“It certainly gives lots of options, lots of depth, lots of versatility throughout our lineup, lots of competition,” Keefe said. “So, it's all very healthy, all in the name of making us a deeper hockey team that can sustain our play. And that's something that obviously we've been seeking, and Sunny sought to address in this off-season, and he's clearly done that. So, it's very exciting.
“And it's not just bringing in people. These are bona fide NHLers that not only bring great skills, but there's good people with personality that are bringing lots to our group. It's been exciting getting to know the guys up until this point.”
3. By Mennen
Perhaps the biggest snag for the Devils in the off-season was Evangelista. The club acquired him via trade with Nashville and landed a top-6 forward. The team then signed him to a five-year contract extension worth $7.25 average annual value.
Mehta was so high on Evangelista (and so persistent in pursuit of the trade that he even compared himself to George Costanza’s comment on the “By Mennen” commercial from the show Seinfeld).
“I'm sure Nashville will tell you that I was probably as annoying as George Costanza for the last four or five months,” Mehta laughed. “So, I was just thrilled that we were able to get him.”
The Devils signed Evangelista prior to midnight on Sept. 15 before new rules and regulations on contract signings were set to kick in for the (now current) CBA.
“As you've seen top down to some extent, having guys on good contracts is important,” Mehta said. “It's a salary cap league. I've said it a million times. It's something I think about all the time. We think about it as an organization. It's a philosophy. It's not enough anymore to just have good players. You have to have good players on good contracts.
“And I thought it was a win-win for both sides, right? Because of being able to get it in under the wire there, we were able to do some things structure-wise that made it attractive for Luke. And also for Luke, it's a commitment for him and saying – and he hasn't been here that long yet, right? A couple weeks – and so for him to make that commitment, he already felt comfortable, felt good around the guys, so really excited about that.”
Right off the bat, Evangelista was put on a line with captain Nico Hischier and winger Timo Meier. An early indication of how highly he has been appraised.
“First, I think his skill set matches really well with those guys,” Keefe said of placing him with those two. “Those are two heavier guys that can go to the net, can finish, and can score. And Evangelista can make a lot of plays. He likes to hang onto the puck and sees the ice well. He's got great poise, great ability to make a play. So, we like that match-up.
“Obviously, Mercer spent a lot of time there. We know what that looks like. We don't know what Evangelista looks like there, so we want to give that an opportunity.”
4. Goaltending Rotation
The Devils traded Jacob Markstrom – the club’s No. 1 goalie the past two seasons – and will run with three netminders competing in camp. Veteran Jake Allen returns and the club signed Rittch as a free agent. The most intriguing aspect will be the play of Nico Daws, who will have an opportunity to grab hold of the crease for possibly the first time in his career.
“For me, I'm very comfortable with our goaltending,” Mehta said. “I think, as I've said before, Daws has been a big prospect in this organization, and in some ways there, I was talking about this with him actually just two days ago, there's nothing more frustrating when you have prospects who develop and then they don't have a path in front of them.
“And he's got a path in front of him right now. And as I've told him, it's going to be up to him to decide what to do with that opportunity, but the opportunity is there.”
While it’s still early, Daws does seem to have some extra juice knowing the potential that lays ahead.
“It's a great opportunity for Daws,” Keefe said. “I think if today was any indication, I thought Daws, it was the best practice I've seen him have in my time here. That shows me this is a determined guy that's focused and ready to take his opportunity here.”
5. New coaching staff
The Devils made a lot of changes to the roster and the front office. But there was also an overhaul of the coaching staff. Longtime assistants Jeremy Colliton, Sergei Brylin and Dave Rogalski have parted ways with the organization.
The club hired assistant coaches Ted Donato and AJ MacLean and goalie coach Dan Stewart.
“We just thought that it was a chance to get some fresh perspective in here, some fresh eyes, fresh voices, guys that come in with optimism and are ready to get to work and look ahead,” said Keefe, who has returning assistant coach Brad Shaw. “I think that's just natural as you go through it as a hockey team. And I'm thrilled with the guys that we brought in here.
“So far, I've really liked how it's come together for us here and excited to play some games.”
Donato, who played parts of 13 seasons in the NHL, coached at his alma mater Harvard for 22 years. He led the club to 334 wins and eight NCAA Tournament appearances.
“Ted Donato's been great. He has obviously lots of experience as a player in the league,” Keefe said. “He's been a head coach at Harvard and coached many, many players that are now playing in the NHL, including a son that he has in the NHL. But lots of personality and going to really help us in that way as well.”
MacLean was most recently with Syracuse (Tampa Bay's AHL affiliate) for three seasons. He served under Keefe with the Toronto Marlies from 2015-20.
“AJ McLean is someone that I've worked with for a long time in both the OHL and Sault Ste. Marie, and then with the Toronto Marlies, where we won a Calder Cup together,” Keefe said.
Stewart was with the St. Louis Blues for the past six years serving as a goaltending development coach and AHL goalie coach for Springfield. He's worked with many current and former NHL goalies like Malcolm Subban and Charlie Lindgren.
“Stewart's been also a good addition, and he's got good experience working at the AHL level, developing goalies that are now playing in the NHL,” Keefe said.
