Ruff will return as Devils coach next season

NEWARK, N.J. -- Lindy Ruff will return as coach of the New Jersey Devils next season.

The three-year contract Ruff signed in July 2020 expired after New Jersey lost in five games to the Carolina Hurricanes in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference Second Round.

But not before he led the Devils to the best regular season in their 41-year history and a Game 7 win against the New York Rangers in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"Four years ago, I was looking for the right coach for this organization," New Jersey general manager Tom Fitzgerald said Wednesday. "So, here we are today. He's still the right coach for this group. He's earned that right. He deserves that and we deserve him. He's a great partner for me and those kids love him. There's no such thing as a perfect coach, but he's got the utmost respect from our players, from us and from ownership. He's still the right guy for this job."

Fitzgerald didn't reveal the length of the contract, instead saying he and Ruff will sit down at some point to work out details.

"I think Lindy Ruff is a Hall of Fame coach, to be quite honest," Fitzgerald said. "For what he's done over his career, the longevity. But he's a Hall of Fame person, and I'm proud to call him a friend."

Ruff is 834-652-149 with 78 ties in 1,713 games as coach with the Devils, Dallas Stars and Buffalo Sabres. He's fifth in NHL history in wins and games coached.

The 63-year-old is a finalist for the Jack Adams Award given annually to the NHL coach of the year this season after he won it in 2005-06 as coach of the Sabres.

"I'm going to tell you I had a lot of fun this year ... to see these guys operate and do what they did," Ruff said Saturday during Devils breakup day. "I couldn't have painted a better picture from Day One with some of the goals we set during the regular season. We were an exciting team. We were a fast team that improved in a lot of areas."

The Devils qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2018 and advanced past the first round for the first time since losing the 2012 Stanley Cup Final in six games to the Los Angeles Kings. They established franchise records for wins and points (52-22-8, 112 points) and had an NHL-record 49-point improvement over the previous season (27-46-9, 63 points).

Fitzgerald will now shift his attention to the 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft, to be held June 28-29, and some big decisions to be made on many players, including pending unrestricted free agent forwards Erik Haula, Tomas Tatar and Miles Wood, defensemen Ryan Graves and Damon Severson, and restricted free agent forwards Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, Jesper Boqvist, Nathan Bastian, Michael McLeod, Yegor Sharangovich, defenseman Kevin Bahl and goalie Mackenzie Blackwood.

"We've had some guys who had great seasons but maybe production wasn't there in the playoffs, so you just hope there's going to be growth there," Fitzgerald said. "There's no reason to believe there won't be growth because of what we've seen with all our players."

Bratt said last week he wants to remain in New Jersey. The 24-year-old established NHL career highs in goals (32) and power-play goals (eight) in 82 games. He had six points (one goal, five assists) in 12 playoff games.

"There's definitely progression and there's definitely a framework of a deal to be done, long term, if Jesper wants that," Fitzgerald said. "I know Jesper wants to be a Devil long term, and so do we. He's part of the fabric here, part of the core. We just we want to get this done. I don't anticipate contentious negotiation and I think his agent knows where we're at, so we put the ball back in his court and we'll touch base soon."

Meier, acquired in a trade with the San Jose Sharks on Feb. 26, had 14 points (nine goals, five assists) in 21 regular-season games for the Devils and 66 points (40 goals, 26 assists) in 78 games overall. He had four points (two goals, two assists) and led New Jersey with 37 hits in 11 playoff games.

The 26-year-old missed a 5-1 loss at the Hurricanes in Game 1 of the second round when he was recovering after breaking his nose in a 4-0 win against the Rangers in Game 7 of the first round.

"We knew going into this he's one year from being a UFA, but [we] just felt like what we could offer players. ... he just had to come in and experience that," Fitzgerald said. "We feel that if winning and being on a future good team is important to you, this isn't a bad place to be. I just want people who want to be here too. They have to want to be here for the right reasons and understand what we're trying to build.

"Some player pieces are a little bit bigger than others, but it doesn't mean those smaller pieces aren't important. I'm trying to build the best team possible. I believe this is the right place for Timo, and we'll talk, go through this and hopefully try to figure something out long term."