Ruff hired by Devils as coach, replaces Nasreddine

Lindy Ruff was hired as coach of the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.

Ruff replaces Alain Nasreddine, who was 19-16-8 with New Jersey before the NHL season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus. Nasreddine was named coach when John Hynes was fired Dec. 3.

"I'm super excited to become a part of the Devils family," Ruff said. "There's a great history there, the Stanley Cups speak for themselves. I know there's a great foundation that has been built along with management and (general manager) Tom [Fitzgerald], the ownership, looking to build the rest of the pieces and take this team in the right direction, get in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and go from there. So I can't say enough about how humbled I am for this opportunity going through this process. I really feel like this is a great fit and I can't wait to get going."

Fitzgerald will remain general manager and was named executive vice president. He was promoted when Ray Shero was fired Jan. 12.

"I'm excited in all aspects," Fitzgerald said. "I want to thank [Devils owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer] for their trust, for the opportunity and the wherewithal to allow me to do how I saw fit with the organization as the lead guy running the department."

The Devils are not one of the 24 teams that will compete in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers. New Jersey (28-29-12, .493 points percentage) finished 14th in the 16-team Eastern Conference this season.

Fitzgerald said previously that Nasreddine was being considered to remain coach, and other candidates reportedly were Gerard Gallant, Peter Laviolette and John Stevens.

"Alain is under contract with us," Fitzgerald said. "He's still part of our staff. He's a coach that's proven to be one of the best penalty-kill coaches in the League, things that we still need.

"[Alain] did an incredible job in a tough situation. He grew into that leadership role. He did a very good job. He sold himself well to get into the final mixing with these other people. I was very proud of [him]. I know Josh and David were very proud of how he handled himself during this run. He'll have an opportunity to sit down with Lindy to get to know each other."

Ruff coached 19 seasons in the NHL, 15 for the Buffalo Sabres and four with the Dallas Stars, before he was hired as an assistant by the New York Rangers on July 10, 2017. The 60-year-old is sixth in NHL history in wins (736) and seventh in games coached (1,493).

The Rangers announced Gord Murphy, associate coach of their American Hockey League team in Hartford, will replace Ruff for the qualifiers. New York will play the Carolina Hurricanes in a best-of-5 series, with the winner advancing to the playoffs.

"I was able to spend significant amount of time with Lindy, and he impressed Josh myself and our entire group with his experience and his success at every level," Blitzer said. "During his 25-plus year coaching career, his enthusiasm, his ability to communicate extremely well, the way he's developed players over the years, we just think he's very well-suited to be the leader on the ice for this organization at this point in time."

The Sabres advanced to the 1999 Stanley Cup Final, a six-game loss to the Stars, in Ruff's second season. He won the Jack Adams Award as NHL coach of the year in 2005-06 and was runner-up to Alain Vigneault of the Vancouver Canucks in 2006-07 after Buffalo had its best season (53-22-7, 113 points). As an assistant to Doug MacLean, Ruff helped the Florida Panthers reach the Cup Final in 1996, when they were swept by the Colorado Avalanche.

"As the process continued to move forward, Lindy just continued to step to the forefront," Fitzgerald said. "One, I was looking for NHL head coaching experience. Two, a presence, someone who's been there, done that, and could walk into a room and actually grab the attention of our young team with the experience that they've gained over a number of years as a head coach. Personality, the group needs a teacher, someone who's going to come in and teach, and messages are going to be extremely clear, no break at all in the messaging. Believable, which goes with presence.

"As we continued to go deeper into that process with questions, the infectious personality that Lindy Ruff has is a big part of who he is. He's a lighthearted person. He's played the game. He's coached young talent and other criteria. As far as teamwork, I felt Lindy Ruff was the best person for this job."

Ruff scored 300 points (105 goals, 195 assists) in 691 regular-season games, and 24 points (11 goals, 13 assists) in 52 playoff games for the Sabres and Rangers. The forward was Sabres captain for three seasons until he was traded to the Rangers on March 7, 1989.

"We have such a young team," Devils executive vice president Martin Brodeur said. "We wanted to get a father figure, a guy that knows the League, that's been around the League a lot to really help our young players moving toward the right direction and try to get us into the playoffs and having some success in the near future. Lindy kind of checked a lot of those boxes for us."

After Fitzgerald took over from Shero, the Devils traded pending unrestricted free agent defensemen Andy Greene (New York Islanders) and Sami Vatanen (Hurricanes), pending unrestricted free agent forward Wayne Simmonds (Sabres), forward Blake Coleman (Tampa Bay Lightning), and pending unrestricted free agent goalie Louis Domingue (Canucks). They acquired four draft picks and five players, including forward prospects Nolan Foote and Janne Kuokkanen.

New Jersey has the No. 7 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, and also could receive the first-round picks of the Canucks and Arizona Coyotes.

"I was lucky enough to work with Tom for four-plus years as our assistant general manager, and then for the past six months watching Tom in the role as general manager," Blitzer said. "It was a fantastic experience for me, and it was evident that Tom was the right person for this job. His work with the hockey operations staff, his work with ownership, the work he did navigating the [NHL] Trade Deadline, the work he did with our team over that period of time. The ideas that he has moving forward, his plans for the team across all levels of the organization, just made it clear to us that he is deserving, and we're very excited to remove that interim tag and welcome Tom as the general manager of the Devils."

There were seven other coaching changes in the NHL during the regular season. Laviolette was fired by the Nashville Predators on Jan. 6 and replaced by Hynes; Bruce Boudreau was fired by the Minnesota Wild on Feb. 14 and replaced by Dean Evason; Gallant was fired by the Vegas Golden Knights on Jan. 15 and replaced by Peter DeBoer, who had been fired by the San Jose Sharks on Dec. 11 (Bob Boughner); Jim Montgomery was fired by the Stars on Dec. 10 (Rick Bowness); and Mike Babcock was fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs on Nov. 20 (Sheldon Keefe). Bill Peters resigned as Calgary Flames coach Nov. 29 (Geoff Ward).