The Devils have brought in a bunch of new faces for the 2026-27 season and beyond, as Sunny Mehta shapes the management and coaching ranks to his vision. Along with Sunny we now have new faces in Braden Birch as AGM and Leo Luongo in the front office, andTed Donato and AJ MacLean behind the bench.
Joining the coaching group will be Dan Stewart, who takes over for quite possibly the biggest punching bag in the Devils organization, Dave Rogalski, who over saw some of the worst goaltending results in the league
for the past 5 years, and didn’t see a single goalie improve under his watch. That is actually hard to do.
So right now the Devils goaltending organization looks something like this:
Stewart steps into an important role where the big club’s crease is somewhat up for grabs, or we may be moneyballing it, or we may be in for one.
Background
Stewart is a born and bred Ontario guy where he still resides with his wife and four kids. As a player, he played parts of the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons with London (OHL) before heading off to Saint Mary’s University (CIAU), earning a degree in business management as an undergrad. After college he moved to Connecticut and started Connecticut Crease elite goalie school. So, like Luongo he has been coaching goalies from a young age, and in fact, was doing so as a part time gig while playing Juniors – with his new business degree he took that model and expanded it. Also Through this work, he served as goaltending coach at Fairfield University (ACHA), and as a goalie consultant with St. Lawrence University and Plattsburgh State University at the NCAA level.
Stewart spent the last six seasons with Blues organization, serving as both the Goaltending Development Coach for the Blues and the Goaltending Coach for the Springfield Thunderbirds. His was mostly responsible for development with the team’s AHL goalies and traveling to support St. Louis’s goaltending prospects. During this time he worked with Joel Hofer, Colten Ellis, Malcolm Subban, Garret Sparks, and Charlie Lindgren.
Prior to his time with the Blues, he served as goaltending coach for the Soo Greyhounds from 2016-17 to 2019-20 – coincidentally coming in the year AFTER Keefe left. He also held the same position with the University of Ontario Institute of Technology Ridgebacks (USports) men’s hockey program from 2016 to 2020. Shoutout Joe Cirella – While with the Greyhounds, he was on the coaching staff alongside Stewart (as was Keefe and MacLean at various times).
My Thoughts
Like Luongo, I am not going to pretend to understand the nuance in Stewart’s job, but from my perspective a goalie coach’s job is to generally get them mentally prepared and keep them mentally fresh. With a likely 3 goalie rotation, communication will also be paramount in terms of ensuring all three goalies understand when their next start is and are prepared. Jake Allen made the point in a interview this summer that he has no problem with it, as long as there is very clear communication.
One thing I do like is his work with Hofer, who was drafted in the 4th round in 2018, and somewhat quietly has developed into the heir apparent to Binnington. Hofer had a .910 sv pct. and 15 GSAx last season in 46 games, after starting 30 and 31 the past two seasons. His only down season was 24-25 when St. Louis was absolutely terrible. Daws was drafted in the 3rd round in 2020, so they are both on similar timelines, with similar draft pedigrees so it is a nice fit for Stewart to come in and build him into a #1 like he did with Hofer. It’s also interesting that he is another St. Louis guy, although he didn’t overlap with either Marty or Allen (Allen was traded to Montreal right before he started in 2020) and like Donato I don’t see any sort of connection to the current management or coaching staff.
Last, this is replacing a guy who did absolutely nothing for this organization, so if anything it is a positive that there is a new voice with our goalies at the NHL level. Clearly Rogalski had no feel for goalie development, or had any successful instructional or video based input that helped our guys be better. That being said, goalies are voodoo and maybe the skaters should just play better in front of them?
One more month kiddos, LGD
