Two days ago, the New Jersey Devils made a surprising announcement: offensive assistant and power play coach Jeremy Colliton has left the organization to pursue other “business opportunities” unrelated to present vacancies around the National Hockey League. The Devils, as a result, must find a new power play coach. This is now their third main coaching vacancy after Dave Rogalski was fired and Sergei Brylin was reassigned elsewhere in the organization.
I was not a fan of Jeremy Colliton behind the
bench in New Jersey. I wanted him fired along with Rogalski, also preferring that sort of move to reassigning Brylin to get new voices among the staff. I wrote this in January when I assailed the coaching staff:
If Sheldon Keefe, singularly, gets fired from the coaching staff, nobody on the bench deserves to take the head coaching seat. I don’t trust Jeremy Colliton, who had a bad time coaching in Chicago and is now overseeing the worst power play I have seen run by the Devils since Mark Recchi was the offensive assistant. I thought Brad Shaw deserved the Flyers job based on how he performed there with John Tortorella, but he has overseen a massive regression in defensive performance at five-on-five and the penalty kill from his predecessor in Ryan McGill, who I liked, and I don’t think he deserves anything more in New Jersey with how putrid our penalty kill and defensive breakout has been.
Needless to say, I am quite pleased that Colliton has found his way out the door, even if he was not “fired.” The Devils had 45 power play goals on 205 opportunities (21.95%), just above the percentage league average of 50 goals on 236 opportunities (21.11%). 2024-25 was far, far better at 28.24%, with the Devils scoring 61 goals on 216 opportunities. You might be wondering, why not give Colliton more benefit of the doubt given that first season?
Well, our five-on-five scoring has dropped precipitously from year to year. From 2022-23 to now (Colliton coached the last two seasons), the Devils have seen their goals per 60 at five-on-five go 2.93->2.69->2.22->2.0. Combine that with a merely average power play, and I’ll gladly take a new coach in that spot. I just do not believe that a really good power play for one season, which was mostly driven by Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, a healthy Stefan Noesen, and Jack Hughes is enough to keep an offensive coach that oversees that kind of five-on-five decline. If you put a warm body behind the bench, a team with this kind of power play personnel can hit a 25% conversion rate.
But a guy who can’t figure out how to use Timo Meier?
Someone who didn’t understand to use Arseny Gritsyuk for his shot?
A coach who hasn’t really improved Luke Hughes’s offensive game?
And a guy who saw Dougie Hamilton’s worst power play season ever?
Yeah, I’m good. He can go.
So who should replace him?
The Mehta Factor
With Sunny Mehta now at the helm of the organization, he may have a bigger influence of what kind of coach the organization hires. When Jeremy Colliton was hired, he was the first guy that Sheldon Keefe had added to the bench. Keefe’s second pick was Brad Shaw, who, as mentioned earlier, saw a steep decline in defensive performance. Does Keefe have the final say on who the new coach is? I am not entirely sure, and that is partially due to Mehta’s analytic approach. If Mehta’s team has an analytical angle on certain strategies or usage approaches, he might want a guy in that position who is going to not only listen to him, but relay any information to players in on-ice language.
Former Head Coaches
Gerard Gallant: Back in January, the former Blue Jackets, Panthers, Golden Knights, and Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant stepped away from the KHL to deal with an illness. He might not be ready to coach yet, but he was a high scoring forward in his heyday and has had some good years of coaching in the NHL. His power play record as a head coach is mixed, but it was most recently well above league average when he had the highly skilled Rangers roster. However, he is an outspoken guy and someone who has stated that he will go against analytics if he feels the numbers aren’t reflecting his view. Still, the Devils might need a strong voice around the bench, and someone who has been there and been a scorer himself.
John Tortorella: Well, I am sure a ton of people around here are not going to want to see anything like this happen, but I think it is worth mentioning. Vegas went 7-0-1 and then 14-8 in the postseason under Tortorella. Tortorella was also an assistant coach for Team USA when they won the Gold Medal in the Winter Olympics as well as when they played in the Four Nations Face-Off. I would be confident that Tortorella would work well with Jack Hughes, especially with the additional recent evidence that he had far more of an idea of what to do with Matvei Michkov than his successor in Philadelphia. This guy actually likes skilled players.
AHL Coaches
Per AHL Tracker, the top four power plays in the AHL this season were:
- The Henderson Silver Knights (26%)
- The San Jose Barracuda (23.9%)
- The Rochester Americans (22.9%)
- The Milwaukee Admirals (22.8%)
Some of this comes down to personnel, but Rochester and San Jose have made habits of having good power plays despite the AHL being more of a defensively biased league. For the Barracuda, Kyle Hagel has been the power play coach since 2022-23, and has seen their conversion percentage rise from the high teens to 23.3 in 2024-25 and 23.9 in 2025-26. Hagel is also a stand-up guy, as well, having won the communitarian AHL Man of the Year award seven times during his playing career. With nine years of AHL coaching experience in his pocket, the 41-year old Hagel might be due for a bigger look.
Unfortunately, the Rochester Americans have already lost their power play coach, Vinny Prospal, to the St. Louis Blues. It would have been nice for Colliton to leave earlier, which could have made the Devils a player for former Prospal, who signed with St. Louis four days ago. The Devils could be able to pull head coach Michael Leone, though. In two seasons with Rochester, Leone has seen a solid rise in power play production from his squad. Previously, he had a solid impact on the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL and spent three years with the USA National Team Development Program. Leone, 38, has been a quick riser: is the NHL really that far off for him at this point?
Former Players
Patrik Elias: Having been elevated to the General Manager position for the Czech Men’s National Team, Patrik Elias has been quietly building his resume away for the Devils for nearly a decade now. After his retirement, Elias became an assistant coach for the Czech juniors team for two seasons before taking a few years off. Since 2023, he has worked with HC Slavia Praha (Prague) in the second-tier Czech league, and is currently listed as their “Sports Manager,” which I take to be akin to a General Manager position. He may still be responsible for building a coaching staff for their 2026-27 season, but Elias is the kind of guy that I think could have a great impact on the players the Devils currently have, especially Hischier, Bratt, and Gritsyuk. If you’re worried about Elias burning some of his love among Devils fans, I wouldn’t worry. He’s a well-respected man for good reason.
Scott Gomez: Scott Gomez only spent two seasons with the Islanders as an assistant coach. In his first year, they had a 23.20% conversion rate when the league average was only 20.18%. The next year was a disaster, with the power play dropping to a 14.54% conversion rate. However, under Barry Trotz, the team as a whole took a more defensive identity, so it may be difficult to judge Gomez as he experienced a new bench boss and saw a regression on his end. After the Islanders let Gomez go, though, the team only improved to a still far below average 17.26%, and the team would not rise back above 20% until the 2021-22 season. Gomez has been busy the last few years, coaching the Surrey Eagles of the BCHL before becoming their GM/head coach in 2024-25, followed by coaching the Chicago Steel this year. He might be a riskier option given his mixed NHL experience, but he is definitely someone who can speak the players’ language.
Joe Pavelski: The American hockey legend, Joe Pavelski, recently interviewed for the head coaching vacancy in Toronto. That might have been quite a bit of a jump for a guy who is currently coaching his kid’s team, but there may be a budding movement to push for recently retired players to join team benches after Martin St. Louis’s success in Montreal. In his playing career, Joe Pavelski averaged 11 power play goals per full season, averaging over 12 per 82 in his 30s. If there’s ever a place for a guy like him to start his NHL coaching career, it’s at the helm of the power play with Team USA’s best offensive forward.
Your Thoughts
What do you think of these coaching options? What direction (NHL coaches, AHL coaches, former players) would you like to see the Devils go in? Which kind of guy do you think Mehta and Keefe would be able to agree on? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.
