Craig Berube Ideal Fit For New Jersey Devils Head Coaching Position

President and General Manager Tom Fitzgerald was going to interview several candidates to replace Lindy Ruff, who is now in Buffalo for his second stint as the Sabres’ head coach. Interim head coach Travis Green was going to be given a shot.

However, according to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun and Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, Green is being considered for other opening rounds of the league, including Ottawa, where he was named the new head coach of the Senators. It also feels like the Devils want to move away from the previous regime behind the bench.

Fitzgerald and the Devils have spoken with numerous candidates since the end of the season, including Berube and Todd McLellan. He outlined explicitly what he wanted in a head coach.

“One, they have to be excellent communicators: negative feedback, positive feedback, but feedback—constant feedback. The players crave it. They want it, Fitzgerald said at the end of the season press conference. “They need to communicate upwards, communicate with management, and be able to communicate with our managing partners for questions and feel comfortable in that situation. So communication is a big one. Someone who wants to collaborate with all different areas of the organization. Someone who will use all the tools at their fingertips.” 

However, the most significant thing he wants in a head coach is someone who will hold the players accountable.

“Then, lastly, accountability. A coach who is going to keep every player, not just a handful of guys, accountable. If you don’t have accountability, you really don’t have the building blocks to a championship-caliber team you want to get to, in my opinion,” Fitzgerald continued.

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As we saw in the Boston Series with Jim Montgomery and David Pastrnak. His coach held his player accountable for not performing in the series, and he responded. Fitzgerald wants his players to know they will be held responsible for their underperforming play.

“With that being said, we need players who understand accountability and want to be held accountable and be able to and should be able to look in the mirror and say, You’re right. You’re right. I gotta be better. And this isn’t good enough,” Fitzgerald said. “And that may be just like I said, not enough time in the weight room. You know, just checking a box in the air and just doing it versus no, you get in there because that is as important as the face offs and as an example. So yeah, those in particular areas are what I’m looking for. And I think this organization deserves that.”

This sounds like precisely who Craig Berube is as a head coach, not to mention the type of player he was in the NHL. Berube guided the St. Louis Blues to the 2019 Stanley Cup Championship. He kept those guys in line. The players performed, which is the type of accountability certain players on the Devils need.

However, Fitzgerald owes it to other organizations to look outside to find a coach to bring the championship back to New Jersey. But before that happens, he needs a coach to get them playing the right way, especially defensively. Craig Berube checks all the boxes. Maybe not the analytics box, but still, coaches can adjust to the modern NHL.

Berube will have options on the coaching market, especially if the Toronto Maple Leafs fire head coach Sheldon Keefe. That could send a domino effect throughout the league where the new President and GM in Pittsburgh, Kyle Dubas, fires Mike Sullivan, and then the Devils jump on him.

However, you can’t hope for a wing and prayer as an NHL general manager. And it does not appear that Sullivan is going anywhere for now. But stranger things have happened. However, one thing is clear: Fitzgerald wants to get the coach in place before the NHL Draft in June.

It will be interesting to see where things go, but it would not shock anyone if the Devils and Craig Berube strike a deal for him to be the new head coach in New Jersey.