Former Toronto Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe will win the Jack Adams
The Toronto Maple Leafs are getting a new head coach for the first time since Sheldon Keefe arrived mid-season in 2019.
Craig Berube is the new head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, but Keefe is in New Jersey now and will win the Coach of the Year award.
Keefe is walking into a great situation with a loaded roster with the Devils, who had a down year last season.
I expect Keefe to lead the Devils to a successful season. They will challenge for the metropolitan division and easily take a playoff spot from one of the teams in the Eastern Conference last season.
Keefe is a lock for the Jack Adams
The Devils had a big offseason. They were able to add Jacob Markstrom, Paul Cotter, Johnathan Kovacevic, Brett Pesce, Brenden Dillon, Stefan Noesen, Tomas Tatar, and Kevin Labanc.
The biggest move this offseason was adding Markstrom to this team. Last year, the Devils struggled between the pipes. They had five different goaltenders start games for them last season. Akira Schmid, Niko Daws, Vitek Vanecek, Kaapo Kahkonen, and Jake Allen. They acquired Allen at the deadline to help the roster and was better than any other option they had. He played 13 games for New Jersey, posting a .900 save percentage, -1.87 goals saved above average and a 1.91 goals saved above expected (All advanced stats from Evolving-Hockey.com)..
Markstrom allows Allen to play a backup role. Markstrom was playing at a Vezina level for the Flames last year and Allen is a great option for a backup role which creates one of the best tandems in the league.
They strengthened their blue line by getting Dougie Hamilton back, and by adding Pesce, Dillon and Kovacevic. Keefe has a great tandem paired with a strong blue line.
In terms of the forwards, the Devils not only added to their already strong roster, but they are also healthy. Last season was a season from hell with only Kevin Bahl, Alexander Holtz, Dawson Mercer, Luke Hughes and Jesper Bratt playing a full 82 games. I expect Jack Hughes to have a huge year, potentially contending for the Hart trophy as well as good production from a full year of Timo Meier and Nico Hischier.
With a healthy roster, let alone a healthy forward core, the Devils should be a top team in the Eastern Conference.
Sheldon Keefe couldn't have found a better situation to walk into. With that being said, Keefe is a great regular-season coach. His record with the Leafs in the regular season was 212-97-40 in 349 games (record from NHL.com). You need talent to achieve that many wins, but you also need to be a good coach as well. As much as I wasn't Keefe's biggest fan due to mistakes in the playoffs, there is no denying that the Leafs got extremely unlucky during the playoffs during most of his years as the coach.
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With the Jack Adams being a regular-season award, I don't see a better pick for the award than Sheldon Keefe. This loaded roster, fully healthy, should be a cup contender. Voters will see Keefe take this team from a non-playoff team to a cup contender in one season.