John MacLean finally named head coach of New Jersey Devils

Just when it seemed as if he was never going to get the job, John MacLean was finally afforded the opportunity to prove himself as the lead man behind the New Jersey Devils’ bench. The Devils announced on Thursday that the team’s first ever draft pick would become its 19th head coach.

“John MacLean is an astute hockey individual who has spent the past eight years preparing to be an NHL head coach,” Devils president and general manager Lou Lamoriello said. “He knows out personnel from the veterans through our prospects, having worked with them as a coach during that time.”

In the eight years MacLean has been with the Devils as a coach, he played the assistant role for seven of them. A rotating door of head coaches put MacLean in position to be a potential replacement on three previous occasions, but he lost out to Claude Julien (2006), Brent Sutter (2007) and Jacques Lemaire (2009). When Lemaire was brought back to New Jersey last summer, MacLean was granted an opportunity to branch off on his own and prove his head coaching capabilities with the Devils’ AHL affiliate, the Lowell Devils. He guided the team to its first postseason berth in five years. That was all Lamoriello needed in order to give the keys to the car to MacLean.

“It has nothing to do with knowledge or confidence. It just has to do with being the one who had to make that final decision. Not the recommendation,” Lamoriello said. “Assistants in any organization don’t know what it’s like. John went to Lowell and found out what it’s all about. In my opinion, that’s all he needed. John knew what I was thinking all the time.”

MacLean was not the lone solider in the search, and it remained a possibility that the fourth time would not prove any more positive for him. Michel Therrien, Guy Carbonneau, Ken Hitchcock, Kirk Muller, Mario Tremblay, Craig MacTavish and Mike Haviland were all linked to the position – whether Lamoriello actually showed interest in any of them is a different story. And with Martin Brodeur’s likely retirement within the next two years or so, Lamoriello may have felt some pressure to find a veteran coach more likely to lead the team to a Stanley Cup now. There was even speculation, broken down by Josh Fischer of In Lou We Trust, that Therrien was the leading candidate and might have even had an offer on the table from New Jersey.

But that wasn’t meant to be. Instead, MacLean was rewarded for his loyalty. He is a hometown product, too, having played 14 years of his 19 NHL seasons with the Devils. He remains the club’s all-time leading scorer with 347 goals and was around for two of the three Stanley Cup Championships won by New Jersey – in 1995 as a player and in 2003 as an assistant coach.

He may not have the most prolific name and is perhaps less seasoned than other candidates. But MacLean worked hard to get to this position and deserves the opportunity to prove all of effort he has put into working with this organization paid off.

MacLean is now tasked with making the Devils a perennial postseason success story, as opposed to an early round flop. Since winning the Cup in 2003, the Devils have not moved on past the second round. They have failed to advance beyond the first round in each of the last three years, losing in embarrassing fashion to the Philadelphia Flyers this year in five games.

The key to success for MacLean is getting back to playing Devils hockey, according to Rich Chere of The Newark-Star Ledger.

“We’ve won three Cups here,” MacLean said. “I just think the environment and structure and the commitment somewhere along the way may have gotten lost a little bit. You have to work. You have to work within structure. People say, ‘You’re going to play all defense.’ No, we’re not going to play all defense. I was an offensive player. We’re going to have to score goals. There has to be parameters on things, but there also has to be some leeway.”

That’s a shift the Devils’ really need. Though their posteason fortune wasn’t any better under Sutter than with Lemaire, the team was far more dangerous when it was putting the puck in the back of the net more often. Under Sutter, the Devils scored more goals, and not completely at the expense of playing defense. Then Lemaire came in and changed it all back around. MacLean needs to get this team back to where it was under Sutter – a solid defensive team with an eye toward scoring goals. Not just scoring one and relying Brodeur to do the rest.

If MacLean is unable to do that, this coaching carousel might take another spin next year. Lamoriello is no stranger to coaching searches, as Fanhouse so aptly points out. Hopefully for New Jersey, though, MacLean can provide some consistency the Devils sorely need both on the ice, and behind the bench.