Nick Kypreos Says Sheldon Keefe Will Remain With Devils
nick kypreos says Sheldon Keefe will remain head coach of the New Jersey Devils for another campaign, keeping the club’s bench in place after a disappointing 2025-26 season. The decision leaves New Jersey with the same voice behind the bench as it tries to climb back from a fall to the depths of the Metropolitan Division.
Keefe Stays In New Jersey
Keefe guided the Devils to the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and that run is part of why the move is being seen as the right call. Tyler Yaremchuk said the Devils had more wins than he thought five of the 16 playoff teams in the NHL had, a reminder that the season was not as far off the rails as the standings drop suggested.
He also pointed to the points the Devils left on the table. “Goaltending let them down at points,” he said, and added, “Jack Hughes getting hurt again was a big part of this.”
That injury hit hard because Hughes missed 21 games with a hand injury. New Jersey still found enough wins to stay in the hunt, but the gap between the start it built and the finish it produced was wide enough to keep the discussion around Keefe alive all summer.
Hughes And The Playoff Questions
Carter Hutton put the debate around Keefe in sharper terms. “When I think of Sheldon Keefe, the biggest maybe elephant in the room is his play a lack of playoff success, right?” he said, before stressing, “These are all round ones.”
He counted it out: “Five times.” Hutton said Keefe’s success is tied to his goaltending, and that connection now runs through Jacob Markstrom’s new deal and Jake Allen, who was “kind of that bright spot for this team.”
The Devils are moving into this year with Allen and Markstrom as “a 36-year-old goalie and a 35-year-old goalie,” Hutton said, putting the spotlight on a tandem that will shape how far Keefe can push this group. For New Jersey, the coaching decision settles one part of the summer. The next test is whether the same bench and the same veteran crease can produce more than the last one did.
