Pat Pickens
The New Jersey Devils appear all-in on Sunny Mehta, who is of course the hottest name on the front-office market.
But if the Devils can bring their former analytics director back as general manager, their next call should be to Brendan Shanahan.
Shanahan would be the perfect complement to Mehta in the president-of-hockey-operations role and could bring the Devils into a new era of prominence.
The Devils, of course, have already requested an interview with Mehta for their GM role, which was vacated earlier this week when they fired Tom Fitzgerald.
The Devils Should Lead Their Front Office With a Partnership of Sunny Mehta and Brendan Shanahan
That this ownership group of Josh Harris and David Blitzer wants to talk to Mehta is no surprise. They gave the Wyckoff native and former pro poker player his start in an NHL front office about a decade ago — and even made him report directly to them and not then-GM Fred Shero.
Mehta is smart and media savvy. But he has not yet been a general manager in the NHL and could use an experienced front-office member to support him.
Insert Shanahan, who fits both the experienced front-office member criteria as well as a franchise great. He was Lou Lamoriello’s first draft selection as Devils general manager in 1987 and played his first 281 games in a Devils uniform before bookending his career in New Jersey in 2008-09.
Shanahan has already worked with an analytically driven GM when he and Kyle Dubas built the Toronto Maple Leafs to their most successful era in two decades.
Of course, that duo had multiple top-10 picks to build their roster around in Morgan Rielly (No. 5 in 2012), William Nylander (No. 8 in 2014), Mitch Marner (No. 4 in 2015) and Auston Matthews (No. 1 in 2016). But so do the Devils.
Don’t Dismiss Brendan Shanahan for his Failures in Toronto
The marriage between Dubas and Shanahan failed in Toronto when Shanahan fired Dubas in 2023.
There will be naysayers — and potentially Martin Brodeur advocates — who will dismiss Shanahan because of his failures in Toronto. They could rightly point out that Dubas landed on his feet and is about to help the Pittsburgh Penguins reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year.
But Shanahan and Dubas had external forces in play in Toronto that he and Mehta wouldn’t have in New Jersey. The Devils have already won a playoff series with his current core, so they won’t have that cloud looming over their heads.
Plus, the Devils don’t have a fishbowl-type media environment ready to plan a parade or clean house every time there’s a four-game winning/losing streak.
It became clear that both Dubas and Shanahan crumpled under the weight of expectations in the hockey-media capital of the world. But their process still produced unprecedented regular-season success in Toronto.
The Leafs made the playoffs in seven straight years — which the franchise hadn’t done since the 16-team era of the 1970s — and twice surpassed 50 wins, including a franchise-record 54 wins in 2021-22. They finished first in the one-off North Division in 2020-21, which stands as Toronto’s lone regular-season division crown since 1999-00.
The question is whether Shanahan would take a Devils president role, since he stepped away from the Leafs after last year. Plus, the Devils have long-eschewed that organizational structure.
But the Devils are at a crossroads, especially given the uncertainty surrounding their current core and its struggles to even reach the playoffs. It’s the perfect time for bold action and to bring back a pair of Devils prodigal sons with a move that will fire up the downtrodden fan base.
