What Brad Shaw Brings to New Jersey as a Potential Hire

When it comes to the offseason, critical decisions need to be made, and New Jersey faces that this coming summer. The clear focus remains to add some depth scoring, but a turning point has seemed to be made as a potential new hire has surfaced. Sheldon Keefe and his coaching staff welcome a new assistant coach after firing their previous assistant coaches Ryan McGill and Chris Taylor. Any day now the Devils are expected to announce Brad Shaw as their new assistant coach. After serving as the Philadelphia interim coach after John Tortorella was fired, he now joins New Jersey, with a track record that makes this a spot-on hire. A pretty great track record is already a good sign, so what else makes this something New Jersey needs?

So what exactly can Brad Shaw bring to New Jersey? Around the league, Brad Shaw has been known as one of the greatest assistants in the NHL, especially for his well-known talent for developing defensemen. Combine his skills with developing young players and a player like Luke Hughes working his way up and this could be huge for this team's future. Many can remember Brad Shaw's time in Philadelphia, developing players like Jamie Drysdale and Zach Werenski gives him quite the track record. Looking at the Devil's defense currently, this looks to be an opportunity New Jersey can’t pass up, a chance for another Drysdal and Werenski. Combine the young players being developed as well as the veteran players and New Jersey has themselves a pretty balanced team.

Young players like Luke Hughes, Simon Nemec, Anton Silayev, and Seamus Casey now have the chance to take their defense to the next level. The veteran guys like Dougie Hamilton, Brett Pesce, and Johnathan Kovacevic also have more room to grow as well, and Shaw will give them the chance to prove it. The offseason is still at the very beginning, but a start like this gives Devils fans much to look forward to this summer. Much more work needs to be done along the line, but one thing is for sure, New Jersey benefits from this hire and already looks to be better going into next season.