​NEWARK, NEW JERSEY – APRIL 12 : Nico Hischier #13 of the New Jersey Devils celebrates with teammates after scoring the overtime winner of the NHL regular season game against the Ottawa Senators at the Prudential Center on April 12, 2026 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Andrew Maclean/NHLI via Getty Images) | NHLI via Getty Images How Long Of a Leash Does Sheldon Keefe Have as Head Coach of The Devils?One of the first orders of business for new GM Sunny Mehta was to decide whether or not the Devils would keep Sheldon Keefe aboard as the head coach of the New Jersey Devils. Mehta ultimately decided to keep Keefe, and the Devils rebuilt their coaching staff along with everything else they did this summer.Under Keefe, the Devils haven’t had issues getting off to good starts. The Devils were 15-7-1 and and 15-8-2 on American Thanksgiving the previous two seasons. The problem has been what the Devils do after that. Obviously, some of that is injury-related but the bottom line is that in both seasons, the Devils have had long, extended periods of hockey that could be classified somewhere between mediocre and bad.You don’t want to panic, but we’ve also seen this movie enough times in the past to know how it goes once it begins. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. The last thing the Devils need is for another good start to be squandered as things snowball and the Devils go from “lock” playoff team to “on the bubble” or worse.And this is assuming they get off to a good start once again. Which raises the question “what if they don’t”? If they get off to a slow start with the team mostly healthy early in the season, it’ll only make Keefe’s seat warmer.I can understand Mehta wanting to give Keefe a chance. But at the end of the day, Mehta did not hire Sheldon Keefe, and Mehta is going to be judged on his win-loss record just like any other GM or head coach in any other market would be. And with the changes the Devils have made, there’s no excuse for Keefe not to deliver. Particularly when Keefe has been given a roster that he can work with.I don’t know who Mehta would target as a replacement head coach. John Tortorella, Bruce Cassidy, and Jay Woodcroft are all sitting out there, but as far as I know, Mehta doesn’t have a direct connection with any of them. New assistant coach Ted Donato has a ton of experience from his two plus decades as Harvard’s head coach. Brad Shaw has some experience as well as a former interim head coach. I do know its unlikely the Panthers let an assistant coach go in-season if Mehta wanted to pluck from the Florida tree once again.If Things Aren’t Going Well, How Aggressive Will Sunny Mehta Be to Fix It?Longtime readers will know that one of my biggest pet peeves under the previous regime was Tom Fitzgerald’s tendency to do nothing when things weren’t going well.Of course, that’s not entirely true as Fitzgerald let it be known through those in the national media that he was