Many people and hockey journalists wanted Lou Lamoriello to replace Jacques Lemaire this past summer before the Draft in June 2010. He did just that with John MacLean and supposedly MacLean was the only person interviewed for the position. Now that MacLean has not panned out as well as the Devils hoped, in fact he was a disaster as coach, Lou Lamoriello will likely take as much time as he needs to hire a coach, hopefully a long-term one over Summer 2011. Lamoriello will likely try to address his cap issues and Parise as well as free agency first before moving onto the coach.
It is very likely that Parise could be the next captain of the New Jersey Devils as early as next year if the Devils name one. The captaincy could be crucial to Parise accepting a long-term deal with the Devils. So, those of you expecting a coach before the Draft in June 2011 will likely have to wait. Lamoriello hired both Brent Sutter and re-hired Lemaire on July 13, 2007 and July 13, 2009 respectively. Sutter was hired on Friday the 13th, so that was sort of bad luck.
It is quite possible that a coaching decision will not be made until August 2011. There is a small possibility Lemaire could return for at least one more year next year, but for now he is only here for the remainder of the season. Like I mentioned in a previous post, it is a decision that Lou must think very carefully about, because the next coaching failure could likely force Lou to step down as GM and likely close an era of New Jersey Devils hockey not that that era has already started to close.
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