Take this for what you want, but with the draft three weeks away from this Friday and Free Agency 4 weeks away, it seems unlikely to think that the Devils will have a coach in place by then. This Friday and Saturday is the NHL Scouting Combine in Toronto for all NHL Draft Prospects and the Devils will spend a lot of time focusing on it. After that they will likely start negotiations with Zach Parise on a contract extension that will keep him a Devil long-term. Parise is the Devils top priority this offseason and potential future captain. He is eligible to be taken to arbitration by the Devils, but that avenue usually leads to a messy relationship between player, GM and agent.
After Parise is taken care of, the Devils will likely shift to Free Agency and a coach. Yesterday, Ken Hitchcock, the favorite for the NJ job told Tom Gulitti of the Record that he has not spoken to Lou Lamoriello about the Devils coaching job, but he is heavily interested in it. Now, you can read into it multiple ways. One, is that Lou has not started his coaching search just yet. Two, Lou could be going in a different direction. Three, Hitchcock actually spoke to Lou, but was told to reveal nothing to the media. Back in 2009, Lemaire also did not tell anything to the media about whether he spoke to the Devils. But with the Panthers hiring of Kevin Dineen as coach today, you would think that Blackhawks assistant Mike Haviland is a viable option for the Devils, but that would mean that Lou would hire another first year coach.
So, right now I would think that a coach would not be named until mid-July at the earliest. We shall see, anything could still change since we still have a long way to go to the Draft and Free Agency. Last year MacLean was hired before the Draft, but we know how well that worked out. So, this year Lou could take a different and very careful approach.
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