The Devils might be stretching out their coaching search into the middle of the summer, but its not because they are trying to convince Jacques Lemaire to come out of retirement again. Lemaire told Tom Gulitti of the North Jersey Record, he will not coach the Devils this season and has no future plans to ever coach them again. Many fans like and bloggers have speculated that the Devils might be giving Lemaire a huge vacation and time and then try to convince him to come back for one more year, but it won't be the case. He will however attend part of training camp this fall as a special advisor to the Devils organization.
With today's revelation by Lemaire, it means the new coach will most likely be someone outside the organization, so a fresh new face. Mike Brophy of Sportsnet in Canada believes it is down to Guy Carbonneau and Michel Therrien. If it is one of them, it would continue the Devils trend of hiring former Montreal Canadiens coaches. Carbonneau has denied that he was hired by Devils, but he does have interest in returning to coaching in the NHL and Therrien was reportedly the 2nd choice after MacLean last season.
There is a possibility that Larry Robinson could return for a 3rd stint with the Devils, but Robinson said he has not heard from Lou. Other candidates in no order are Blackhawks assistant Mike Haviland, former Stars and Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock, former Panthers coach Peter DeBoer and University of Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves. We will likely find out sometime in the next 7-10 days.
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