The Philadelphia Flyers will have a new head coach to contend with in the Metropolitan Division each season after the New Jersey Devils formally announced the appointment of Sheldon Keefe on Thursday. It is impossible to ignore the significance of Keefe’s employment; in his five seasons as head coach, the former Toronto Maple Leafs standout scored 100 points or more three times in a row.
For the benefit of those who may not know, Keefe was coached by current Flyers bench boss John Tortorella during each of his three major league seasons as a forward from 2000 to 2003. Let’s just sum up by saying that Keefe has learned from the greatest, and his performance—postseason or not—has demonstrated that.
The 43-year-old fell to Tortorella’s Blue Jackets in the playoffs in 2020 in his first real NHL head coaching test, but since taking over as Maple Leafs head coach in November 2019, he has an 8-2-0 record against the Flyers.
The Flyers have only won once against Keefe’s Maple Leafs since Tortorella became head coach in 2022. That victory came on March 19 at the Wells Fargo Center, as the team defeated Toronto 4-3.
Keefe will have an even better chance of winning in the postseason now that he is a member of the Devils in the Metropolitan Division for the first time. The depth of New Jersey’s roster is superior to Toronto’s, particularly on defense. Particularly Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec are more adept at moving the puck than any player Keefe had with the Maple Leafs.
Rebuilding teams like the Flyers, who have only lost to Keefe twice in his five NHL seasons as head coach, will probably continue to play a role in his sustained success during the regular season. This is something that the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms are also aware of; in 2017–18, Keefe led the Toronto Marlies to victory over the Texas Stars in seven games, which earned him the Calder Cup.
