Jamison Coyle, Mike Johnson, and Brian Boyle give NHL Network their reactions to the news that the New Jersey Devils have hired Sunny Mehta as their next General Manager. In their opinion, more information for the Devils team looking to take the next step.
Writing for NHLRumors.com
Jamison Coyle: “It's funny. Sunny Mehta is now the General Manager of the Devils. It's coming home. He's from Totowa, New Jersey (Wycoff, NJ), so you're cheering him on. And what are you guys doing as this vacancy is being filled as the General Manager of the New Jersey Devils now owned by Sonny Mehta.”
NHL rumors: Simon Nemec, Nico Hischier, and Sheldon Keefe
Mike Johnson: He was a hot candidate who had never been GM before the new candidates. He was a boy. Interesting work. He was a professional poker player, obviously very bright, numbers, math, analysis driven guy, he worked for Jersey before he came down to Florida.
And I think the thing that people will really like about him is, yes, he has a brain and a math side to him. But he also saw Florida and how it fits what he does and how he sees it, maybe from a traditional hockey perspective, without the numbers and the need for chemistry and culture and all those kinds of unique things. Strength in different ways that may be hard to quantify.
He had it, he has his experience, and he knew the experience of the Florida Panthers and the two-time winner. Very good for him and good for Jersey. Like, this is going to be, Jersey kind of being the place. Like, that's a big hire, like, Toronto was very interested in him. Not like any team that would have a GM spot would have much interest in him. And the fact that he returned to Jersey speaks well of both Sonny and him.
NHL rumors: The latest from Nashville, Toronto, and New Jersey
Brian Boyle: “Sunny Mehta, he's just a good guy. You meet him, a great guy. Obviously, he works very hard. Everybody who works in Florida has to work extremely hard. That's the standard that Bill Zito set. And I was talking to a few people. Another Brett Peterson guy. He's just like, he grinds every day, but it has to be one day.
Like we said, Johnny, the last four teams, and certainly the last two teams left play a certain style of hockey that shows desire more than skill. Many times the ability is still there for sure. But if you're a hockey player in the NHL, and everybody can relate to this, I was like, I'm not a big math person.
I don't like to use it in the way I look at the game, but I try to look at it in a different way, because I don't know if you've played with a guy like him, how do you see this game? It's just a different type of lens. He looks the other way. You want to understand your teammates as much as you can on the ice. Why does the defender do this game? How can I turn him on?
NHL rumors: Berube, Flyers, Bobrovsky, and Canucks
There are many different ways you can look at creating a plan. There's a lot of different and different ways, I think, of data points, whatever you want to call it, that you can talk about to try to build a team. It doesn't have to be a life saver or a 70 year old NHL guy who is there and does it one way all the time.
It has changed, and I think the rods have grown. I think he's still going to have a great product that we're going to witness in these playoffs, physically and all that, but it's going to be fun to see the skill levels go up. Sunny Mehta will bring, I think, to a team that already has a huge amount of talent, another layer to it, where it will be very effective.
And the Devils have been, I thought, knocking at the door every, every September, yes, this is the year. Maybe this will be there next year.”
We had to restart our X account. Please follow @MyNHLRumorsX
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? Rumors and hot topics from around the league. We also post some stuff on Instagram.
If you like our reporting, choose NHLrumors.com as a favorite source on Google.
