May 27: The Devils confirmed Shaw’s hiring this morning. He’ll join the club officially on July 1 after his contract with the Flyers expires.
May 21: The Devils are expected to hire former Flyers associate/interim head coach Brad Shaw in some capacity, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports. He’ll likely serve as Sheldon Keefe’s top assistant instead of landing any of the four remaining head coach vacancies around the league.
Shaw, 61, nearly had his interim tag removed after taking over for John Tortorella in the final weeks of the regular season but fell to second in the pecking order when former Canucks bench boss Rick Tocchet became available. The possibility of Shaw remaining on Tocchet’s staff remained open for a couple of days after the latter signed a five-year contract, but the club confirmed last week that he wasn’t going to return.
Long regarded as one of the better defensive-minded coaches in the league, he’ll now head to a New Jersey club that already fared well in that department at even strength last season. In the Devils’ first year under Keefe, they ranked highly in limiting shot attempts against (7th), expected goals against (6th) and scoring chances against (9th). New Jersey also had the league’s second-best penalty kill in the regular season at 82.7%. Less impressive was their ability to limit high-danger chances, ranking 13th in the league at 5-on-5 in HDCA – one spot below Shaw’s Flyers.
That will likely be Shaw’s main area of focus in the Garden State, along with helping youngsters like Seamus Casey, Luke Hughes, and Simon Nemec emerge with more well-rounded skillsets defensively. But with few on-ice personnel changes expected and another strong season from starting goaltender Jacob Markström, Shaw’s addition to the ranks should only boost New Jersey’s already well-tuned team defense that had the club rank fifth in the league with 2.68 goals against per game in 2024-25.
It won’t be Shaw’s first time coaching in the New York metro area. He spent one year on the Islanders’ bench as an assistant and even took over as their interim head coach when the club fired Steve Stirling midway through the 2005-06 campaign.