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Yet again: Jacques Lemaire will not be the Devils coach next year

Jacques Lemaire

New Jersey Devils head coach Jacques Lemaire announces his retirement at the end of an NHL hockey game against the Boston Bruins, Sunday, April 10, 2011, in Newark, N.J. The Devils won 3-2. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

AP

When the season ended, there were plenty of teams who were looking to replace their head coaches. It’s interesting that the Devils are the only team that had their coach retire; and they’re the only team that is still looking for their head man. Even the Winnipeg Jets, who still had a head coach, have since moved, fired Craig Ramsay, and hired Claude Noel. All while the Devils continue to take their time and still don’t have a head coach.

As time goes on, there have been some questions whether Jacques Lemaire may consider a return to New Jersey for yet another go-around. After all, the Devils looked like a completely different team when Lemaire took over for the fired John MacLean in December last season. Tom Gulitti spoke to Lemaire about the Devils head coaching position on NorthJersey.com—and it certainly doesn’t sound like he’ll be coming back anytime soon.

““I’m waiting for Lou to make his decision,” Lemaire told me via phone this afternoon. “I’m excited like the fans, I guess, to find out who it’s going to be.”

Lemaire said he has no idea who it will be, but knows for certain who it won’t be.

“It’s not going to be me,” he said.”


That is the 900th denial from Lemaire for those keeping track at home. Unfortunately, until Lou Lamoriello and the Devils find a man to replace him behind the bench, he’ll have to keep enduring the same speculation. Since he denied there was any chance of returning, the attention turned to former head coach Larry Robinson for a day. Robinson has been in town running the prospects camp this week for the Devils, but as Lamoriello said that he’s not a candidate at this time. Going further, he said that he’s not “going to get into who is or who isn’t a candidate.” For fans who want to speculate, he’s not really giving them much to work with.

Over the summer, a few names have been rumored for the Devils coaching vacancy. Guy Carbonneau’s name came up when he resigned from his positions with the Chicoutimi Sagueneens. Michel Therrien was the reported front-runner a week ago and Ken Hitchcock has been linked to the position since the day it became available. But as Lamoriello has said, he won’t comment on an potential candidates for the head coaching position.

One the one hand, it doesn’t seem like there’s any rush to name a coach anytime soon. The prospect camp is the only big event between the draft and training camp—and Robinson has already taken the lead. The draft was run by Lamoriello in June and the summer is just a time for preparation. From an organizational standpoint, the only real deadline they’re facing is training camp in September. But from an pragmatic perspective, this isn’t something any team would want to drag on for the entire offseason. The new coach will want to have his say for any potential assistant coaches as well as some time to get acclimated to his new lineup. There’s no rush—but sooner they decide on coach, the better.

All we know for sure is that Jacques Lemaire won’t be that man.