After one season with the Devils, Brunette found an opportunity in Nashville.
By the end of the 2022-23 season, New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald knew his team was on the fast track to becoming a Stanley Cup contender. His young core got a taste of postseason hockey and now understands how difficult it is to win a round in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
In this summer series, I will chronologically break down every move the organization made this offseason and discuss how it positively or negatively impacts the team for the 2023-24 season.
The first big move of the offseason occurred behind the bench when associate coach Andrew Brunette accepted the position of head coach for the Nashville Predators. On June 1, the Predators held a press conference where Brunette sat between former general manager David Poile and newly named GM Barry Trotz as they spoke about the club's future.
"(Brunette) knows how our organization works and is run from top to bottom and understands what we're trying to do with his club," Trotz said. "We're trying to get younger, we're trying to retool and build a team that can win a Stanley Cup. I've gotten to know Andrew well, both personally and professionally, during our 31 years of relationship. I have the utmost confidence that he can lead us to where we want to go."
It's quite the reunion considering Poile selected Brunette 174th overall during the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. Years later, he again picked him in the expansion draft to be a member of the inaugural Predators team, which Trotz coached. To say it was a picture-perfect full-circle moment is an understatement.
During his season with the Devils, Brunette was responsible for the team's power play, which ranked 13th in the league. To his credit, it was an improvement from the season prior, but still lackluster considering the players who made up the team's man advantage.
“I thought we saw growth, but I don’t think we were at quite the level that I’d have liked to see,” Brunette said in an interview with NJ Advance Media. “Coming in, I thought we were on a really good path. We got better as the year went on.” (from 'Andrew Brunette opens up about Devils tenure, explains why he’s ‘absolutely’ nervous about coaching against them with Predators,' NJ.com, 06-07-23)
Brunette's departure should be considered a minor loss to New Jersey, as they brought Travis Green in as his replacement. Like Brunette, Green has experience behind the bench and served as the Vancouver Canucks head coach from 2017-2022.
Despite having Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Dougie Hamilton, the power play was considered one of the Devils' weaknesses during the 2022-23 campaign. With the additions of Timo Meier and Tyler Toffoli, New Jersey should have the luxury of deploying two lethal units. With the number of options the coaching staff will have, and a new voice, they can improve their overall ranking to, at minimum, a top-ten power play in the league.