John Hynes Fired as Devils Head Coach; Alain Nasreddine Takes over as Interim

The New Jersey Devils announced the firing of head coach John Hynes Tuesday. 

Alain Nasreddine has been named interim head coach beginning immediately on Tuesday night when New Jersey hosts the Vegas Golden Knights. 

Devils executive vice president and general manager Ray Shero provided a statement:

"John played an integral role in the development of this team in establishing a foundation for our future and we are grateful for his commitment, passion and unmatched work ethic. John is a respected leader, developer of talent and friend which makes this decision difficult.

"We are a team that values and takes pride in accountability to the results we produce. We are collectively disappointed in our performance on the ice and believe changes were needed, starting with our head coach. I have been consistent in my desire to build something here in New Jersey that earns the respect of teams throughout the league and pride in our fans. That is not where we were heading and for me to tolerate anything less was not acceptable."

The Devils are 9-13-4 with 22 points to begin this season, the second-worst record in NHL.

Hynes leaves with a 150-159-45 overall record. 

He had served as head coach since 2015-16. The Devils made one postseason appearance during his tenure, losing in the first round to end their 2017-18 campaign. New Jersey wasn't able to build on that. They finished last season at 31-41-10, the third-worst mark in the league.

The Devils began this season on a six-game losing streak. Devils fans at Prudential Center were chanting for the team to fire Hynes, according to NJ.com's Steve Politi. 

Entering Tuesday night's meeting with Vegas, the Devils have allowed the third-most goals (94) in the NHL. They most recently lost 7-1 to the Buffalo Sabres on Monday and 4-0 to the New York Rangers on Saturday. Their loss to the Sabres saw them give up five goals in the first period of a game for the first time since 1993.

"I'm running out of things to say as to why we're playing like that," Devils forward Taylor Hall said after losing to Buffalo, according to NJ.com's Chris Ryan. "It's hard. It's a tough pill to swallow. It's everyone. It's everyone in here. It's too bad. We have the players in here to play a lot better than that, so we've got to step it up." 

The Devils traded for All-Star defenseman P.K. Subban. The same day, they traded for forward John Hayden. Forward Nikita Gusev was also added through a trade, and they found additional forward help by signing free agent Wayne Simmonds. That was all on top of drafting center Jack Hughes first overall in the 2019 NHL Entry draft. 

So far, none of those moves have made an impact. The pressure will be on Nasreddine to translate the potential the Devils saw in their offseason acquisitions onto the ice.