Photo credit: The Hockey News

Despite the fact the Toronto Maple Leafs kicked out Shedlon Keefe, he has emerged as the early season favorite to win the Jack Adams trophy for coach of the year.

The new bench boss of the New Jersey Devils seems to be in the driver’s seat to win the award for the league’s best coach, despite Sheldon Keefe not having coached a single game with the Devils yet. This could be due to the fact that the Devils are expected to be a good team next season and have a major bounce back year after failing to make the playoffs in what was supposed to be a very good year for the team. Other front-runners to win the award are Andrew Brunette, Craig Berube, and Kris Knoblauch.

Craig Berube is also entering his first season as a new bench boss with the Toronto Maple Leafs, having just replaced Sheldon Keefe. Kris Knoblauch will also be starting his first full season coaching the Edmonton Oilers after he took over in November last season.

Sheldon Keefe has never won this award before, so he would love to be able to show the Leafs organization that they made a mistake getting rid of him if he is somehow able to win it with the Devils. No doubt Keefe will dismiss the importance of winning this award, as his true goal and desire is definitely to win the Stanley Cup.

Experts couldn’t believe how bad the New Jersey Devils were last season, as they were expected to compete for a Stanley Cup before the season started. The team is expected to be a lot better due to some of the off-season moves they made, and Sheldon Keefe is walking in at the perfect time, as he will be able to count on Vezina candidate Jacob Markstrom to back stop the team and hopefully help them clinch a playoff spot.