The Devils are on the lookout for a new assistant coach. The team announced that Jeremy Colliton has departed the team to pursue other business opportunities. More specifically, he’s not expected to wind up behind another bench next season. Colliton, who has NHL head coaching experience previously with Chicago, had been with New Jersey for the past two seasons. He was in charge of their power play unit, one that played to a 25.2% success rate since he took the job. After assistant Sergei Brylin was reassigned and goalie coach Dave Rogalski was let go last month, new GM Sunny Mehta will be now looking to fill three vacancies on Sheldon Keefe’s staff next season.
Other coaching news from around the NHL:
- The Kings are expected to hire Phil Housley as an assistant coach, reports Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period (Twitter link). The Hall-of-Famer has spent more than a decade behind an NHL bench in various capacities, including a two-year stint as head coach in Buffalo. Most recently, he served as an associate coach with the Rangers back in 2024-25 but was not with a team this season. New head coach Peter Laviolette has some familiarity with Housley, having worked with him both in New York and Nashville.
- There has already been one change behind the bench for the Golden Knights (Ryan Craig taking over as head coach John Tortorella) with more potentially coming. Assistant coach Dominique Ducharme confirmed to Radio-Canada’s Marc-Antoine Godin that his contract is set to expire at the end of the month. He hasn’t ruled out returning but he wants to look at all of his options, which suggests that he’ll be looking to talk to other teams when the new league year opens up next month. One potential possibility is a move to the KHL as Godin notes that there are rumors linking him to Dinamo Minsk; Ducharme declined to comment on the possibility of him heading overseas.
- The Islanders’ new AHL affiliate in Hamilton has made more additions to its coaching staff. The team announced that Vince Laise has been named as an assistant coach while Kain Tisi has been appointed as the goalie coach. Laise served as the associate coach with OHL Brantford this season alongside new bench boss Jay McKee while Tisi spent five years with Pittsburgh, most recently as the goalie coach with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
