Devils hire Brad Shaw as assistant coach

A former NHLer and short-term head coach has found a new home.

On Tuesday, New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald announced the team has hired Brad Shaw as an assistant coach.

Shaw joins the Devils after spending the last three seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers. He originally joined the team in 2022 as an associate coach to John Tortorella. However, after the Stanley Cup-winning bench boss was fired in March of this year, Shaw took over as the interim head coach.

At that point, the Flyers were well out of playoff contention. Shaw’s role was simply to steer the ship to the end of the season as smoothly as possible. Under the former Ottawa Senator defenseman, Philadelphia didn’t play all that badly, going 4-3-1 in the team’s final eight games of the season.

Shaw ended up not getting the full-time job the be the head coach in the City of Brotherly Love, as the Flyers went on to hire former Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet earlier this month.

The 2025-26 season will mark the 20th season, where Shaw will be behind the bench in the NHL. He started as an assistant with the New York Islanders during the 2005-06 season, but took over near the halfway mark of the year after Steve Stirling was canned.

He then spent nine seasons with the St. Louis Blues both as an assistant and associate coach, before working under Tortorella with the Columbus Blue Jackets for five seasons. After one year with the Canucks in 2021-22, Shaw was on his way to Philly.

Along with an extended coaching career, Shaw spent several seasons in the NHL as a player, appearing in 377 games, making stops with the Hartford Whalers, Washington Capitals and Blues.