How Sheldon Keefe’s Maple Leafs lessons will help the Devils
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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
Coaching the Toronto Maple Leafs can change a person. Decades of playoff futility keep expectations excruciatingly unmet. The constant scrutiny from media and fans is enough to unnerve the confident and harden the affable.
“I don’t know if ‘harden’ is the right word, but it’s an experience,” said Sheldon Keefe, who coached the Leafs from 2019 until May.
Keefe, 44, was fired after Toronto was eliminated in the first round by the Boston Bruins. That ended a five-year tenure defined by considerable regular-season success (.665 points percentage) followed by seemingly inevitable playoff failure. Keefe’s Leafs won just a single playoff round during his tenure. It was his first NHL head-coaching job.
“I started in what many would describe as the most difficult and challenging environment in the league — and many coaches in this league have reminded me of that,” Keefe said. “I leave there forever disappointed in myself that I wasn’t able to help push that team over the line. But I know I’m a better coach, and a better person, having gone through it.”
Keefe took his lumps and learned lessons, which he’s now applying to the New Jersey Devils, who hired him two weeks after he self-published a farewell video to Leafs Nation on social media.
“Sheldon jumped to the top of my list when he became available, and I was thrilled when he agreed to be a part of what we are building here,” Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald said. “He’s an excellent communicator, believes in collaboration and will take what he has learned previously to make this team a Stanley Cup contender.”
THE DEVILS LOOKED like a Cup contender two seasons ago. They finished with a franchise-best 112 points and then eliminated the rival New York Rangers in seven games before exiting in the second round. They were young and fast and poised for greatness.
And then they absolutely face-planted last season.
The Devils dropped 31 points in the standings to finish seventh in the Metro Division, well outside of a playoff spot. Key players like star center Jack Hughes (who played 62 games) and top defenseman Dougie Hamilton (20 games) lost significant time to injury. Their goaltending ranked 30th in the NHL. Coach Lindy Ruff was fired 61 games into the season, as the Devils were unrecognizable from the aggressive, confident team they were in 2022-23.
Hamilton has been impressed with Keefe.
“I think he’s been great so far, just with how he speaks and what he is trying to teach us and how he’s trying to teach us,” the veteran Devils defenseman said. “There’s a message and it’s very direct.”
Keefe watched the Devils’ implosion from afar.
“The injuries were the obvious thing. But, inevitably, everybody faces injuries and adversity. So if there’s a thing that stood out to me, it was that the team wasn’t able to sustain itself during those times,” Keefe said. “The focus for me has been on what I think has got to be the foundation for any successful team: Everything that you do and everything that you build allows you to push through circumstance and adversity.”
That was a lesson he learned in Toronto. When the Maple Leafs would lose key players like Auston Matthews or Morgan Rielly to injury for extended periods, the team wouldn’t allow it to derail the season.
“We were always able to find ways to grow inside of that and sometimes play even better when we lost people out of our lineup,” Keefe said. “So that’s what I’m looking for in terms of building the structure and consistency here. That the group can sustain itself through hard times and grow through that.”
The Maple Leafs did a lot of growing under Keefe. When he took the bench from Mike Babcock in November 2019, Matthews and Mitch Marner were 22 years old. William Nylander, another member of their core, was 23. That experience made him an obvious fit for what the Devils needed in a new coach. He arrives in New Jersey to find another young core of players like Jack Hughes (23), Luke Hughes (21) and Simon Nemec (20), as well as Jesper Bratt (26) and captain Nico Hischier (26).
The first thing Keefe learned in Toronto while managing a young core? That when you strip away the fame, the contracts and where they were selected in the draft, they’re just hockey players, same as he was for 125 games as an NHL forward.
“If there’s one thing that really stood out to me in the transition from the AHL to the NHL, it was just that there’s more money, more eyes, more fans, all those kinds of things, but they really are just hockey players. Same in lots of ways,” said Keefe, who coached the Leafs’ minor league affiliate for five seasons before taking over in the NHL. “The same way I interacted with players when I was coaching seven years of Junior A hockey in a small town in Pembroke. There’s similarities.”
Building those relationships is essential to one of Keefe’s biggest challenges as Devils coach: holding players accountable.
“We’re all trying to help each other get better and succeed. So that’s our foundation,” he said. “Anything that we say or do, it’s all with the intent of making each other better.”
IN HIS LAST SEASON in Toronto — and perhaps because he sensed it might be his last — Keefe was much more aggressive in disciplining players than he had been previously. He scratched healthy center David Kampf to end the forward’s 323 consecutive games played streak, telling the media he did it to send a message to the rest of the roster.
“The tolerance for the same types of mistakes that are happening is going to be a lot less,” he said.
He benched top players like captain John Tavares and forward Tyler Bertuzzi. At one point, he kept his entire top power-play unit on the bench during a man advantage after it gave up a short-handed breakaway to the Winnipeg Jets.
“It’s on me as a coach to guide the conversation of what’s acceptable, what’s not, what’s cool and what’s not,” Keefe said.
But the coach believes that there’s only so much accountability he can demand as a “bad cop” behind the bench. When he was hired in New Jersey, he laid out his philosophy: The players needed to police themselves.
“It’s integral in building a successful team to have players that are accountable to themselves and ultimately have the group hold one another accountable,” he said.
Things got away from the Devils culturally last season. That led to an infusion of veteran outside voices. Beyond Keefe and his staff, Fitzgerald signed veteran defensemen Brett Pesce and Brenden Dillon, brought back former Devils winger Tomas Tatar and, crucially, added 34-year-old Jacob Markstrom as a solution for their goaltending.
“The more veterans who come in with different experiences, I think that can really help the group. Where teams really grow is when the coach leaves the room,” Keefe said. “That’s really what it’s about. We all respond better to peer pressure than anything else.”
Hischier has been the team’s captain since 2020. Jack Hughes is the team’s biggest star, one still growing as a leader off the ice. It’s reminiscent of the situation Keefe walked into in Toronto: Tavares was the captain and Matthews was the superstar learning how to lead.
“In the early going in Toronto, I can remember talking to Auston about taking steps and being a leader,” Keefe said. “Certainly, his play on the ice dictated what he could do. But at the time, he was like, ‘I’m the youngest guy on the team.’ So he was reluctant. He is super confident, but knew his place.”
Matthews was named the new captain of the Maple Leafs this season, replacing Tavares.
“You could see the natural evolution of him as a leader,” Keefe said. “And every leader has their own style.”
The new Devils coach is still getting to know Jack Hughes, what his leadership style looks like and how to help him develop that part of his game as he did with Matthews.
“You’re trying to make them understand where their opportunities are to speak up or to influence the group. That’s the first thing,” Keefe said. “But you also have to let them be themselves because they have to feel confident and comfortable in who they are. And that takes time.”
KEEFE ALWAYS SEEMED like he was on borrowed time in Toronto. Every playoff failure in Toronto felt like his last one with the Maple Leafs. Even after Keefe was fired, GM Brad Treliving implied the coach shouldn’t shoulder the blame.
“This is a really good coach and an excellent person. The difficulty of this business is that really good people who are good at their job have to be changed,” Treliving said. “This does not fall at his feet.”
The pressure and scrutiny are different in New Jersey. The media scrums are smaller. There aren’t documentary crews filming the team regularly — “We’re in the content era, so you just sort of accepted it as reality,” Keefe said of the intense Leafs coverage.
But the expectations are just as high. Several ESPN pundits expect the Devils to go from outside the playoffs to the top of the Metro Division this season, with their revamped roster and renewed sense of purpose. ESPN BET gives them the fifth-best odds to win the Stanley Cup this season — better than those for Toronto.
“An expectation means that you’ve got great opportunity. It means you’ve got great players. And so I do like that,” Keefe said. “We’ve talked about that the expectations should drive us every day and we should be excited coming here.”
Keefe learned how to process expectations in Toronto. Again, he’ll apply those lessons to New Jersey.
“What you can’t let happen is that, because there’s expectations, that you expect it just happens. It’s incredibly difficult,” he said. “This team didn’t make the playoffs last year. There’s a lot of other teams that didn’t make the playoffs that think they’re playoff teams this year, too. I look at the East this year and I don’t know how you can pick ’em. We’ve got incredible opportunities, we’ve got good players, so now we’ve got to get to work here.”
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Greg Wyshynski
Kyle Palmieri has signed a new two-year contract with the New York Islanders, as one of the better options among free-agent scoring wingers is now off the market.
Palmieri’s contract carries a $4.75 million average annual value. He’s coming off a 4-year, $20-million deal with the Islanders that was signed in Sept. 2021. According to PuckPedia, the new deal has a full no-trade clause in the first year with a modified 16-team no-trade list for the 2026-27 season.
Palmieri, a 34-year-old Long Island native, scored 48 points (24 goals, 24 assists) in 82 games with the Islanders last season. He’s scored more than 20 goals in seven of his last 10 NHL seasons.
In 900 career games with the Islanders, New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks, Palmieri scored 527 points (270 goals, 257 assists). He scored 32 points (18 goals, 14 assists) in 68 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
The Islanders also signed defenseman Adam Boqvist to a one-year contract. He had 14 points in 35 games last season between the Florida Panthers and the Islanders, who claimed him on waivers in January.
New York has had a noteworthy offseason thus far. They won the NHL Draft Lottery for the first time since 2009, earning the first overall pick in next month’s entry draft. They also replaced general manager Lou Lamoriello with Tampa Bay Lightning executive Mathieu Darche, who was named the Islanders’ GM and executive vice president.
According to multiple reports, the contracts for Palmieri and Boqvist were agreed to before Darche was hired, and the new general manager honored them.
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Kiley McDaniel
As the NCAA regionals begin in college baseball, award voting and regular-season stats give you a good idea who performed well this season, while my draft rankings and mock drafts let you know who will go early in this summer’s draft. But which colleges can claim bragging rights for having the most pro talent on their rosters across all draft classes?
I have a bit of an obsession — but also detailed spreadsheets sourced from advanced data and scouts, so I can answer this question by examining how many players (regardless of class) project as future draft prospects.
Because the draft and projections for pro success look heavily at tools and age, those things are emphasized through the process once you get past the surface statistics in my formula.
I’ll remind you that these margins are really tight — if you add one second-rounder to any of the teams below, it will probably move up a few spots — and I used all pro-caliber players to formulate the ranking, even though we list just the top-two-rounds prospects on each team’s current roster below. Players who are currently injured count for this exercise, but I dinged the team rating a bit if you won’t see the player this postseason, and all players listed are 2025 draft-eligible unless otherwise indicated.
Without further delay, here are the most loaded rosters in college baseball:
1. Tennessee
Top-two-rounds prospects: LHP Liam Doyle, SS Gavin Kilen, 3B Andrew Fischer, RHP Marcus Phillips, C Levi Clark (2027), 3B Dean Curley, RHP A.J. Russell
Before I started this process, I figured the Volunteers would win, and they did, carried by a really strong 2025 draft class highlighted by Liam Doyle — who is projected to go No. 2 in my most recent mock.
And Tennessee has even more talent than the names listed above. RHP Tanner Franklin and Nate Snead are two key bullpen arms who reach the triple digits and didn’t qualify, while a number of other players could step up into top-two-round relevance with expanded roles next season, such as RHP Tegan Kuhns and 2B/CF Jay Abernathy.
2. Arkansas
Top-two-rounds prospects: SS Wehiwa Aloy, RHP Gage Wood, C Ryder Helfrick (2026), LHP Zach Root, OF Charles Davalan, LHP Cole Gibler (2027), RHP Gabe Gaeckle
The Razorbacks weren’t the first team I thought of when guessing who would be near the top of this ranking because they don’t have as many top-of-the-first-round prospects as some others, though they annually have tons of pro talent, so this isn’t a shocker.
Aloy is probably the one prospect projected for the top half of the first round of the group, but the rest of the list belongs in the late-first to early-second range, with a number of intriguing talents beyond that, including 3B Brent Iredale and about a half-dozen different pitchers.
3. LSU
Top-two-rounds prospects: LHP Kade Anderson, OF Derek Curiel (2026) RHP Casan Evans (2027), RHP Anthony Eyanson, SS Steven Milam (2026), RHP William Schmidt (2027), 2B Daniel Dickinson
The Tigers are often loaded with pro talent under skipper Jay Johnson, and this year is no different. Scouts soured a bit on Curiel as a high school senior, but he has proved them wrong as a freshman, looking like a first-rounder so far. Evans and Eyanson were revelations as newcomers, and Schmidt has the potential to fit that description in an expanded role next season.
4. Texas
Top-two-rounds prospects: 3B Adrian Rodriguez (2027), LHP Dylan Volantis (2027), RHP Jason Flores (2027), RF Max Belyeu, 2B Ethan Mendoza (2026)
Texas is stocked with underclassmen with early-round upside as Mendoza and Rodriguez will anchor the infield next season and I’d guess Volantis and Flores will both move into the rotation after strong relief performances as freshmen. LHP Jared Spencer would’ve easily qualified before his injury earlier this month.
5. Florida
Top-two-rounds prospects: RHP Liam Peterson (2026), RHP Aidan King (2027), SS Brendan Lawson (2027), RHP Luke McNeillie (2026)
The Gators are the first team with no 2025 draft-eligible players listed, though 2B Cade Kurland would probably qualify if he were healthy all season, and SS Colby Shelton would also likely sneak in if he were 21 years old rather than 22. Peterson is the top college arm for 2026 and King looks like one of many future 2027 first-rounders who popped as freshmen this season; most of them are listed here.
6. Florida State
Top-two-rounds prospects: LHP Jamie Arnold, LHP Wes Mendes (2026), SS Alex Lodise, 2B Drew Faurot
The Noles have solid high-end talent, with three possible first-round talents headlined by likely top-10 pick Arnold. The depth doesn’t stop there as OF Max Williams and RHP Cam Leiter (injured) might be third-rounders this year, and underclassmen C Hunter Carns and LF Myles Bailey are also showing flashes.
7. Wake Forest
Top-two-rounds prospects: RHP Chris Levonas (2027), SS Marek Houston, RF Ethan Conrad
Wake has graduated a number of standout players to pro ball in the past few years and has another solid crop coming this year, with Houston and Conrad both likely first-round picks. Levonas didn’t sign as a second-round pick out of high school last year, and early returns suggest he might be a high first-rounder in a few years.
8. Oregon State
Top-two-rounds prospects: SS Aiva Arquette, RHP Dax Whitney (2027)
The Beavers have only two players listed here, but both look like top-10 picks. There are also a number of interesting prospects in the third-to-fourth-round range for this year’s draft, including OF Gavin Turley, LHP Nelson Keljo and 3B Trent Caraway.
9. Oklahoma
Top-two-rounds prospects: RHP Kyson Witherspoon, SS Jaxon Willits (2026), C Easton Carmichael, RHP Malachi Witherspoon, LHP Cade Crossland
Oklahoma has five prospects listed here, though only Kyson Witherspoon is a clear top-50 pick; the other five are all later second-round or early third-round types of prospects. This rotation makes the Sooners dangerous in a postseason format.
10. TCU
Top-two-rounds prospects: RHP Tommy Lapour (2026), OF Sawyer Strosnider (2026), LHP Mason Brassfield (2027)
TCU’s crop of prospects who made the list (and OF Noah Franco, who was in contention) are all underclassmen, which bodes well for the future. Lapour has three above-average pitches and is the second-best college pitcher for next year’s draft.
11. Mississippi State
Top-two-rounds prospects: OF Nolan Stevens (2026), 3B Ace Reese (2026), RHP Ryan McPherson (2027)
Stevens and Reese both look like potential first-round picks for next year’s draft; Reese is an excellent hitter with medium power, while Stevens has some swing and miss to his game but easy plus raw power. McPherson is the best prospect among a number of interesting underclassman arms, though 22-year-old LHP Pico Kohn is the most impactful for this season.
12. Georgia Tech
Top-two-rounds prospects: OF Drew Burress (2026), C Vahn Lackey (2026), SS Kyle Lodise, 2B Alex Hernandez (2026)
Burress is in the running to go No. 1 in next year’s draft due to his standout power/speed combination. Lackey and Lodise look like solid second-rounders. Hernandez is a borderline second-rounder thanks to a strong freshman year.
The next half-dozen teams: Alabama, Auburn, Vanderbilt, Oregon, Ole Miss, North Carolina
HOUSTON — Soon after Lance McCullers Jr.’s family received online death threats following a tough start by the Astros pitcher, his 5-year-old daughter, Ava, overheard wife Kara talking on the phone about it.
What followed was a painful conversation between McCullers and his little girl.
“She asked me when I came home: ‘Daddy, like, what is threats? Who wants to hurt us? Who wants to hurt me?'” McCullers told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “So those conversations are tough to deal with.”
McCullers is one of two MLB pitchers whose families have received online death threats this month as internet abuse of players and their families is on the rise. Boston Red Sox reliever Liam Hendriks took to social media soon after the incident with McCullers to call out people who were threatening Hendriks’ wife’s life and directing “vile” comments at him.
The Astros contacted MLB security and the Houston Police Department following the threats to McCullers. A police spokesperson said Thursday that it remains an ongoing investigation.
McCullers, who has two young daughters, took immediate action after the threats and reached out to the team to inquire about what could be done to protect his family. Astros owner Jim Crane stepped in and hired 24-hour security for them.
It was a move McCullers felt was necessary after what happened.
“You have to at that point,” he said.
Players around the league agree that online abuse has gotten progressively worse in recent years. Milwaukee‘s Christian Yelich, a 13-year veteran and the 2018 National League MVP, said receiving online abuse is “a nightly thing” for most players.
“I think over the last few years it’s definitely increased,” he said. “It’s increased to the point that you’re just: ‘All right, here we go.’ It doesn’t even really register on your radar anymore. I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing. You’re just so used to that on a day-to-day, night-to-night basis. It’s not just me. It’s everybody in here, based on performance.”
And many players believe it’s directly linked to the rise in legalized sports betting.
“You get a lot of DMs or stuff like that about you ruining someone’s bet or something ridiculous like that,” veteran Red Sox reliever Justin Wilson said. “I guess they should make better bets.”
Hendriks, a 36-year-old reliever who previously underwent treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, said on Instagram that he and his wife received death threats after a loss to the New York Mets. He added that people left comments saying that they wished he would have died from cancer, among other abusive comments.
“Enough is enough,” he said. “Like at some point, everyone just like sucking up and dealing with it isn’t accomplishing anything. And we pass along to security. We pass along to whoever we need to, but nothing ends up happening. And it happens again the next night.
“And so, at some point, someone has to make a stand. And it’s one of those things where, the more eyes we get on it, the more voices we get talking about it, hopefully it can push it in the right direction.”
Both the Astros and the Red Sox are working with MLB security to take action against social media users who direct threats toward players and their families. Red Sox spokesperson Abby Murphy said they have taken steps in recent years to make sure players’ families are safe during games. That includes security staff and Boston police stationed in the family section at home and dedicated security in the traveling party to monitor the family section on the road.
“I think over the last few years it’s definitely increased. It’s increased to the point that you’re just: ‘All right, here we go.’ It doesn’t even really register on your radar anymore. I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing. You’re just so used to that on a day-to-day, night-to-night basis. It’s not just me. It’s everybody in here, based on performance.”
Christian Yelich, on players receiving threatening messages
Murphy said identifying those who make anonymous threats online is difficult, but “both the Red Sox and MLB have cyber programs and analysts dedicated to identifying and removing these accounts.”
The Astros have uniformed police officers stationed in the family section, a practice that was implemented well before the threats to McCullers and his family.
For some players, online abuse has gotten so bad that they have abandoned social media. Detroit Tigers All-Star outfielder Riley Greene said he got off social media because he received so many messages from people blaming him for failed bets.
“I deleted it,” he said of Instagram. “I’m off it. It sucks, but it’s the world we live in, and we can’t do anything about it. People would DM me and say nasty things, tell me how bad of a player I am and say nasty stuff that we don’t want to hear.”
The 31-year-old McCullers, who returned this year after missing two full seasons with injuries, said dealing with this has been the worst thing that has happened in his career. He understands the passion of fans and knows that being criticized for a poor performance is part of the game. But he believes there’s a “moral line” that fans shouldn’t cross.
“People should want us to succeed,” he said. “We want to succeed, but it shouldn’t come at a cost to our families, the kids in our life, having to feel like they’re not safe where they live or where they sit at games.”
Astros manager Joe Espada was livid when he learned about the threats to McCullers and his family and was visibly upset when he addressed what happened with reporters.
Espada said the team has mental health professionals available to the players to talk about the toll such abuse takes on them and any other issues they may be dealing with.
“We are aware that when we step on the field, fans expect and we expect the best out of ourselves,” Espada said this week. “But when we are trying to do our best and things don’t go our way while we’re trying to give you everything we got and now you’re threatening our families and kids — now I do have a big issue with that, right? I just did not like it.”
Kansas City‘s Salvador Perez, a 14-year MLB veteran, hasn’t experienced online abuse but was appalled by what happened to McCullers. If something like that happened to him, he said, it would change the way he interacts with fans.
“Now some fans, real fans, they’re going to pay for that too,” he said. “Because if I was him, I wouldn’t take a picture or sign anything for nobody because of that one day.”
McCullers wouldn’t go that far but admitted it has changed his mindset.
“It does make you kind of shell up a little bit,” he said. “It does make you kind of not want to go places. I guess that’s just probably the human reaction to it.”
While most players have dealt with some level of online abuse in their careers, no one has a good idea of how to stop it.
“I’m thankful I’m not in a position where I have to find a solution to this,” Tigers pitcher Tyler Holton said. “But as a person who is involved in this, I wish this wasn’t a topic of conversation.”
Chicago White Sox outfielder Mike Tauchman is disheartened at how bad player abuse has gotten. While it’s mostly online, he said he has had teammates that have had racist and homophobic things yelled at them during games.
“Outside of just simply not having social media, I really don’t see that getting better before it just continues to get worse,” he said. “I mean, I think it’s kind of the way things are now. Like, people just feel like they have the right to say whatever they want to whoever they want and it’s behind a keyboard and there’s really no repercussions, right?”
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