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NEW JERSEY DEVILS MEDIA CONFERENCEJune 2, 2015John HynesRay SheroTHE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Prudential Center. Thank you very much for coming out today on what is a very exciting day for the Devils' family as we add another chapter, a new chapter to our three Stanley Cup Championship history. A month ago, we had a conference call, and we introduced the team's new general manager, and we are pleased to have Ray Shero out in front today to speak with you on this very important occasion. We are joined today by several current Devils' players, Adam Henrique, Jon Merrill, Dainius Zubrus and Stephen Gionta. Also with us, former Devils Bruce Driver and Colin White. We are also pleased to have with us today a membership of our ownership group, Alan Fournier, and of course the president of the New Jersey Devils, Lou Lamoriello. At this time without further ado I'd like to welcome, to make the big announcement of the day, general manager Ray Shero. Ray? RAY SHERO: Thank you, Matt. Welcome to everybody. Thank you very much, everybody, for coming today, players included, alumni. On behalf of the New Jersey Devils and our ownership Josh Harris and David Blitzer, couldn't be more excited to be here and be part of this, and when I look around at a couple of staff meetings we've had already, I'm really excited about this opportunity. Would like to also take this chance to thank‑‑ we have Hockey of Newark here. Our members over here, say hi, welcome them, and of course‑‑ and 1,500 students at East Side High School that are watching live streaming. Welcome to them, and thank you very much for watching. I'd like to thank, of course, our fans and our community for the support. Part of our obligation as our group and our players is giving back, and we look forward to our involvement with the community, I look forward to our involvement in youth hockey. I'm hoping the involvement with our players and of course our staff to make their job easier, so looking forward to that, as well. Since this is really the first time that I've had an opportunity to address everybody here, I think it's important for me to establish and say exactly what I think the identity of this hockey team is going forward. Having said that, there are three things that I think you can identify New Jersey Devils moving forward, and that is going to be fast, that's going to be attacking, and that's going to be supportive. When you think of those things, I do want to take a step back for a second and clarify a couple things, what that means, and when I talk about fast, I don't mean about skating around the ice fast. That's part of it, but fast hockey is practice fast, think fast, execute fast, move the puck quickly. That's fast hockey. We talk about different things about attacking. Attacking is being aggressive both offensively and defensively, not giving the opposition a lot of room. That's an identity. Attacking is not just thinking about scoring goals. It's a mindset defensively that I share with the head coach here today. And we talk about supportive and what supportive means. Supportive means five guys on the ice as a group trying to, as a group, do these things, and supportive is five guys in your defensive zone, five guys supporting the neutral zone, and coming out of defensive on coverage, we talk about an identity, if you can't come out of your defensive zone in this league, you can talk all day about scoring goals, you're not going to do it. It starts with that identity that's been here for a long time, but building on that is the identity of these other things in terms of fast and attacking hockey. Having said all those things, there is a bit of a fourth thing that I talk about, as well, which these three things lead to one, which is team. Those three things lead to a team which the identity of this hockey team for the last 28 under Lou Lamoriello has built, that's about team, and that's the most important thing. But these three things that I talk about, those words are what we're going to be about moving forward as of today. So the players that are here, you get the message, and the players that could be reading or watching, that's what it's going to be about. That's the team identity that I'm talking about. We talk about moving forward and how we're going to do things. I also talk about, I think about three weeks when our owner Josh Harris spoke to the media about no shortcuts, and there are no shortcuts and that's not a way to build a team for sustained success. Things that we do starting now or this summer are about not just next year but how that will affect us in years two and three, to build something that the identity is going to lead us to where we want to go, and when we talk about all that, I go to the last‑‑ almost a month now I've been on the job, and the most important thing to me is about a coaching search. I talk about the support and I talked to the staff this morning about our ownership group, Josh Harris and David Blitzer, and the gentleman Lou Lamoriello who without his support I wouldn't be here, we talk about a group moving forward as a team, and I think it's important that the identity of this team is what I'm looking for in a head coach. I did not offer this job to any other person except John Hynes. I had a very short list to start with, and I did talk to a number of different coaches about philosophies, not so much about the Devils' job in particular. I had great conversations with Adam Oates and Scott Stevens when I first got here, and the things that we talked about and the identity we want to try to establish, the decision to hire John Hynes as the new head coach, he's going to encompass these things moving forward, and starting today with the hockey team, those three principles is what we're going to be about, trying to move forward, to make everybody here proud to be part of the New Jersey Devils, and the support of our alumni group, which I really appreciate you guys being here, showing support. I look forward to working with you guys. And having said all that, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our new head coach, John Hynes. (Applause.) JOHN HYNES: Thank you. I'd like to start off by thanking, first of all, our ownership group, Josh Harris and David Blitzer. It was really an excellent process when I really got down to trying to make a decision and really understanding the vision that those two gentlemen have for the New Jersey Devils moving forward was really exciting for me. I'd also thank to like Lou Lamoriello. He was excellent through the process, and the opportunity to be able to come to an organization that was built the way it has been, of championships and character and leadership, is really exciting for me, and he was excellent through the process. And I'd also like to really thank Ray Shero for the opportunity. I know Ray and I worked well together when we were in the Pittsburgh organization, and I felt very comfortable as the coach coming in here knowing the way that Ray wants to do things, how he wants to run the team, what he expects from his coaches and his team, and to me that's really important. To be on the same page as a coach with the ownership group, Lou Lamoriello and Ray Shero was really exciting for me, and I'm really excited and honored to be the head coach of the New Jersey Devils. I'd like to thank my family, my wife Sarah and our three girls. I think that being a hockey wife and a hockey family at times in coaching is difficult with all the time away, and just to have their support, really never‑ending support is very important, and I don't think you can have success in this business if you don't have a real strong family, and thank you for you girls, and it's a real proud day for our family. I'd also like to thank the Pittsburgh Penguins' organization. It was the organization that gave me my start in professional hockey, a tremendous organization to be a part of, excellent people. I learned a lot, and very strong relationships from the organization, and I appreciate everything they did for me and my family for the past six years. And then finally, I think it's too many people to thank personally, but this is a real proud day for myself, but it's just not about me. I don't think you get an opportunity to be in this situation if you haven't had great mentors along the way, friends and deep relationships and people that influenced you over the course of your life and over the course of your coaching career, and I'd just like to thank those people for all the help they've given me because you're not here on your own, you're here because you have a great support group. And in closing, I'm very excited to be the head coach and very honored to be the head coach of this organization. As I went through the process of understanding what this organization was about, character, leadership, strong people, quality people, that's something that you always want to be part of, and I'm excited to be the head coach. (Applause.) THE MODERATOR: Sarah and John's three daughters have joined us today. They are sitting in the front row, and clearly they have brightened things up in that front row, and we welcome you to the New Jersey Devils' organization. Q. What is the status of the rest of the coaching staff? Is that to be decided by you and John, or have some decisions been made on that already? RAY SHERO: I had a conversation with Adam Oates and Scott Stevens a couple nights ago and informed them of going a different direction in the head coach search, but at the same time, I think it's important there's been no decisions made in terms of the coaching staff, and so I really believe it's incumbent upon us as a group and of course as a coach for John, as the first day on the job, he hasn't met a lot of people, certainly on the coaching staff, so I think it's use some of this time to get to know people and certainly what their goals and ambitions are. Having said that, I look forward to John getting to know some people, and he'll have a lot on his plate, but it's important to have the right staff and making sure people are in the right positions and they share the same goals as we do. Q. Ray, considering John didn't have much NHL experience, are you going to have someone next to him with NHL experience? Where is that going to go as far as a guy with NHL experience? RAY SHERO: Thanks. I think John and I have talked a little bit about the makeup of the staff but not very far. We'll certainly start working on this as of today and moving forward, and in terms of making up the staff, I think John is open to all different kinds of things, and before he has any concrete ideas about anybody he'll get to know people here first, and I think that'll lead us in a direction after we have some more conversations. His first day on the job hopefully in a few weeks here, we're going to have certain ideas as to what direction we're going to go coaching‑wise, and I look forward to John's ideas, as well, on that. Q. John, Ray described the type of team he wants. Was that the type of team you coached in Wilkes‑Barre, or is this going to be something you're going to have to evolved into? JOHN HYNES: Well, the type of team identity we had in Wilkes‑Barre. I think the important thing of those words that Ray used is not so much the systematic thing, but I think as an organization, the identity of our team, something our players understand clearly, how we want to play, what our identity is going to be, those things are real important, and I think to be a very competitive team, team identity, belief in how you play, and a clear understanding of what we want to do, that will drive the system play. There will be some changes at times, but that'll be moving forward what our identity will be. THE MODERATOR: Ray and John, thank you very much. Congratulations. Welcome to the Devils' family. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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