The Devils made the official announcement today that Lindy Ruff will be their next head coach. Ruff had served the past three seasons as an assistant coach to David Quinn following a stint as Head Coach with the Dallas Stars. Originally brought in under Alain Vigneault, Ruff remained with the team through the hiring of David Quinn, continuing to focus on the defensive side of the game, a position he played when he himself was an NHLer, including with the New York Rangers.
Ruff joins his fifth NHL franchise, and third as Head Coach, having started his career as an assistant in Florida, before a 15 year stretch with the Buffalo Sabres. While with the Sabres, he took the team to the Conference finals on three occasions, and to the Stanley Cup Finals back in 1998-99. In his 19 seasons as a Head Coach he made the playoffs 10 times, and won the Jack Adams award for Coach of the year in 2005-06 when he helped Buffalo to a 52-24-6 record and ultimately a loss in the Eastern Conference finals.
The Rangers have called up Hartford Assistant Coach Gord Murphy to back-fill Ruff for the proposed qualifying and playoff rounds should the Rangers manage to get on the ice.