The Devils have a long history of changing coaches in the middle of the season, including a couple of the most famous mid-campaign moves in the NHL.



That said, the franchise has not had an interim coach in nearly a decade, not since Jacques Lemaire returned for the third time to replace John MacLean two days before Christmas in 2010. General manager Ray Shero fired John Hynes on Tuesday and elevated Alain Nasreddine to interim head coach.



It is Nasreddine’s first head coaching opportunity in the NHL. He joined Hynes’ staff as an assistant coach with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in 2010 and had been his trusted lieutenant ever since.



Devils defensemen Will Butcher and Andy Greene have both spoken highly of Nasreddine. Buffalo GM Jason Botterill said he expected Nasreddine to be an NHL head coach back in April 2018. Multiple former Devils employees have praised Nasreddine for his open-minded approach to new ideas and analytics.



“I’ve...