Sunny Mehta introduced himself to Devils fans on Tuesday afternoon with a fantastic quote: “I have been you for 40 years.” This is not an exaggeration. The team’s new general manager is the kind of Devils fan that even other Devils fans might try to slip away from at parties.
He moved to New Jersey as a 4-year-old boy in 1982 — the same year, he points out, as the Devils — and frequently watched those early Devils teams practice at the old Ice World in Totowa. He has a photo of himself, then a 120-pound teenager in the late ‘80s, wearing a Devils bomber jacket that looks like it was roughly seven sizes too big.
The former Florida Panthers assistant GM can’t name just one favorite Devils player when asked, but instead, rattles off one from every generation. (He isn’t picking the stars with their numbers in the rafters, either. Pat Verbeek and Alexander Mogilny received votes.) He believes the 2001 team, which lost in the Stanley Cup Finals to Colorado, is truly the best team in franchise history.
Mehta was even in the nosebleed seats at Game 7 of the 2003 Stanley Cup Finals, and he will tell you — unprompted! — that goalie Martin Brodeur “got hosed” for the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs. He all but led the people assembled for his introductory press conference in a few chants of “MAR-TY’S BET-TER.”
So, yeah, it is not an exaggeration to say that the Devils have hired Puddy from Seinfeld as their GM.
“I mean, listen, this is where I’ve always wanted to be. This is where I grew up,” Mehta said. “In case it’s not obvious, this is my heart.”
That makes for a fantastic story. As fans, we all want to believe that the men and women running our favorite teams care as deeply about winning and losing as we do, and it rarely happens. The Devils have identified that person in the 48-year-old Wyckoff native. It isn’t the reason the Devils co-owner David Blitzer hired him, but it’s cool nonetheless.
In order to do his job well, Mehta might have to make some moves that make some of the fans who are professing their love for him today hate him tomorrow.
The Devils have a popular, talented core that has not lived up to its potential. It is possible that Mehta might use a scalpel to make improvements to that core in the coming months, but if he’s following the model that made his former team back-to-back Cup champs, he might decide to use a jackhammer instead.
The Panthers didn’t become a championship team until they shook up their core and traded for star Matthew Tkachuk, hardly the league’s most popular player, in a blockbuster deal with Calgary. How will Devils fans feel about their new GM if a popular player like captain Nico Hischier or winger Jesper Bratt are sent packing as Mehta tries to change the culture of this franchise?
Turning a middle-of-the-road team — and, yes, that’s being generous given how the Devils performed at times this season — into a true contender is often harder than taking one that’s hit rock bottom. Mehta understands this. He is, after all, also a Mets fan.
“I really, truly believe these talented players are about to hit an inflection point and get over that hurdle,” Mehta said. “It’s my job to make sure this roster is consistently flush with the right amount of talent to be a championship team, and I intend to do that.”
When pressed on specifics, Mehta pointed to the fact that he’s only been on the job a couple days. His first major decision on the future of head coach Sheldon Keefe will be an early indication on what he thinks of the roster. If Keefe is retained, it might be a signal that GM thinks his coach got more out of a flawed roster than the fans did.
Mehta already has met with most of the key Devils, including star center Jack Hughes. The golden boy from Team USA spent much of their meeting grilling Mehta about his former career as a professional poker player, but you have to think he also slipped in a question or two about finding him the kind of elite winger who can elevate his game into the superstar stratosphere.
In his first go-around in the Devils analytics department, Mehta’s data crunching helped the team steal Bratt in the sixth round of the 2016 NHL Draft. Mehta tried to distance himself from being labeled just the “analytics guy,” but clearly, that skill is a big part of what made him appealing.
“I totally understand why I get put in that analytics bucket,” he said. “But I think if you look at my (career) path, the reason I ever cared about analytics, statistics, probability is because it helped me win.”
It was one more good answer in a press conference filled with them. Mehta is charismatic, funny, and authentically Jersey. He even knows our official state breakfast meat should always be called Taylor Ham.
He is one of you, Devils fans. But if he’s what this franchise needs as general manager, he won’t let his love of the team stop him from making some difficult and unpopular decisions.
Late Rutgers star was a legend in my hometown — and, for a kid sportswriter, a savior | Politi
I was a bird-flipping Little League menace -- and it’s time to come clean | Politi