NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — When Sunny Mehta brought the Stanley Cup to his hometown in northern New Jersey two years ago when he won it for the first of back-to-back times as part of the Florida Panthers front office, fans asked when he would bring it back for the local team he grew up cheering for.
On his second day as general manager of the Devils, Mehta expressed a belief that it could happen sooner than later, while also pledging to build a sustained championship contender.
How he intends to do that remains to be seen, and the former professional poker player-turned-hockey executive is not showing his hand on what he has in store for the roster, coach Sheldon Keefe and his staff or anything else.
"No decisions have been made on anything pertaining to that," Mehta said at his introductory news conference Tuesday. “We’re all on the same page that there’ll be an evaluation process going forward."
Mehta served as director of analytics for New Jersey from 2014-18. This is the second time owner David Blitzer decided to hire Mehta, whom he asked a dozen years ago to write down his ideal roster on a sheet of paper.
“I was just trying to get a sense for the way his brain worked,” Blitzer said. “And the way his brain worked is probably the way you would all hope his brain worked because it’s pretty good.”
Mehta's hockey brain made him a candidate for multiple vacancies around the NHL. The 48-year-old could have probably gotten more money from the Toronto Maple Leafs, who were also looking for an analytical GM.
He chose the Devils and, underneath a screen showing him hoisting the Cup, called it without exaggeration his dream job. He called being from New Jersey a part of his identity and, for good measure, even dropped a Taylor Ham reference to show which half of the state he came from.
“This is where I’ve always wanted to be,” Mehta said. “This is where I want to be.”
Coming from an organization that attracted players with a mix of winning, warm weather, and no state income tax in Florida, Mehta also thinks the Devils should be a destination franchise, citing the ease of travel, proximity to Manhattan, and nice suburbs among the reasons.
It will now be up to him to make that case and reshape the roster around a young talented core of Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, and captain Nico Hischier. At their coffee meeting over the weekend, Mehta said Hughes peppered him with 20 minutes worth of poker questions and does think his background at the tables and as an options trader helps him understand how to build a hockey team.
What Mehta bristles at is being labeled as the analytics guy.
“The reason that I ever even cared about analytics, statistics, probably is because it helped me win,” Mehta said. “It helped me win in poker, it helped me win on the trading floor, and it’s helped me win in hockey. ... It’s not just numbers. You have to have a feel for your opponent. You have to understand the subjectivity of bluffing. You have to understand the psychology.”
Poker also taught him an important lesson about what it takes to win in pro sports.
“You can kind of do everything right and still lose,” Mehta said. “You have to almost somewhat ignore short-term results and just focus on your process and have the guts to stick with it and to know and to be objective that you’re making the right decisions and just keep doing it over and over again, and now that success will follow."
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