UPDATED: Devils Head Coach Fined for Unprofessional Conduct vs. Golden Knights

Coming into Sunday night’s contest against the Vegas Golden Knights, New Jersey Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe appeared confident.

How could he not be? The Devils were getting their No.1 goaltender back in Jacob Markstrom. They were just coming off a strong victory against the young and talented Utah Hockey Club. And with the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline just six days away, he knows his team is a buyer, sitting in third place in the Metropolitan Division.

Through 40 minutes, it looked like Keefe had all the reason in the world to justify his confidence. The Devils were playing a tight-knit, playoff-like game against the Golden Knights, who are just two seasons removed as champions.

Then, the third period undid all the good through the first two periods. And to add injury to insult, the Devils lost their star player.

For how long? That’s still to be determined.

However, on the play that injured Jack Hughes, Keefe lost his mind on the officials.

The Devils head coach explained what got him tossed from the final minutes of the 2-0 shutout loss.

“It was a similar play that [Jack] got called on earlier in the period,” Keefe explained. “Not only is he injured on the play, but there’s no call. I get kicked off the bench for telling the referee I felt it was 10 times worse than the one previously called on Jack.”

Keefe is referencing the game’s first penalty early in the third period that resulted in Vegas opening the scoring. Hughes was assessed an interference on Tanner Pearson, and Vegas promptly scored 15 seconds into their man advantage.

The result? The NHL came down with a heavy hammer on Keefe, fining him for his actions toward officials.

“New Jersey Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe has been fined $25,000 for unprofessional conduct directed at the officials that resulted in an unsportsmanlike conduct bench minor as well as a game misconduct at 18:12 of the third period of NHL Game No. 966 on Sunday, March 2, the National Hockey League announced.”

It’s the MLBs spring training which means baseball is right around the corner. Coach ejections are more of a dirt and grass kind of thing, but on Sunday, it happened on the ice.

Keefe had no update on Hughes other than he needs to be evaluated. Typically, needing an evaluation doesn’t end well.

See Jonas Siegenthaler.

We’ll see what news is unearthed in the coming days.

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