JACQUES LEMAIRE IS BACK TO JERSEY?

The New Jersey Devils have scheduled a conference call for 1:30 p.m. ET Monday to make a "major announcement," a team spokesman told NHL.com.



According to a report in The Record's Devils' blog, Fire and Ice, all signs point to the team naming Jacques Lemaire as its new coach. Lemaire, who would replace Brent Sutter, led the Devils to the Stanley Cup in 1995 and had been coach of the Minnesota Wild for the past nine years. He resigned as Wild coach after the regular season.

Sutter stepped down last month, citing family reasons. He has since become the head coach of the Calgary Flames.

Lemaire, 63, coached the Devils' from 1993-98 and remains the franchise's all-time leader in games coached (378) and victories (199). He is 540-414-177 for his career having also coached the Montreal Canadiens.

He was 199-122-57 during his time in New Jersey in the mid-1990s and led the Devils to the playoffs in four of his five seasons. They swept the Detroit Red Wings in the 1995 Stanley Cup Final. The Devils also lost to the New York Rangers in the 1994 Eastern Conference Final.

Under Lemaire, the Devils twice set a franchise record for wins in a season. They won 47 games in 1993-94 and eclipsed that with 48 wins in 1997-98. The new record is 49 wins, which they won in 2006-07 under Claude Julien and then GM Lou Lamoriello.

According to RDS, Mario Tremblay, Lemaire's former assistant in Minnesota, would be joining him in New Jersey. What that would mean for current assistant coaches John MacLean and Tommy Albelin remains to be seen. Special assignment coaches Scott Stevens and Jacques Laperriere could be candidates for Lemaire's staff if he is indeed named as the team's new head coach.

Until this offseason, Lemaire was the only coach in Wild history. He came aboard with President and GM Doug Risebrough at the start of the 1998-99 season and went 293-255-108 in eight seasons. The Wild lost to Anaheim in the 2003 Western Conference Final. Lemaire won the Jack Adams Award for the 2002-03 season.

However, Minnesota struggled this past season and missed the playoffs. Risebrough was subsequently fired and Lemaire stepped down.