標籤: Shakes

Sheldon Keefe is safe, but Sunny Mehta is cleaning house. He is serious about improving the New Jersey Devils.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Devils announced that goaltending coach Dave Rogalski has been relieved of his duties.

Additionally, assistant coach Sergei Brylin will take on a new role within the organization.

According to a team source, Braylin will no longer be in a coaching role.

The search for replacements for those roles has begun.

Keefe will return for his third season as head coach with the Devils in 2026–27. Over the course of two seasons, he is 84-70-10. The 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs are set to miss the postseason for the first time since a disappointing 2025-26 season.

Keefe described missing the postseason as “embarrassing” in his year-end press conference.

Rogalski moving on shouldn’t be a surprise. In fact, it was long pending.

The Devils signed Jacob Markstrom to a two-year extension in October to secure their crease. However, Markstrom regressed in 2025–26, recording his worst statistical season to date.

In 44 games, Markstrom recorded an .883 save percentage and was 88th out of 98 goaltenders in goals saved above expectation (-11.9).

Braylin began working as a team consultant for the Albany Devils in the New Jersey organization during the 2012–13 season. He was immediately promoted to assistant coach the following season and then became an assistant coach for New Jersey in 2022–23.

Braylin’s role moving forward has not yet been determined.

Rogalski has been in the NHL since 2017-18. He moved from St. Louis to New Jersey in the 2020–21 season. He transitioned from a development coach to a goaltending coach and has been in his role ever since.

There will be no other changes to the Devils’ coaching staff. For the time being, Brad Shaw and Jeremy Colliton will continue in their roles alongside Keefe.

James is the fully certified New Jersey Devils beat reporter for New Jersey Hockey Now on SportsNote and … More about James Nicholls

The San Francisco Giants made a major change to their roster, trading starting catcher Patrick Bailey to the Cleveland Giants. The move immediately creates space for recently called up Jesus Rodriguez to take over in San Francisco.

As for the guards, it adds depth to a team that already had three starters in David Frye, Austin Hedges and Bo Naylor, but Naylor’s struggles this season kept him off the roster. He was sent to Triple-A in an effort to improve Cleveland’s defensive issues behind the plate.

Is Bailey’s best behind him?

This is a fair question. Backstop, some of the best (if not the best) games though. Best in the game) defensive metrics, has never been a particularly powerful bat. Bailey has a career .224 batting average and has hit only 22 home runs over three seasons in MLB.

However, the thing is. For a catcher, that’s not terrible production. This is about average. For any other offensive player, this is a terrible mark. But catchers in baseball exist in a strange place. As long as their defense and their ability to manage their pitching staff is solid, most teams are willing to attack aggressively.

That being said, it’s always great to have a catcher who can rake. Look at guys like Will Smith, Cal Raley or even former Giants catcher Buster Posey. They are assets to their teams in many ways besides defense, but they are anomalies when it comes to catching groups in MLB.

Underlying metrics hint at potential change

Bailey has struggled at the plate for a long time, but behind the dish he is ahead of everyone else. He has won two gold medals, has a lifetime .992 fielding percentage and is ranked in the 100th percentile via Statcast in framing and pop time (1.86 seconds). He is a key catcher for whichever team he is on.

But can he kill? It is possible. Bailey has had a disappointing start with San Francisco this season. So far, he has put up a .146/.213/.183 slash line. This resulted in a ridiculously poor 16 wRC+ (where 100 is average). But, despite that line, there is hope here. Bailey’s weighting on base average (wOBA) is .190, but his expected weighting (xwOBA) is a more respectable .283 mark.

this is one Big Difference. It’s possible that Cleveland is betting on Bailey’s bat to play out as the underlying metrics suggest. Either way, the club receives an elite backstop to handle its pitching staff.

san francisco building for the future

It’s safe to say that this season hasn’t started as well as it could have for the Giants. In the first year of new manager Tony Vitello’s tenure, the club has a record of 15–23 and are in fifth place in the National League West entering Saturday. It’s hard to see a club as talented as this one struggling so much.

But the recent call-ups of top prospects Bryce Aldridge and Jesus Rodriguez have signaled a change for San Francisco. It seems the group now wants to use this moment to give their young players time to acclimate to MLB. Barring injury or an unexpected trade, they could benefit next season with Aldridge and Rodriguez joining the roster.

Wilkinson’s stint in the minors offers hope

It’s not a perfect reconstruction, but it’s something like that. The trade of Bailey for Matt Wilkinson and a draft pick further adds to this argument. Wilkinson is a very talented young pitcher at the Double-A level in the Minors. So far this season, he has a 1.59 ERA in 28 1/3 innings. That performance could soon get him promoted to the Triple-A level in the Giants’ system.

It’s also possible that, if San Francisco falls even further out of contention, Wilkinson could be called up late in the season to get some big league reps. The possibility of this still remains to be seen, but it is certainly a possibility.

Either way, this is a move that should be encouraging to Giants fans, not the other way around. It’s not like President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey is saying he has already quit the year before, it’s a move that seems prudent. San Francisco is expecting its young players to step up and prove themselves. Only time will tell if that strategy pays off.

As legendary former player Shaquille O’Neal has dropped the mic on a variety of topics, it can’t be denied that his opinion is valued in the basketball world. O’Neal is known for his opinions about the NBA, with the analyst appearing on another show to debate topics involving current NBA big men.

On the show “Unsportsmanship”, O’Neal will be asked about the return of the league ideal of the “big man”, which the former player represents to a tee. However, O’Neal pushed back on that notion, saying the only two who fall into that category are Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs.

“Stop it, the big man is not back,” O’Neal said Tuesday. “Because nobody posts up. Just because you’re seven foot and hitting jumpers doesn’t make you a big man. [Nikola Jokic] He’s the only person I would consider a big man, and Wemby, those two. But I remember when every team had a center, now you have a bunch of guys running, picking and popping in one spot.

“The big guy didn’t come back … because nobody posted up. Just because you’re seven foot and hitting jumpers doesn’t make you a big guy. [Nikola Jokic] He’s the only person I’d consider a big man, and Wemby.”

-Doubt

(via @UnSportsESPN)pic.twitter.com/mirpPrKSH3

– ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) 18 February 2026

Shaquille O’Neal says big men need to ‘play percentage’

O’Neal will talk more about the change in gameplan for many of the league’s centers, which focuses on shooting from mid-range or the three-point line rather than retreating into the paint. He would be asked about whether a player like him could lead a team to a title, with O’Neal responding that it was not about being like him, and how “it’s all about playing percentage.”

O’Neal continued on the show, “It’s all about playing percentages.” “If I’m seven-foot, 300 pounds, and I’m bigger and stronger than everybody else, I want to take higher percentage shots. I want to use my skills to, you know, put the other team in a defensive position… It’s just about being smart. If I’m seven-five, I’m not picking up pops and shooting jumpers over six-one, six-two guys.”

It remains to be seen how the big men develop in the future of the NBA.