How funny is it that Brunette took over a Florida team last season 7 games into the year after Quenneville was forced out, led the Panthers to the President's Trophy, was a Jack Adams finalist, and Florida was like, "nah, we gotta get Paul Maurice in here!" - a pretty mediocre coach who QUIT ON HIS TEAM halfway through last season.
Fast forward and let's see how everyone is doing:
-Brunette goes to NJ (with some believing a handshake deal to take over for Ruff) and the Devils, who have been to the playoffs once (a first round exit in 2018) since their SCF loss in 2012 and have finished 7th or 8th in their division each of the last four seasons, suddenly become a top 5ish team in the league and are the early season darlings/surprise of the league, at one point going 21-2-1 with a 13-game winning streak before their bad goaltending has caught up with them in recent weeks.
-Paul Maurice takes over, again, the reigning President's Trophy winners coming off a 122-point season, and the Panthers are just...bad? They're 11-14-3 in their last 28 games and currently sit at fake-.500, 12th in the East, and 6 points back of Washington for WC2, with the Capitals set to get Tom Wilson and Nicklas Backstrom back soon.
-Meanwhile, Maurice's old team - the one he quit on - is now 2nd in the Western Conference by points %.
Hmmm, who is Florida's GM?