Devils add coaching development guests to June camp, expand mentorship
Kelly Nash and Dennis Ruppe will join Devils development camp through NHLCA programs, adding a coaching pipeline that can reach Utica and the rest of the organization.
The Devils turned their June 23 development-camp announcement into more than a prospect note, adding two coaching guests whose work is meant to travel beyond a four-day skate. Kelly Nash, the head coach at Long Island University, and Dennis Ruppe, the manager of hockey operations for Hockey in New Jersey, will be at New Jersey’s development camp from June 28 through July 1 through programs run with the National Hockey League Coaches’ Association.
That matters for an organization whose prospect ladder runs from draft table to camp to Utica. The Devils’ AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets, sits at the next stop on that path, and New Jersey’s 2026 camp roster already includes players from the 2025 and 2026 NHL Draft classes. Bringing coaches into the same camp setting means the club is not only evaluating skaters, but also building a shared language for how prospects are taught, corrected and moved along the system.
Nash enters the camp with a résumé that spans women’s college hockey, pro scouting and NHL development work. Long Island University lists her as the 2024 NEWHA Coach of the Year and says she guided the Sharks to the conference regular-season title in each of her first two seasons, then to the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth in 2022-23. Before LIU, Nash served as the Premier Hockey Federation’s Metropolitan Riveters head scout in 2021-22 and worked with LeagueApps on NHL-linked Learn to Play and Breaking the Ice initiatives.
Ruppe brings a different development lens from inside grassroots hockey. Hockey in New Jersey describes him as the person responsible for day-to-day operations, schedules, coaches, volunteers, equipment and equipment storage, the kind of detail-heavy work that keeps a youth-hockey ecosystem running. The profile also traces his path from being a participant in the program to becoming a central staff member, a reminder that development in hockey often starts long before draft eligibility.
The NHLCA’s Female Coaches Program, launched in 2020 on International Women’s Day, selected 50 female coaches across North America for its inaugural class and paired many with local NHL teams and minor hockey associations. Its BIPOC Coaches Program is built to support Black, Indigenous and other coaches of color through skills development, leadership, communication, networking and career advancement.
For the Devils, the value is practical as much as symbolic. Development camp gives Nash and Ruppe direct contact with the organization’s coaching staff, and the club said that connection will continue through in-person and remote meetings during the season. That kind of continuity can sharpen instruction at camp and make the handoff to Utica less about translation and more about repetition, with the same habits and expectations following prospects down the ladder.
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