NEWARK -- The New Jersey Devils believe that they have found a coaching match made in heaven.
Friday afternoon, the Devils introduced Brent Sutter as the team's latest coach, taking over for team GM Lou Lamoriello, who coached the club into the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs after dismissing first-year coach Claude Julien with three games left in a highly successful regular season.

Sutter is the 14th coach in 26 years, but the third new coach in as many seasons.

Despite waiting so deep into the off-season, Lamoriello said Friday that Sutter -- part of the legendary clan of six brothers that dominated the sport as players two decades ago -- was the only choice to lead his team into the future. Lamoriello said that a long-term courtship finally paid off with Friday's announcement in downtown Newark, not too far from where the Devils’ new arena, The Prudential Center, is nearing completion.

Sutter had rebuffed NHL overtures in the past because he says the timing was not compatible with the work he was doing with the Red Deer Rebels, a Western Hockey League team that he owned, operated and coached for the past eight years. Sutter handed both his coaching and GM duties with the Rebels to his brother Brian at a Thursday press conference in Red Deer, Alberta. Brent and Brian are two of six Sutter brothers that played in the NHL.

Brent Sutter maintains his ownership interest in the Rebels.

"First of all, Brent was the only choice," Lamoriello said. "Secondly, as far as convincing, I don't think you ever convince anyone. I think what you do is have the dialogue about what is necessary for the opportunities for both individuals -- that is the organization and Brent -- and a decision has to follow. It's a case of where you have to be comfortable and not a case of having to be convinced.

"I believe from the first time we met there was a chemistry, as far as philosophy that was extremely similar, and now we find ourselves here today."

Even Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek says he was instantly taken by the direct ways of Sutter when he first discussed the vacancy with the man who helped lead the dynastic Islanders of the early 1980s to two of that franchise's four Stanley Cup championships.

"In talking to him, it was almost like he could finish our sentences and I think you need to have that," Vanderbeek said.

Sutter, 45, says that his ability to anticipate the thoughts of both Vanderbeek and Lamoriello in the job-interview process arose from his belief in many of the core tenets that have governed the Devils throughout their ascension as a model NHL franchise on the ice. New Jersey has won three Stanley Cups and appeared in a fourth Cup Final since 1995.

"The man sitting next to me (Lamoriello), as far as I am concerned, is the most respected man in hockey and this organization does things the way I like to see things done," Sutter said. "There's a certain identity with the team that in play here that I believe in. At the end of the day, as coaches, you are always going to tweak things to try to make things better and improve. But, the identity always needs to be in place and you go from there."

In many ways, Sutter's new team has the same persona that Sutter used to forge a 17-year playing career in the NHL that featured 1,111 games, 829 points and 1,054 penalty minutes. Despite making just one All-Star appearance, Sutter was a valuable player because he could do virtually any job on the ice, believed the game should be played in all three zones, was physical and put the team before all else.

Lamoriello's Devils have executed that same philosophy to remain among the League's elite powers since winning their first Stanley Cup in 1994.

"You have to have structure and discipline and, probably, more important, you have to believe that everything you do is for the front of that jersey," Sutter said. "You have to believe in that."

Despite a lack of coaching experience at the NHL level, Sutter has the full of confidence of Devils management that he can replicate the success he has had at the top tier of the Canadian junior hockey system.

In eight seasons with Red Deer, Sutter led the Rebels to a 314-194-68 mark. He won three straight conference championships from 2001 to 2003 and was named the WHL's best coach in 2001. That year, his Rebels won the Memorial Cup, the championship of Canadian junior hockey.

Sutter also coached the Canadian national junior team to back-to-back gold medals at the World Junior Championships. During the 2005 and 2006 tournaments, Sutter's teams went 12-0-0 against the best teen-age competition the world has to offer. He is the only coach in WJC history to win back-to-back crowns.

Those coaching accomplishments, along with his distinguished NHL playing career, have Sutter confident that he can help the Devils remain not only competitive, but among the elite teams that can compete for the Stanley Cup every season. He knows championships are his mandate and it is a burden he welcomes.

"Coaching is coaching," he says. "To me you have to have your principles in place. I believe in a lot of the things that, through discussion with Lou, I know that they believe in here. It's a great fit for myself. The structure, the discipline, it all has to be there. I'm not all of a sudden going to be someone different, I've been brought here to be me and that's what I am going to be.

"I will do everything I can do to continue to make this organization one of the best. This is the right fit for Brent Sutter and I'm hoping this is the right fit for the New Jersey Devils.”

With all the smiles on display Friday from members of the New Jersey front office, it is clear that the Sutter union is, indeed, a match made in heaven.