Devils need a GM willing to go all in. This former N.J. poker pro is just the guy.

Sunny Mehta has already brought the Stanley Cup home to New Jersey — twice, in fact. He did it in 2024, when he was an assistant general manager for the Florida Panthers and decided to bring the famous silver chalice back to Ramapo High, the place where his unconventional journey in the sport began. He did it again last summer when the Panthers repeated as NHL champions, taking it to the Ironbound section of Newark to inspire another group of young hockey dreamers not too different from the kid he was three decades earlier.

“I almost drove off the road,” Ramapo coach Mike McLachlan said when he saw the words — Stanley Cup visit — in the subject line of an email as he returned from a tournament. He figured it was spam, or a scam, or ... something .

He had never heard of Sunny Mehta, but soon, he and his entire team would learn all about his incredible, truly Jersey story. With a group of rapt teenagers in the audience, Mehta told the story of his improbable rise from Ramapo bench warmer, to a career as a jazz guitarist in New Orleans, to life as a professional poker player in Las Vegas, to success as a pioneering NHL executive. He reminded them to never lose sight of their own dreams, even if the road isn’t always what they might expect.

“He said he was a perfect example that your final destination is not where you initially think you’re starting from,” McLachlan said. “He told them that there’s plenty of ways to get to your final destination. It was a really nice message.