NEWARK, N.J. -- Sheldon Keefe was asked about his vision for the New Jersey Devils, who hired him as their new head coach last week.

"The vision is to win the Stanley Cup," said Keefe, who was fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs after they lost in Game 7 to the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs.

"You cannot win the Stanley Cup until you make the playoffs. You cannot win the Stanley Cup until you win the first round of the playoffs. And you can't do any of that until you get to win each day," he said. "So that's really what my focus on: It's establishing a process that we'll adhere to on a daily basis and ultimately seek the sustained high performance that will lead us to have opportunities to compete for Stanley Cup."

Keefe said a key to that process is challenging his players to be better -- including the Devils' collection of young stars such as Jack and Luke Hughes, Jesper Bratt and Nico Hischier. Keefe worked with another young talented core during his five years in Toronto -- including Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander -- and learned lessons on how to challenge his new players in New Jersey.

"I can vividly recall a meeting I have with Auston Matthews a couple of weeks on the job [in Toronto]," said Keefe. "It was very evident to me that these are hockey players, just like every player you've coach at every other level. These are guys that want to be guided. They want information, they want to know that you can make them better and how you're going to do that. They want to know that their feedback is valued, but they want to be pushed, they want to be challenged and they want to be great. And that's really all you're looking for as a coach, is to have that."

The Devils had a significant regression last season, which cost head coach Lindy Ruff his job. After winning a first-round playoff series against the rival New York Rangers and amassing 112 points in the regular-season standings, the Devils dropped to 81 points and missed the playoffs.

Some of that was because of player injuries and porous goaltending, the latter of which general manager Tom Fitzgerald said would be addressed via trade this offseason. But New Jersey lacked discipline and details in its game, and an accountability that Keefe is tasked with restoring.

Keefe said he wants to "police the process and enforce it," but that he wants to players to hold themselves accountable.

"It's integral in building a successful team to have players that are accountable to themselves and ultimately have the group hold one another accountable. And really it's about having actions match ambitions," he said.

Fitzgerald, who signed Keefe to a four-year deal, liked Keefe's experience with coaching elite young talent.

"When it comes to accountability, it's a people skill and Sheldon has that skill," he told ESPN. "But it's also knowing your audience. How Nylander was kept accountable vs. Marner, for example. Once he gets to know his audience, he'll realize and understand how he keeps each of them accountable in their own way."

Devils owner David Blitzer said he was interested in Keefe going back to the coach's days with the Soo Greyhounds in the Ontario Hockey League. New Jersey aggressively pursued Keefe the moment they knew he'd become available.

Keefe was fired May 9. He has the best regular-season points percentage (.665) of any Maple Leafs coach and made the playoffs all five seasons he was in Toronto. In 2022-23, the Leafs won their first playoff series since 2003-04, but they were eliminated in the first round again this postseason.

Keefe said he didn't sleep at all the night before his firing, knowing what his meeting with Toronto GM Brad Treliving the next morning would portend. He said as he was "rolling around in bed" at 3 a.m., he formulated an idea about how to "control my message" with a video posted to social media.

Keefe said he went directly to the waterfront near his house -- "my happy place," said the coach -- to shoot the farewell video to the fans and the organization. A few hours later, he was having a decompressing lunch with his wife Jackie when Treliving called him asking if Keefe would be willing to take a meeting with Fitzgerald about the Devils job.

"I wanted to bring some closure to the situation in Toronto knowing that I learned and grew a lot through that opportunity. But I was excited for whatever was going to come next," said Keefe. "To be able to create new relationships with the incredible young talent that we have [in New Jersey] is very exciting. And I'm focused on looking forward."