“Hey Ray, this is Jim. Congratulations on the new hire! I hear you are looking to hit the ground running. We have decided to trade Scuderi, but market is moving fast. We just wanted to let you get in on it if possible. So you are interested? How does a second rounder sound? Good, excellent news,we'll draw it right up!"
Ray Shero is the new General Manager of the New Jersey Devils replacing legend Lou Lamoriello. Lamoriello will stay within the organization and will work with Ray Shero in an effort to build the Devils back into a contender.
Craig Adams and Doug Murray are making sure their phones are charged so they don't miss any phone calls now.
Jokes aside this was a very surprising move that nobody in the hockey world saw coming. There were no rumors and no leaks. Just a random Monday 4 PM press conference that dropped the big news to everyone.
New rules allow teams to be compensated with draft picks if another organization hires away a general manager or coach under contract. The Penguins declined seeking out this compensation. I liken this no general managers giving out offer sheets to RFA players on opposing teams. None of them want to rock the boat because they are afraid of what comes around goes around.
The Penguins were actually very helpful in facilitating this new career move for Shero
So what does this hire mean for the Devils?
Ray Shero was widely praised in his early tenure with the Penguins when the team was young and the star players were on entry level contracts, but over time he was unable to navigate the salary cap effectively and the roster was limited because of it.
There were multiple reasons for Shero’s undoing which included not identifying the proper depth players and his inability to draft non puck moving defensemen. The latter never afforded the Penguins quality ELC forwards which caused him to try and find band aids to the solution on a consistent basis. This cost the Penguins draft picks and cap space year after year.
Shero’s career with the Penguins started with him already having Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang as some have noted.
Shero’s first draft with Pittsburgh was in 2006 when he had the #2 overall pick. He took Jordan Staal over Jonathan Toews. And despite that faux pas this is where the success begins and ends with Ray Shero’s drafting of forwards. The next best goal scoring forward that Shero drafted is Dustin Jeffrey with a whopping 17 NHL goals in seven years which he has mostly spent in the AHL.
The problem for Shero taking the Devils job is that he will not be gifted any talent on the level of Crosby and Malkin, let alone Jordan Staal. He really won’t be gifted anything other than the #6 overall pick this year. The Devils roster is one of the worst in all of hockey.
New Jersey’s roster lacks quality veteran players and their farm system was
ranked by Hockey’s Future as being 27th out of the 30 NHL teams this past fall.
The Devils roster situation is almost the complete opposite of what Shero inherited in Pittsburgh. For this to work out Shero will have to learn from his previous mistakes. He has had a full year to reflect on his past experiences.
A lot of what he will have to do with New Jersey will go against the grain of what he has been known for. Shero loved trading to boost his roster. For this Devils rebuild to work he will have to be patient. He will have to build the team through the draft. There are literally no quick fixes for their situation. They have a great goaltender and that is about it. But that may be a blessing in disguise for Shero. There are no Cup or bust expectations with this job. He won’t feel the pressure of always living in the now as he tries to build the New Jersey Devils. Feeling like a failure if you don’t win the Cup in any given year will take a toll on anybody’s patience.
Rome wasn’t built in one day but if the Devils are going to be successful improving through the draft they will need to get better at identifying impact players.
Another Shero mistake as Pittsburgh’s GM was the fact that he neutered his own good work. He did draft some really good young defensemen. He just never game them the opportunity to play. Entry level contracts are one of the best assets an organization can have in the hard cap NHL. Pittsburgh went out of their way to not use this advantage . Shero liked to sign and acquire veteran defensemen, most of which who were not any better than what he already had and cost him future assets (sometimes trading 3rd round picks just for UFA rights IE: Dan Hamhuis).
The 2012-13 season was a glaring example of this. Instead of playing Simon Despres Shero decided to trade two(!) second round picks for Doug Murray and sign Mark Eaton off of his couch. Both players were below replacement level and unnecessary.
His love of Brooks Orpik and Rob Scuderi used up both cap space and roster spots even though each player was/is very replaceable. Rob Scuderi was brought back to “babysit” Kris Letang and be the steadying presence for the pairing which makes no logical sense at all. The complete opposite is true. This is a contract that is still killing the Penguins to this day.
Shero isn’t the first general manager to let loyalty bite him in the butt. Just look at the situation in Los Angeles that has the Kings paying out 11.63M each year to Dustin Brown and Mike Richards until 2019-20.
Trusting youth is going to be imperative for the Devils to turn things around. This will be a massive shift for Shero, but as stated above one that he can make without immense pressure of a win now dynamic.
In being fair to Ray Shero he is like most retread general managers in the NHL. For every bad move there are usually a fair amount of good moves that were made. Shero made some really great trades throughout his tenure.
He acquired the only legit star winger Crosby has ever played with in Marian Hossa. It didn’t cost the Penguins anything of consequence other than a 29th overall pick. In fact Pittsburgh scored Pascal Dupuis in the trade and he is still a positive player for the Penguins despite his unfortunate health circumstances as of late.
Shero was able to trade Ryan Whitney before his sharp decline for Chris Kunitz who has been a very good top six winger at an affordable rate for years.
Even though James Neal and Matt Niskanen are no longer with the organization Shero getting both players for Alex Goligoski was a move that made the team better.
Signing Paul Martin may not have resulted in any Stanley Cups but he was a terrific player for Pittsburgh at an affordable 5M per year.
Shero was able to turn Jordan Staal’s refusal to re-sign with the Penguins into assets despite everybody knowing he only had one destination in mind. Derrick Pouliot will be a top four defenseman for years to come and Brian Dumoulin has the potential to be a solid bottom pairing guy. Brandon Sutter hasn’t lived up to his billing but nobody is forcing the Penguins to stick with him.
Even though the only reason Jussi Jokinen was acquired was because of Sidney Crosby’s broken jaw it still doesn’t change the fact Shero got him for a measly seventh round pick with salary retained by Carolina.
Bill Guerin was acquired for a third round pick.
Pulling the plug on Michael Therrien and his dated approach to hockey opened the door to hiring an unknown head coach named Dan Bylsma. Bylsma kept the 2008-09 Penguins from missing the playoffs and it has ended up being the only Stanley Cup Championship of the Crosby/Malkin era. Perhaps Shero was too loyal to Bylsma by the end of their tenures in Pittsburgh but it was still a good hire.
Last but certainly not least he needs to lean on analytics. Much of the Penguins really poor depth can be traced back to players that could have been avoided with basic analytical research. The Devils cannot build themselves back up with guys like Craig Adams, Tanner Glass, Taylor Pyatt, Doug Murray, Joe Vitale, Rob Scuderi, Brooks Orpik, Brandon Sutter, Deryk Engelland, Mark Eaton etc… All have bad underlying numbers that are easily accessible to anybody with an internet connection.
The good news for Shero is that the Devils have already hired a pretty smart analytical guy in Sunny Mehta. He can be a great asset or could go unutilized. Given the fact New Jersey’s rebuild is going to take years they cannot afford any speed bumps. Anything to avoid those speed bumps is imperative.
Can an old dog learn new tricks? Ray Shero has the opportunity to prove that it is possible.
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Congratulations to Josh who has been nothing but extremely kind to me since I have started writing about the Penguins on a regular basis. He is one of the good guys and deserves all of his success.
Thanks for reading!
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