New Jersey Devils General Manager Remains Underrated
By Nick Villano
New Jersey Devils general manager Ray Shero has been very good this offseason, but he still doesn’t get the proper respect among national NHL media.
The New Jersey Devils have been very good this offseason. The team made some savvy moves that went under the radar. Signing Brian Boyle fixes the team’s bottom six that was atrocious last season. Ray Shero traded two picks that were basically free to get a young, proven winger in Marcus Johansson. He also absolutely crushed the draft, even beyond his number one overall pick Nico Hischier.
Despite all this, Shero still ranked in the bottom half of Puck Prose’s GM rankings. Writer Dave Stevenson points out whiffing on Kevin Shattenkirk and the lack of talent on the blue line for why Shero was ranked 18th in the league.
Shero hasn’t been perfect, but there is no doubt how much he’s helped this Devils team. The forward group he obtained was built around Patrik Elias at the end of his career and Adam Henrique who was still unproven. Beyond that, there wasn’t much to go home about.
Since then, he made two major moves bringing in Kyle Palmieri and Taylor Hall in consecutive offseasons. His first-round picks include Hischier, Pavel Zacha and Michael McLeod. Those three picks could be the three best the Devils had in a decade.
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He’s even made great moves when they didn’t make a lot of noise. He brought in PA Parenteau and Kyle Quincey right before last season. Both players played really well on a bad Devils team.
The only major mark against Shero right now is this past year’s trade deadline. He didn’t get what fans would have liked for Parenteau and Quincey. All the team really has to show for selling is Dalton Prout, and nobody is really happy about that.
That’s ignoring the great work he did while he was in Pittsburgh. He helped build the Penguins into a powerhouse, although it did help that Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were already there. He took the Penguins to two Stanley Cup Finals, winning one.
Yes, the Devils still need work. The team is still a long shot for the playoffs this season, but the future is extremely bright. The team has some of the best young talent in the league, despite starting from scratch three years ago. That is exclusively because of Shero. Hopefully, the NHL brass will see what the Devils are doing. Actually, hopefully they don’t. Then Shero can continue to make these savvy moves to make the Devils even better.