Ray Shero’s Worst Moves As New Jersey Devils General Manager

What were Ray Shero’s worst moves with the New Jersey Devils?

It’s hard to grade Ray Shero’s tenure overall with the New Jersey Devils. It obviously ended stupendously bad, but there were some really good times. The Devils had their first MVP under Ray Shero. They made a fun postseason run in 2018 thanks to a lot of Shero’s moves. There are players that are still impacting the team in a positive way now because of Shero.

However, there’s a reason he couldn’t make it past this season as the team’s GM. He replaced the legendary Lou Lamoriello, who is on The Island proving he still has a lot left in the tank (although it was probably good for both parties that they split). The person taking over for Lamoriello had some huge shoes to fill, but there were a lot of reasons why Shero didn’t seem to fit. He wanted total control over the Devils while it seemed like the Devils’ owners wanted a more universal approach.

There were more good moves than bad moves overall, but looking at some of the moves, they were huge swings and misses. Also, added in that he stood pat at the wrong times, it shows that his bad moves continued to overshadow the good when the roster needed a complete overhaul.

For the purpose of this exercise, draft picks are not eligible. This is only looking at free agency, the trade market, and various other hirings and firings.

Honorable Mentions

Trading a 3rd-round pick fo Beau Bennett, then letting him go

Beau Bennett was a decent shot in the dark since the Devils still had control over him after he hit free agency, but Shero didn’t even extend a qualifying offer for him after sending his former team the Pittsburgh Penguins a 3rd-round pick. The Devils are lucky that pick turned into Connor Hall, who isn’t even on the radar for the Penguins.

Miles Wood extension

The Devils were waiting on Miles Wood to sign an extension coming into the 2018-19 season after his career year. Shero ended up giving him a four-year deal, and he immediately fell off the map. It wasn’t a terrible deal at the time, but a lot went wrong with how the Devils dealt with Wood.

P.K. Subban trade

The Devils went all in last offseason, and Shero went on a victory tour with every media outlet who would have him. They drafted Jack Hughes, so the Devils wanted to make another splash the next day. They did that by trading for former Norris Trophy winner P.K. Subban. It worked out terribly in the first year, but it’s still too early to put it on this list.