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

Looking back, Ray Shero really changed the face of the New Jersey Devils.

Ray Shero was a revelation when he came to the New Jersey Devils. He was just fired from the Pittsburgh Penguins, but he was a Stanley Cup-winning GM that was coming to, at first, work alongside Lou Lamoriello. Just months later, Lou was headed off to Toronto, and Shero was solely in charge of fixing the mess that was the state of the Devils in 2015.

Shero did a remarkable job of reshaping the Devils’ prospect system. They were dead last for a large majority of this century, but now they sit at second in the league in terms of young talent. The future is bright for the Devils, and a lot of that is thanks to Shero.

This isn’t to say Shero wasn’t flawless. This is obvious. He got fired for a reason. The team didn’t gel with the new moves he made in the 2019 offseason. Shero was also stubborn to a fault. People at the top tend to be stubborn, but it’s when they double down on bad moves they make when it becomes a detriment. That happened multiple times with Shero (giving a long leash to John Hynes and Mirco Mueller come to mind).

Still, the positive outweighs the negative overall. There are a lot of really good moves that Shero made over the years, but what was the best? As with his worst moves article, draft picks are not being considered. That will be discussed in a future piece on its own.

Honorable Mention:

Trading Keith Kinkaid for a 2022 5th-round pick

Keith Kinkaid went from a goalie who could carry a team to the playoffs to completely worthless in one year. Still, at the 2019 NHL Trade Deadline, he was able to get a future pick even though he was going to play exactly zero games for the Columbus Blue Jackets. He basically got traded for a 14 year old.

Sami Vatanen trade

The Devils looked like they were on to something at the start of the 2017-18 season, but there was still a huge hole on the top line of the defense. Shero addressed it the best he could by trading Adam Henrique and a few other pieces for Sami Vatanen (and an extra 3rd-round pick when he re-signed). It helped lead the Devils to the playoffs, and if he didn’t get a concussion thanks to the Tampa Bay Lightning who knows what would have happened. (The Devils still would have lost.)

Nikita Gusev trade

The Devils made a lot of really fun moves last offseason, but it hit a fever pitch when the Devils traded for Russian superstar Nikita Gusev. The Vegas Golden Knights could not afford him, so they had to sell him off for a 2nd and 3rd-round pick. He took a little time to really play well, but it’s clear he is on the way to being a good player.

5. Signing Brian Boyle

During the 2017 offseason, there was a lot of frustration with the moves Shero was making. The New York Rangers made the biggest splash by signing Kevin Shattenkirk, a player most Devils fans wanted in the Garden State. There were other defensemen available like Karl Azner and Andrei Markov. Instead, the Devils spent extra to get what amounts to a fourth-line center who adds size to a contender.

The Devils announced they signed Brian Boyle to a two-year deal worth $2.5 million a season. It’s not like it was a back-breaking contract, but Devils fans were hoping for more.

Boyle ended up being exactly what this team needed. Obviously, his cancer felt gave the team something to rally around. That’s not something that can be predicted, but the likability of Boyle was always going to bring this locker room together. He’s one of the most well-liked teammates in the NHL.

He was extremely useful on the ice as well. He had 13 goals in 69 games, but there was a stretch where he was clearly getting used to getting back on the ice while fighting a deadly disease. He was even better as a player the next season, scoring those same 13 goals but this time in 47 games. The Devils then turned him into a 2nd-round pick.

His contributions were remarkable. He was a fan favorite if we’ve ever seen one. Boyle will always have a special place in Devils fans’ hearts.

4. Will Butcher signing

Say what you want about Will Butcher now, in the 2017 offseason he was one of the most coveted free agents on the market. He was coming off a championship NCAA hockey season with Denver University. He could have stayed in state and played with the Colorado Avalanche, but something happened with that relationship and he wanted to go somewhere else.

There were a lot of teams in on Butcher, which usually puts the Devils out of contention. Especially this iteration of the Devils, free agents were not trying to come here. Butcher would only be able to sign an entry-level contract, so money wasn’t an issue. Butcher just wanted to play.

The Devils beat out the Los Angeles Kings to get Butcher’s services. There were multiple holes in the Devils’ defense, so adding a young player like Butcher who was ready for the NHL and would have multiple years of control was huge. It was one of the biggest wins for the team in a long time.

Butcher’s career has been up and down, but that rookie year was amazing. He scored 44 points and played all but one game on a playoff team. His contributions to that team absolutely helped them make the playoffs. During the final eight games that counted for the Devils where they got points in every single game, making the playoffs by a point, Butcher had nine points in those games. That includes two goals against the Rangers. This signing was huge for the Shero and the Devils.

3. Kyle Palmieri trade

The deal that’s probably going to have the longest residual impact is when Ray Shero traded for Kyle Palmieri not too long after he took over. The Devils sent two draft picks to the Anaheim Ducks for the right wing.

Obviously, Palmieri grew up in New Jersey, so he was familiar with the area. It seemed like an interesting homecoming, even though his family was New York Rangers fans. It was clear this was a good deal when it happened. Palmieri was a former 1st-round pick that was just getting his feet under him in the NHL. He was already 24 years old, but it was clear he needed more ice time to really get unlocked. He scored double-digit goals while only getting between 12 and 14 minutes of ice time. In his first season with the Devils, he was given close to 18 minutes of ice time per game. He rewarded them with his first 30-goal season.

Palmieri has been pretty consistent with goals despite dealing with some injuries. He’s had between 24 and 30 goals in every season with the Devils. He’s consistently been the top-line right wing, and he’s on a great value contract.

Palmieri is now in the final year of his contract, and the Devils will either re-sign him or trade him for a significant return. Either way, the Palmieri deal will have a long-time impact on the Devils.

2. Avoiding Terrible Contracts

Remember in the Brian Boyle slide when the Devils were not able to sign Kevin Shattenkirk in free agency? It ended up being a blessing in disguise. Shero was never big on free agency in general, but he always made calls. He said he made a run at Shattenkirk, but at the end of the day what the Rangers gave him was far too rich. He was right. The Rangers bought out Shattenkirk just two years into a four-year deal.

There were other deals the Devils could have gone after that ended up being terrible busts, holding teams down for years. Azner’s deal ended up being terrible for the Montreal Canadiens. James van Riemsdyk seemed like a perfect player for what the Devils need, but he’s been awful for the Philadelphia Flyers since signing a five-year $35 million contract.

The summer of 2016 is where Shero really avoided disaster. Kyle Okposo, David Backes, Milan Lucic, Andrew Ladd, Louis Eriksson, Frans Nielsen, Troy Brouwer, and Mikkel Boedker all signed long-term deals with a new team. Outside of Ladd, did any of them work out? Even worse, are any of them not considered one of the worst deals in the NHL?

Obviously, Shero avoided bad contracts because he was averse to giving big contracts in general. Still, there are contracts around the league that are burying other teams. The Devils do have bad contracts, but they were either traded for at a very low value (Subban) or they were signed by the previous regime (Schneider and some might say Travis Zajac).