Why hasn't Ray Shero had another NHL GM job since New Jersey Devils firing?

On January 8, 2020, the New Jersey Devils made their final move of the season to say this era was over and it was a failure. After already firing head coach John Hynes and trading away star player Taylor Hall, they fired general manager Ray Shero, the man who took over for Lou Lamoriello in the same position. He was the first major hire by Josh Harris and David Blitzer after they bought the team from Jeff Vanderbeek. 

The Devils were clearly built to win one day, but they kept timing it wrong. Twice, Shero thought the rebuild was over, only to fail to make the playoffs. He made some great moves during his tenure with the Devils. The biggest of which was trading Adam Larsson for Taylor Hall. The Devils' only MVP was brought to New Jersey in one of the most shocking moves in NHL history. Then, the trade of Hall to the Arizona Coyotes led to Kevin Bahl and Dawson Mercer, so that was another great move.

He also signed Damon Severson to a very favorable six-year, $25 million deal. While it doesn’t look great, the Cory Schneider deal should have been a deal. Injuries just ruined that. He convinced Hobey Baker Award winner Will Butcher to sign with the Devils out of college. He traded for a young Kyle Palmieri. When he knew he needed a top defenseman, he traded Adam Henrique for Sami Vatanen. Shero signed Brian Boyle and traded for Pat Maroon. 

He drafted Nico Hischier over Nolan Patrick, took Jesper Bratt in the sixth round, and can take credit for the picks of Yegor Sharangovich (fifth round), Akira Schmid (fifth round), Fabian Zetterlund (third round), and Arseni Gritsyuk (fifth round). He also didn’t make the massive mistake of taking Kaapo Kakko over Jack Hughes. We pretend it was a slam dunk, but back then, there was a lot of discourse over the pick. His drafting resume speaks for itself.

This is a lot in terms of a win column. NHL GMs get third and fourth jobs for a lot less. 

Shero was a good GM in terms of his actual transactions. Yes, he had his mistakes. P.K. Subban was not a great trade, although he didn’t give up much. Pavel Zacha wasn’t the right pick in 2015, although many say that was a Lou Lamoriello pick, anyway. Mirco Mueller was a disaster pick, only made worse by the fact the Sharks used it to take their now-star defenseman Mario Ferrero. 

However, every single GM in the league has made mistakes. Bill Zito traded a ton for Ben Chiarot. Kelly McCrimmon was responsible for the Evgeni Dadonov mess in Vegas. Jim Nill traded a first-round pick for Nils Lundqvist. GMs make mistakes, but they must ensure their positives outweigh their negatives.

Since Shero was fired, 20 other teams had GM openings of some kind. Some were filled immediately by executives already in house, but others had extensive searches to hire someone. How has Shero not had another opportunity?

Shero is now 61 years old and holds a position with the Minnesota Wild. Maybe something we don’t know about Shero’s reputation is hindering his employment. We don’t know of that, but we are legitimately asking since it doesn’t make sense that a man with this reputation doesn’t get another opportunity. This doesn’t even mention that Shero has a Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh. It’s interesting to see what happens next with Shero’s career.