Report: Devils GM Shero high on Penguins AHL head coach

[BostonNala370]

The reason the Islanders went into the toilet is because Mike Milbury took over and immediately made terrible trades and decisions, and he lasted through multiple owners, somehow.  That would not happen on the Harris/Blitzer watch - these guys are too shrewd to let someone tear apart the organization like Milbury did.  Regardless, it's about the players.  Have a strong organization, absolutely, but you can't do that without good players.  Coaching can only do so much.

 As for the Devils why can't Devils fans understand this? We should be so happy that Harris/Blitzer are our owners and they want better tahn we have had in the past 5 years. Lou has a history, not a good one for the past 5 years for various reason but lately mostly him, bandaid fixes if they work out, but didn't. He left the team as GM in a terrible mess, thank you Harris for recongnizing this. .

Edited May 13, 2015 by BostonNala370

[devilsrule33]

There were 2 GM's between Torrey and Milbury and the Islanders were already headed for the toilet by the time he got there.

 

The Islanders were trending downward, but with the right GM, it could have been fixed. Milbury just wrecked that franchise over and over and over.

 

If it was waiving Martin Straka after 12 points in 22 games or trading a 22-year-old Todd Bertuzzi and a 22-year-old Brian McCabe and a 3rd round pick for 107 games of an over-the-hill Trevor Linden. What about dealing 1st overall pick Bryan Berard in the middle of his 3rd season for Felix Potvin, and then after 33 games with the Isles, trading him to the Canucks with a 2nd and 3rd round pick for the wonderful package of Kevin Weekes, Dave Scratchard and Bill Muckalt. They had a goalie on their roster that was better or as good as Potvin in Salo.

 

Then there were the Yashin and Luongo deals, and so many other small awful moves. He truly was the worst GM in NHL history. 

Edited May 13, 2015 by devilsrule33

[Triumph]

Couple of points: 

 

I did say better players are needed.  You think that the Wild players are a better team than the Blues?  You need good players but to beat other teams with good players you need what Lou brought.

 

Lou did bring a tough team to play against, good or bad players.  Recent years they have been bad and that is why we are out of the playoffs but if you think that no beards and a Rangers suck chant (which is a fan thing, not a team thing) creates the culture then I just don't know how to respond to you.  Sure no beards are a byproduct of the culture Lou created but let's not have the tail wag the dog or anything.

 

In regards to the 2 forwards away, what do you expect Lou to say in February or whenever he said it, "Yeah, we suck.  We won't make the playoffs for a while."  What does that say about the team you are running?  You might as well be Buffalo at that point.  Losing is not acceptable.  You guys seem to think it is if it's building towards something.  Signing a 30+ year old forward isn't stopping them from drafting their player or developing the players they have (for the most part) but it is admitting defeat without trying.  YOU HAVE TO TRY!  Maybe you want to watch lazy prospects that were given important roles they didn't earn and no one there to push them but I don't.  What's so wrong with waiting for Josefson to make you bump him to a scoring line?  I've seen on this board someone talk about how great Loktionov when he couldn't even make it on 3 NHL teams and isn't in NA anymore.  A lot of you would want those guys as centering our scoring lines.

 

Lastly, trotting Lou around as a figure head is hardly something at which to point.  He might as well be stuffed and left out in front of the Rock.  Maybe Shero and the owners continue the (or a similar) culture, but no one has said or shown me anything that makes me think so.  That interview from TG and the 76ers just show me the owners find losing acceptable.

 

Lou spent 25 years perfecting the art of saying nothing at all to the media.  'We have to improve and we need more goal scoring'.  That's the kind of answer you can give.  'We need 2 top six forwards' almost sounds like code for 'we lost Kovalchuk and Parise and are trying to find them again somehow'.  Fine, you can forget the example about the 2 top 6 forwards - how about where he said that one of the draft picks he traded for this summer would be used in a trade to improve the team?  Now that could go either way with me, but the fact that he said it then shows what he's thinking about.  He's thinking about improving right away.

 

Losing is acceptable when it is the only choice.  The Devils could not trade their team - their players, prospects, and 2015 picks - for a single other NHL team.  They are 30th in total assets.  There's a few teams close, and you could quibble about them, but the Devils are at or near the bottom.  And no, it isn't all Lou's fault that they are here - some of it is just the price to pay for trying to be excellent for the last 10 years on an aging team.  Elias and Brodeur, two Hall of Famers, were on UFA contracts since 2006-07.  Hard to work around that without a lot of young players, and the Devils didn't really have that.  So no, it isn't exactly fair to Lou that he isn't getting a chance to fix this, but this offseason is simply too important to screw up.  Screwing this up could very easily mean being in the same place in 5 years.

[BostonNala370]

The Islanders were trending downward, but with the right GM, it could have been fixed. Milbury just wrecked that franchise over and over and over.

 

If it was waiving Martin Straka after 12 points in 22 games or trading a 22-year-old Todd Bertuzzi and a 22-year-old Brian McCabe and a 3rd round pick for 107 games of Trevor Linden. What about dealing Bryan Berard in the middle of his 3rd season for Felix Potvin, and then after 33 games with the Isles, trading him to the Canucks with a 2nd and 3rd round pick for the wonderful package of Kevin Weekes, Dave Scratchard and Bill Muckalt.

 

Then there were the Yashin and Luongo deals, and so many other small awful moves. He truly was the worst GM in NHL history. 

 

Agree, however he is being considered for GM of the Bruins, go figure!

[NewarkDevil5]

Agree, however he is being considered for GM of the Bruins, go figure!

 

Well he is, after all, something of a Bruins mini-legend. The guy took a Ranger fan's shoe off and beat him with it, for crying out loud!

[themightyall]

The reason the Islanders went into the toilet is because Mike Milbury took over and immediately made terrible trades and decisions, and he lasted through multiple owners, somehow.  That would not happen on the Harris/Blitzer watch - these guys are too shrewd to let someone tear apart the organization like Milbury did.  Regardless, it's about the players.  Have a strong organization, absolutely, but you can't do that without good players.  Coaching can only do so much.

 

I agree whole-heartedly with this.  Having good players is a prerequisite for winning but strong organization still matters after that.  The Devils don't have that and are bottom of the league in "assets" (I'd say players and picks).  And that is Lou's fault and he has admitted it is his failure.  I'm trying to keep high hopes that Shero will make the trades, signings and picks to refill this dearth of talent.  That is the substantive part of the job of a GM.  So if it were just about who's making those decisions, obviously Lou hasn't done the job.

 

I just don't want to see the culture diminish because I don't think that is the problem we've had.  But hearing that the owners forced Lou out by EJ Hradek a few hours after it happened erodes at the culture of the Devils.  Do the players want to give everything they have for an owner that threw the "heart and soul" for the past 28 years under the bus?  It's obvious Brodeur sees the writing on the wall because he doesn't want to come back for a few years at least.  Again, say what you want about if it's good or bad, but Brodeur saying he doesn't want to come back sounds like he doesn't trust what's going on.

 

 As for the Devils why can't Devils fans understand this? We should be so happy that Harris/Blitzer are our owners and they want better tahn we have had in the past 5 years. Lou has a history, not a good one for the past 5 years for various reason but lately mostly him, bandaid fixes if they work out, but didn't. He left the team as GM in a terrible mess, thank you Harris for recongnizing this. .

 

So you're happy because they don't like that they haven't been to the playoffs for three years?  What owner would?  Tisch and Mara didn't like missing the playoffs and made changes accordingly.  So did Dan Snyder.  I don't know about you but I'd rather have the former as my team's owners than the latter.  Not that it's a perfect corollary but again I ask: "What have these owners done that you can have so much faith in them?"

[DevsMan84]

I agree whole-heartedly with this.  Having good players is a prerequisite for winning but strong organization still matters after that.  The Devils don't have that and are bottom of the league in "assets" (I'd say players and picks).  And that is Lou's fault and he has admitted it is his failure.  I'm trying to keep high hopes that Shero will make the trades, signings and picks to refill this dearth of talent.  That is the substantive part of the job of a GM.  So if it were just about who's making those decisions, obviously Lou hasn't done the job.

 

I just don't want to see the culture diminish because I don't think that is the problem we've had.  But hearing that the owners forced Lou out by EJ Hradek a few hours after it happened erodes at the culture of the Devils.  Do the players want to give everything they have for an owner that threw the "heart and soul" for the past 28 years under the bus?  It's obvious Brodeur sees the writing on the wall because he doesn't want to come back for a few years at least.  Again, say what you want about if it's good or bad, but Brodeur saying he doesn't want to come back sounds like he doesn't trust what's going on.

 

 

So you're happy because they don't like that they haven't been to the playoffs for three years?  What owner would?  Tisch and Mara didn't like missing the playoffs and made changes accordingly.  So did Dan Snyder.  I don't know about you but I'd rather have the former as my team's owners than the latter.  Not that it's a perfect corollary but again I ask: "What have these owners done that you can have so much faith in them?"

 

Well a big difference between these owners and the previous owner is that they are not broke.  I think that's pretty big and they are willing to dump money into this money-losing franchise both on and off the ice.

[Daniel]

. Not that it's a perfect corollary but again I ask: "What have these owners done that you can have so much faith in them?"

Beyond the off the ice stuff, such as upgrading the arena and being financially viable, it's what they're doing and saying right now that gives me faith in them.

We don't know what was in Lou's head or what he's said in private that would give an indication of what his plan was to get the team to be a Stanley Cup competitor again. But from the sound of it, it seemed like whatever it was involved trying to put together a winner with a great goalie and the rest of it with spare parts and duct tape. And the fact that we're in the position of having arguably the worst group of forwards from the NHL level on down to unsigned draft picks is to a large extent on his shoulders. That the owners recognized this and did something about it is a huge positive in my book.

But at the same time, Harris does not seem to be a Dan Snyder too hands on type, and from what he's said anyway, also recognizes that a huge tear down of everything often doesn't work in the NHL, so it doesn't look like he's going to demand that Shero trade Schneider for prospects/draft picks.

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[Jas0nMacIsaac]

Interesting, Shero should have as good an idea as any gm what coaches would be suited for the NHL. I'm just not sure Pittsburgh would be happy with Shero pouching a coach from them.

Edited May 13, 2015 by Jas0nMacIsaac

[thecoffeecake]

Look no further than the Flyers for a team that's stuck on"tradition"... The "tradition" of being a physical and bruiser of an organization. Ron Hextall as GM, Craig Berube as their coach, Zac Rinaldo has been a roster regular for a few years. The "Broad Street Bullies" title continues to follow them, the fans still love it and the players get traded to Philly and begin to embody it, it's cult-like.

And yet it's a losing tradition. It won them some Cups decades ago, but it's a page they need to turn before they can set themselves up to win another one. But fans will fight you tooth and nail that the "bullies" persona is what the Flyers need to continue to be successful.

This culture sells tickets in Philly. I don't think they really care to build a consistent contender. Without an identity like that, they'd become less relevant than the sixers during their first down cycle

[Mayday]

Interesting, Shero should have as good an idea as any gm what coaches would be suited for the NHL. I'm just not sure Pittsburgh would be happy with Shero pouching a coach from them.

Maybe they would ask for compensation this time. I may be wrong, but I feel like if a AHL guy was given a chance in the NHL an organization will let him pursue it. Maybe thats me being too optimistic.