Shero signs extension

[MadDog2020]

 

[RunninWithTheDevil]

Cue the facebook fan meltdown

[2ELIAS6]

good things, now lets extend hall and work some magic

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Just now, RunninWithTheDevil said:

Cue the facebook fan meltdown

I know there's a lot of mutants over there, but what the hell would they melt down about?  Shero came here with very little at both the AHL and NHL levels to work with...not totally barren, but close enough.  He's snagged some pieces.  It's looking like he got it right with Blackwood...finally, a goalie acquired via the draft that could be a long-term answer! 

All for him getting to stick around to keep working...

[vadvlfan]

Steady hand needed. It's fine by me. Always trying to make the team better w/out committing to bs contracts (I think Flyers will regret JVR) Think about it, we made playoffs last year w/ pretty much same roster.(less Boyle/Lovejoy) But we want to go deeper into playoffs, not satisfied with just making them. upgrades needed on D (T. Myers or Jake Gardiner)  and on 2nd line, bottom 6. And a lil more sandpaper. (Ferland if available) 

[titans04]

Meh, jury is still out to me.  I still think he made a terrible mistake standing pat going into this past season. The buck stops with him. Nobody rides for free. They sucked this year and that's on him. Let's see what he does this off season. If he walks away empty handed again well be a bad team again next season. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

13 minutes ago, titans04 said:

Meh, jury is still out to me.  I still think he made a terrible mistake standing pat going into this past season. The buck stops with him. Nobody rides for free. They sucked this year and that's on him. Let's see what he does this off season. If he walks away empty handed again well be a bad team again next season. 

This is really not a fair take.  For one, he had a ton of man-games lost to injury.  For another, it's not always about adding-adding-adding...sometimes you need to take a step back and see what you've got in house, and evaluate (in this case, at BOTH levels)...changes will be made, and some guys have likely played their way out of the Devils' plans.  These rebuilds are not always linear, and if anything, though it wasn't always easy to watch, this was a good year to not be very good, because the Lightning are friggin' beastly this year, the reigning SC Champs Caps just won the Metro again, and the Leafs and Pens are also very dangerous.  I don't think ANY series of "Right Now" moves would've have closed the gap significantly enough...and suddenly swallowing up cap space with destined-to-be-lousy UFA deals that wouldn't have aged well would've sucked.  And it looks like he did the right thing in being patient with both Cory (many of us wondered if he was done) and Blackwood (who last year seem like he was on the train to Bustville). 

He's done some good things since coming here, with limited resources and pieces to use in deals, and I think he'll do more. 

 

Edited April 8, 2019 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[Daniel]

22 minutes ago, titans04 said:

Meh, jury is still out to me.  I still think he made a terrible mistake standing pat going into this past season. The buck stops with him. Nobody rides for free. They sucked this year and that's on him. Let's see what he does this off season. If he walks away empty handed again well be a bad team again next season. 

It's fair to say the jury's still out, but I can't fault him for not overpaying who was realistically available as free agents last summer.  You really think JVR at $8 million AAV would be a good idea?  Or Calvin de Haan actually makes the team that much better? 

I believe the reports that he tried to trade for Karlsson or to at least get something good for taking Ryan Callahan. On the other hand, maybe he could have been more aggressive in trying to get someone like Ryan O'Reilly.

We'll know a lot by July 2 or 3.

[titans04]

All good we disagree pretty significantly. I'm not sure outside of Blackwood who was worth getting excited over. Yak for God sakes couldn't even play his way in on a consistent basis. Selfishly I don't care what other teams are doing, all I know is we've missed the playoffs how many times now or better yet we made the playoffs how many times in the last several years? How many playoff series have we won the the last 6-7 years. We do lead the league in recycling old pens though. 

[Daniel]

1 minute ago, titans04 said:

All good we disagree pretty significantly. I'm not sure outside of Blackwood who was worth getting excited over. Yak for God sakes couldn't even play his way in on a consistent basis. Selfishly I don't care what other teams are doing, all I know is we've missed the playoffs how many times now or better yet we made the playoffs how many times in the last several years? How many playoff series have we won the the last 6-7 years. We do lead the league in recycling old pens though. 

If we're judging Ray, it's only fair to go back and look at what the roster was at the end of the 2015 season who was in the prospect pipeline and the lack of success of the scouting department he inherited for the 2015 draft.  If not for Cory being one of the best goalies in the league, that team is probably the worst in the league for two or three years.

He can't live on trading for Taylor Hall, Palmieri and Vatanen forever.  And I will be screaming bloody murder if he fvcks things up this offseason.  But you don't turn a team that had Jordon Tootoo on the first powerplay into a perennial playoff team in three years unless someone like McDavid falls into your lap, and even Edmonton has managed to mess that up. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Just now, titans04 said:

All good we disagree pretty significantly. I'm not sure outside of Blackwood who was worth getting excited over. Yak for God sakes couldn't even play his way in on a consistent basis. Selfishly I don't care what other teams are doing, all I know is we've missed the playoffs how many times now or better yet we made the playoffs how many times in the last several years? How many playoff series have we won the the last 6-7 years. We do lead the league in recycling old pens though. 

Bunching Lou's years with Shero's years is also not fair.  Lou was never going to do a full blow-up, and it simply got to the point where he had to go (and based on his and Conte's recent drafts, I'm not sure I would've trusted him to rebuild the Devils anyway).  Shero has not misled anyone...he's made it clear he's not going for quick fixes or trying to buy the Devils into relevance.  Again, he didn't inherit a whole hell of a lot.  He was not going to be able to build a sustainable playoff team right away with what he had to work with.  And that's what he's trying to do...not build a capped-out team full of overpaid UFA vets that might have a 2-3 year window of making the playoffs but then gets bounced pretty easily in a round or two. 

As far as shopping at the Penguin Dollar Store goes, I get why he tried some of them at the time.  Lovejoy was at least a solid vet who might have something to offer the younger guys.  Sometimes you take a gamble on a Bennett-type...not like third-rounders are ever guaranteed to sniff the NHL, and that's what that gamble cost Shero. 

But I agree with Daniel, this offseason's a biggie.  If he re-signs Hall, that will be a fine start, but there's gotta be some more for sure. 

[SterioDesign]

Amazing news. Anyone saying the team sucks right because of Shero or something he didnt do is absolutely out of touch with reality. As simple as that. The situation he was put in is the worst position a GM could be put in. Horrible roster, slowest and oldest team in the league, top scorer with like... 42 pts lol, ton of deadweight and absolutely nothing in the pipeline.

 

Edited April 8, 2019 by SterioDesign

[Devil Dan 56]

5 hours ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

I know there's a lot of mutants over there, but what the hell would they melt down about?  Shero came here with very little at both the AHL and NHL levels to work with...not totally barren, but close enough.  He's snagged some pieces.  It's looking like he got it right with Blackwood...finally, a goalie acquired via the draft that could be a long-term answer! 

All for him getting to stick around to keep working...

Hey! Wait a minute. If we give credit to Shero for Blackwood, why does everyone blame Zacha on Lou? 

[SterioDesign]

3 hours ago, Devil Dan 56 said:

Hey! Wait a minute. If we give credit to Shero for Blackwood, why does everyone blame Zacha on Lou? 

Cause Lou should have fired Conte like.... years and years ago based on how bad he was and he drafted Zacha. And the credit for Blackwood is not that he drafted him but made move to fully give him a chance to get a shot in the NHL by trading KK

Edited April 9, 2019 by SterioDesign

[mfitz804]

7 hours ago, SterioDesign said:

And the credit for Blackwood is not that he drafted him but made move to fully give him a chance to get a shot in the NHL by trading KK

Keith didn’t really make that a very difficult decision lol. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

12 hours ago, Devil Dan 56 said:

Hey! Wait a minute. If we give credit to Shero for Blackwood, why does everyone blame Zacha on Lou? 

My mistake...for some reason I thought Blackwood was all Shero (as in the pick was made after Lou and Conte were gone).  At any rate, I'm not sure who had what input when it came to 2015...Shero became the GM on May 4, 2015, and the 2015 NHL Draft came about 6 weeks later.  Lou stayed on as team president initially, but then resigned in late July and went to the Leafs.  How much input did Shero have in that first draft?  I just don't know. 

[Devil Dan 56]

2 hours ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

My mistake...for some reason I thought Blackwood was all Shero (as in the pick was made after Lou and Conte were gone).  At any rate, I'm not sure who had what input when it came to 2015...Shero became the GM on May 4, 2015, and the 2015 NHL Draft came about 6 weeks later.  Lou stayed on as team president initially, but then resigned in late July and went to the Leafs.  How much input did Shero have in that first draft?  I just don't know. 

I was saying it more tongue-in-cheek as a joke about the way history gets warped here sometimes

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Just now, Devil Dan 56 said:

I was saying it more tongue-in-cheek as a joke about the way history gets warped here sometimes

Oh sure, I got that, but I admit, I'm kind of curious how that 2015 draft went behind the scenes.  Seemed like there was a three-headed monster, and I'm sure the new head likely wasn't in agreement with the other two on certain picks.  I'm sure that got messy at times.

[Devil Dan 56]

11 hours ago, SterioDesign said:

Cause Lou should have fired Conte like.... years and years ago based on how bad he was and he drafted Zacha. And the credit for Blackwood is not that he drafted him but made move to fully give him a chance to get a shot in the NHL by trading KK

Couldn't Shero have overridden that pick, as GM? Zacha pick made sense at the time. He and Crouse were the next highest ranking forwards at that point in the draft. 

As for trading KK... I love shero. I'm 100% behind his vision. I feel he is smarter and craftier than most GMs, and I agree with almost all of his moves. But I wouldn't say realizing you had to trade free agent to be Keith Kinkaid was a genius stroke by any stretch. 

[Devil Dan 56]

15 minutes ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Oh sure, I got that, but I admit, I'm kind of curious how that 2015 draft went behind the scenes.  Seemed like there was a three-headed monster, and I'm sure the new head likely wasn't in agreement with the other two on certain picks.  I'm sure that got messy at times.

Id definitely love to see a behind the scenes of that kind of thing. I remember the NHL did one for trades and trade calls and I thought it was really interesting

[sundstrom]

19 hours ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

But I agree with Daniel, this offseason's a biggie.  If he re-signs Hall, that will be a fine start, but there's gotta be some more for sure. 

This won't be the start and that's the problem.

The offseason ENDS with Hall signing or being traded.

Hall has to see draft, trades, UFA.

it starts tonight because you have to see if you land 1 or 2. if you do, you know you have a center or a winger and that helps target for UFA and trades.

does ray target the Isles UFA's (lee, nelson, eberle)? i like nelson a lot and think he'd be a good fit but i don't know that guys are taking the devils money.

[SterioDesign]

35 minutes ago, Devil Dan 56 said:

Couldn't Shero have overridden that pick, as GM? Zacha pick made sense at the time. He and Crouse were the next highest ranking forwards at that point in the draft. 

As for trading KK... I love shero. I'm 100% behind his vision. I feel he is smarter and craftier than most GMs, and I agree with almost all of his moves. But I wouldn't say realizing you had to trade free agent to be Keith Kinkaid was a genius stroke by any stretch. 

Well about Zacha it's debatable I guess. Zacha was one of those players that his stats were not mindblowing (barely over a point per game in juniors and international) but scouts projected that it was because of his "situation" but he had all the tools and bla bla bla. Which can always be tricky and why im nervous about drafting Podkozlin this year but anyway...

Then you look at guys like Barzal who dropped for wtv and had way better stats and was well over a point per game and we now all wish we would have picked him lol On the other hand Rantanen's stats were not impressive and all and he's killing it. It's obviously easy to judge in hindsight but i'm always nervous taking "scorers" who are not even burning the league in juniors

 

As for the KK thing i was wrong and thought Colorado Rockies meant that but it's not what he meant at all haha

Edited April 9, 2019 by SterioDesign

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

6 minutes ago, sundstrom said:

This won't be the start and that's the problem.

The offseason ENDS with Hall signing or being traded.

Hall has to see draft, trades, UFA.

it starts tonight because you have to see if you land 1 or 2. if you do, you know you have a center or a winger and that helps target for UFA and trades.

does ray target the Isles UFA's (lee, nelson, eberle)? i like nelson a lot and think he'd be a good fit but i don't know that guys are taking the devils money.

The bolded:  yeah, I know that now...once I read all of Hall's quotes in one place.  Still think bringing him back will go relatively smooth though (just a gut feeling).

[Devil Dan 56]

5 minutes ago, SterioDesign said:

Well about Zacha it's debatable I guess. Zacha was one of those players that his stats were not mindblowing (barely over a point per game in juniors and international) but scouts projected that it was because of his "situation" but he had all the tools and bla bla bla. Which can always be tricky and why im nervous about drafting Podkozlin this year but anyway...

Then you look at guys like Barzal who dropped for wtv and had way better stats and was well over a point per game and we now all wish we would have picked him lol On the other hand Rantanen's stats were not impressive and all and he's killing it. It's obviously easy to judge in hindsight but i'm always nervous taking "scorers" who are not even burning the league in juniors

I agree, I'm also very very nervous about Podkozlin. I love the raw skill but the thought of possibly waiting two years to see him in north America has me hesitant. 

Like you said, its a crap shoot. I trust Shero and his crew to make a good pick. I don't think they've had a dud since he was hired here but id have to look

[NJDfan1711]

I'm a big proponent of minimizing turnover, in all capacities, so given what Shero's done with the team in the limited time he's been in charge, I have no problems keeping him at the helm for a few more years.  Hopefully he/we continue to be successful and he's here for years to come.