Pen Zen: Top 20 Most Memorable Pens: #17 Ray Shero

Ah summertime…

The pools are open, people are enjoying the outdoors, schools are closed, and people are relaxing in the sun. Summer can be a pretty great time of year, unless you’re a sports fan. Let’s face it, there is only so much midseason baseball and obscure sporting events (tour de France, world cup, British open) before you start salivating for football and ice hockey. It’s inevitable, we all want our boys from Pittsburgh to hit the field and hit the ice for another great season.

Point being, that for an Ice hockey fan, summer sucks, but strangely enough that’s when a completely new season comes into play, making a team better, in a different way…

That’s where my top 20 list comes into play. In 2006, Ray Shero was hired as the Penguins new general manager replacing beloved GM Craig Patrick. Pittsburgh fans knew that Shero had some large shoes to fill, because Patrick not only was an exceptional GM, he coached along with Herb Brooks with the 1980 US Olympic hockey team. Long story short, Shero had some shoes to fill.

In his brief tenure with the Pens, his Public Relations has been phenomenal, signing players to come to Pittsburgh left and right, getting very talented athletes to take substantial pay cuts to stay with the Penguins. Quite Frankly, he made players offers they couldn’t refuse.

In the beginning of his career, Shero made very subtle, but valuable moves nonetheless. Acquiring players like Mark Recchi, Jarkko Ruutu, and Mark Eaton. 3 players that helped the Pens go deep into the playoffs. Shero was also responsible for acquiring Jordan Staal in the draft, and it was under his tenure that Evgeni Malkin took refuge from his developmental camp to join the Pens. However, Shero’s work was only beginning.

During the 2007-2008 season is when Shero made his presence known. He signed Petr Sykora and re-signed Ryan Whitney to keep the pens strong. The Pens had an exceptional regular season, but Shero felt that the Pens needed more. In a gutsy and highly controversial move, Shero traded Erik Christensen, Colby Armstrong, and young star Angelo Esposito and acquired Marian Hossa, Pascal Dupuis, and Hal Gill. The Pens would later lose in the Stanley Cup finals, and the personal seemed to be more than ready to get things underway for a successful run the following season

In the 2008-2009 campaign, Shero proved his stature as an exceptional GM. First of all, in the beginning of the season, Shero wanted to sign Marian Hossa for a long-term contract, whereas Hossa wanted a short-term contract with a chance to win a Stanley Cup. Hossa saturated the market for almost a month and then decided to go to the Detroit Red Wings. Fans felt like they had been stabbed in the back, there were many all-star caliber players that had already been shipped off to other teams. The likelihood of Shero picking up great all-stars was slim to none at this point. However, Shero did manage to pick up Miroslav Satan, Ruslan Fedotenko. Which in turn were not superstars, but all played a significant role in one way or another as the season progressed.

Pens were staring at 10^th place towards the trading deadline. Moral was very low, and playoff hopes were dwindling. The Pens looked asleep, and from the fans perspective, coach Michael Therrien seemed almost disinterested. Shero fired Therrien and brought in coach Dan Bylsma from the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins (whom Shero hired earlier that year). Shero also acquired Bill Guerin, Chris Kunitz, and Craig Adams at the trading deadline. These moves would shoot Ray Shero into legendary status as the Penguins won their 3^rd Stanley Cup

Shero also did an incredible job in 2009-2010 to keep the Penguins together, by having some of the pens biggest role players to take pay cuts to stay with the team. Although, the Pens did not win the cup, they showed that they had the ability to continue on a very high level of playing and would be competitive for years to come.

Lastly, with Sergei Gonchar’s departure this offseason, Shero made some giant moves, by going after the 2^nd and 3^rd most coveted defensivemen in the free agency period. The Pens acquired young defensemen Zybnek Michalek and Paul Martin for multiple years. The Pens went from a sub-par defensive team with an incredible force up the middle to having one of the best blue lines in the NHL.

Ray Shero has been praised year after year by ESPN for making the best moves at the trading deadline and the offseason, and why not? Shero has filled every weakness the Pens have had year after year. He has made his presence known, and will surely be a strong GM for the Pens for years to come.

Bottom Line, as the Pensblog so eloquently put it: “When Ray Shero looks up at the rafters, he sees 3 Stanley Cup Champion banners. When GM Ted Leonsis looks up at the rafters at the Verizon Center, he sees asbestos”.