Ray Shero: Is he to blame for the Devils failures?

Which moves did Ray Shero make to change the Devils?

The moves that Ray Shero made as Devils GM are considered legendary by fans. In 2016, the Devils acquired winger Taylor Hall from the Edmonton Oilers for defenseman Adam Larsson. But that’s not all, he also was able to acquire two 1st overall picks in Nico Hischier, and Jack Hughes, which were big for the team. He also aquired PK Subban from the Nashville Predators. During the offseason they acquired Nikita Gusev from the Vegas Golden Knights. All those moves you just read seem good on paper, but on the ice they aren’t getting the results they want. Could the issue be John Hynes?

Has the hiring, and firing of John Hynes affected the position of Ray Shero?

When Ray Shero hired John Hynes in 2015, he saw the potential in him to be the next Devil coaching legend, and to be fair he wasn’t a bad coach, he did get to the Devils to playoffs in the 2017-18 season. While this section is about John Hynes, I won’t go over his coaching style, this is about Shero. I believe the biggest reason why Shero did not fire Hynes until this month was because of confidence. He understood the team was failing, but I don’t think he saw the way there was no control in the coaching to fix anything about the team. All of those blown leads, no effort in games where effort should have been there, it makes you wonder why Shero didn’t do anything. But now that the firing has happened so lets move on to a comparison in Lou Lamoriello.

How does a legendary Devils GM compare to Ray Shero?

It’s fair to say that if anyone was to talk about the NHL, one of the frequent names that someone will bring up is Lou Lamoriello. In 1987, he change Devils franchise forever by becoming general manager. For the next 25 years, he turned the Devils from a franchise nobody talked about, into an elite NHL team. He turned players like Patrick Elias, Scott Stevens, and even Martin Brodeur, into Devils and NHL legends. In 2015, Lou left the Devils for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and is now currently with the New York Islanders. But with Lou hiring Ray Shero before leaving, could it be possible that he could become the next Lou Lamoriello. Well the logical answer would be no, but wouldn’t it be fun to imagine if it was.

Final Verdict

So after reading this, is Ray Shero is a good or bad GM? It may be a tough question but I still say a good GM. Imagine if those moves I mentioned earlier never happened. The Devils would be unwatchable, and nobody would recognize them anymore. And what’s also crazy is that there are more moves to make. With Taylor Hall being reported to leave the Devils, we could see another Shero move that might help the franchise. If he gets all the pieces, like a new goalie and a new coach, we could see the Devils being good for long time. I think I speak for all Devils fans when I say, that’s what we want to see.

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