I always liked Shero but you cannot deny that he dug us into a hole. "In Shero we trust" is something a lot of Pens fans have said over the years, and I trusted Shero...until 2013.
Shero used to be smart for us, he had a good, unwritten rule about aging hockey players. Any player 30 and older, he would only offer them a 2 year deal at most, in the Summer of 2013, He gave 33 year olds Kunitz, Dupuis and Scuderi all 4 year deals. Bad moves, I don't care that Kunitz continued to play great, look at what's happening now? Dupuis can't stay healthy, Kunitz is done and with mixed opinions on Scuderi, he's old and overpaid no matter how reliable he can be from time to time.
Then besides those free agent signings, the trades he made at the deadline to make a run were worth it at the time, BUT HIS COACH USED IT ALL WRONG! We could have iced the best team in the playoffs had Bylsma actually used guys like Jokinen and Despres instead of benching them for the likes of Tanner Glass, Craig Adams and Mark Eaton. Shero shares the blame there because he gave Bylsma those players as well and gave him full power when it came to the lineup decisions without even saying "Hey Dan, I acquired these players to play these roles, I think it gives us the best chance to win" Now we wasted SO MUCH of the future. A 1st round pick and two college prospects, two 2nd round picks (got one back for TK), a top D prospect and a 5th for a 3rd (talking futures only). All of those trades were made and none of those players were re-signed.
The following year, we had so much cap trouble, we had to start the season with Kobasew and D'Agostini as additions to a bottom six of Glass, Sutter, Vitale, and Adams. I mentioned that somewhere else and it was brought to my attention it was because of cap problems, and Shero addressed that by adding Goc. Shero traded more futures for him, a 3rd and a 5th, for a guy who has been completely useless in his time here. I like that Lapierre guy, hmm.... Anyways, more futures traded, a 3rd for Stempniak to play on Crosby's wing, I didn't mind that deal but so many traded picks add up.
Hindsight is 20/20, I know the fans don't know as much and shouldn't call the shots, but Brandon Saad was my guy from the start, he seemed the the most ideal and obvious pick any GM could make in the 2011 draft, even more obvious than EDM taking RNH 1st overall. He decided to take Morrow, which I understand why he did. He only had Despres as a top D prospect, then recently he traded Goligoski for Neal, and drafted Bennett in the previous year so maybe he wanted more defense, this was before he knew he'd have Harrington, Pouliot, and Maatta, so he picked Morrow. As much as I understand that, Saad was clearly the better player, and he's proving it. Maybe it's different if we draft him instead of Chicago, maybe we don't develop him as nicely, but every time I watch him play and score a big goal, I always thank Ray Shero for Brenden Morrow, if we would have just drafted Saad, we wouldn't have needed to give Kunitz a 4 year deal at almost $4M, we wouldn't have traded that pick for3 months of Brenden Morrow.
Bylsma should have been fired after that 2012 series, the loyalty needs to go when you're running a team who wants to win. Although I give him props for staying loyal to MAF. Another feather in Shero's cap, MAF was kept and he changed, also whoever hired Bales deserves huge marks, whether it was Shero, Bylsma, Botterill, Hynes, whoever.
So while Shero did some good things early on, don't expect me to appreciate him, he's made some hurtful moves that hurt this team moving forward, it makes me laugh that everyone is always willing to give Shero a free pass for the years, but JR comes in and people want him fired after one year, because people saw numerous years of failure by Shero and Bylsma, one rough year of JR and Johnston means we need a new GM and coach with a new vision for this team, and when that team goes out early or misses the playoffs, it will be "call for a new GM/coach every year" but that's a conversation for another thread.
I was a huge Shero fan, but his last 2 or 3 years here continue to hurt the team to this day.
