When Ray Shero was appointed Director General of Penguins in 2006, he called Sidney Crosby’s parents and presented himself.
He said to them, “I’m going to take care of your son, and I hope it will be fine.”
Shero, who died Wednesday at the age of 62, ended up having a great race with Pittsburgh. He played an instrumental role in influence in a new era of Penguins hockey, quickly transforming the team into a lasting competitor. Led by their young nucleus, the Penguins made travel consecutive to the final of the Stanley Cup, winning all of this in 2009.
“Ray Shero was a large part of my first days in Pittsburgh,” said Crosby in a statement. “He gave me a lot of opportunities as a young captain and supported me throughout his stay. He did so much for our organization, and my memories with him are special. I am grateful for our time spent here and that we were able to share a Stanley Cup championship together. ”
Hockey was in Ray’s blood because Father Fred was inducted into the temple of renowned hockey for a career which included Philadelphia’s training in their consecutive titles in 1974 and 1975. Ray played at St. Lawrence University before entering, working as Assistant GM with the Senators of Ottawa and the predators of Nashville before obtaining the opportunity with Pittsburgh. Shero was hired to replace the legendary Craig Patrick.
“It was a bit trying for the nerves, to be honest with you,” said Shero in his interview for team 50th Birthday documentary, Pittsburgh is at home. “It is essentially a difficult act to follow, and it was my first GM work.”
It certainly did not show up in its decision -making, while Shero immediately got to work to understand how to bring the Penguins back to the promised land. His first move was the editorial staff of Jordan Staal Second in the general classification, a key addition to the group of young talents who included Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Marc-André Fleury. The great striker, who scored 29 goals as a 18 -year -old recruit, provided an astonishing depth in the center and made Pittsburgh incredibly difficult to play.
The team experienced an improvement of 47 points in the ranking in the first season of Shero, which was 2006-07, the fourth greatest turnaround in the NHL history. At the 2007-08 trade deadline, Shero swayed the greatest case of his mandate in Penguins, acquiring Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis of Atlanta in exchange for Colby Armstrong, Erik Christsen and the Prospect Angelo Esposito (their first choice this summer).
By thinking about him, Shero made Thrashers GM Don Waddell on a phone, another managing director on another phone with a potential agreement in progress, and Mario Lemieux on his mobile phone. “I said to Mario, here is the business – we can do the Hossa thing, and I must tell you, it is a risk because of the assets and there is no guarantee that this kid will stay,” said Shero in the same interview. “I still remember that Mario said: Look, I bought this bankruptcy team with Ron (Burkle), and I am a risk lessee. If you think of hockey, it’s a good decision, I support it. All right! Don, we had a matter. This is how Mario has always been, and it was fantastic. ”
This move ended up accelerating the progress of Pittsburgh even more, while the group was heading for the Stanley Cup final. While the Penguins lost against the Red Wings six games and Hossa ended up registering with Detroit, they had learned so much from this experience.
But the Penguins failed in the first half of the 2008-2009 campaign, which led Shero to the dismissal Michel Therrien. He called for this the most difficult decision he has ever taken at that time in his career. But that turned out to be the right one, and the hiring of Dan Bylsma was a good, because the recruit coach brought a very necessary vitality.
Bill Guerin, a veteran striker, Shero also added around the deadline in exchange for a conditional recovery choice. “I have never seen anyone entering a room and feeling so comfortable. He was great. He brought very good energy. Something we hadn’t had for some time because we are fighting so much,” said Crosby, who said the same thing had been for Chris Kunitz, acquired in Anaheim in exchange for Ryan Whitney.
In simple terms, Shero has changed the life of Guerrin leads it to Pittsburgh, and “I will always be very grateful for that and I will never forget it,” he said. Not only Shero gave Guerin a chance to lift the Stanley Cup, but he also helped him to go to the Hockey Operations / Management team.
“When I retired, I called my wife first and I called Ray Shero Second to come and talk to him and talk about the next stage, and he was incredibly good with me,” said Guerin, now director general of Minnesota Wild, where Shero worked more recently as a main advisor. “Give me a position where I could learn a lot of different things on the other side of the business.”
Shero received the Prize from the Director General of the Year Jim Gregory of the NHL in 2013 after orchestrated the profession of Jarome Iginla. While the Shero teams gathered impressive seasons after this 2009 race, they could not win again during his mandate.
“I would have loved having won another cup with these guys, but you can always look back and say, could we have done this or that. Of course, we can play this game, but I know one thing-the property, myself, the coaches, never left anything on the table,” said Shero. “We went all the time, and it was good and bad. But that was one of those things because we had Sid and Geno, that’s what you do. “
While Shero was finally relieved of his duties in 2014, he laid the foundations for the future Pittsburgh championships in 2016 and in 1917. Shero hired great people in his staff, like Guerin, Jason Botterill, Chuck Fletcher, Mike Yeo and Tom Fitzgerald, with the current GM of Devils “. Kyle Dubas said Shero was well known for developing people through the organization who could continue and lead teams elsewhere, and tries to continue this heritage in Pittsburgh.
Shero also supervised the group that wrote Bryan Rust (2010), Olli Maatta and Matt Murray (2012) and Jake Guentzel (2013) in higher towers, as well as players like Tom Kuhnhackl (2010) and Scott Wilson (2011) in subsequent towers. He also brought Brian Dumoulin during the exchange of Staal in Caroline in 2012. Shero has always watched his time at Pittsburgh with Penchant, after everything started with Lemieux himself offering him the opportunity of a life.
“My years here were fantastic, many great people, a lot of good memories, children grew up here,” said Shero in 2017. “It was a great situation for me and my family.”
As the NHL commissioner said Gary Bettman, in a statement, the whole family of the National Hockey League cries the death of Shero. He was a class act with great character that built a great culture wherever he was going, as director general of New Jersey from 2015 to 20, and also as an important contributor to USA Hockey and his male national team program.
Shero has always been generous over time, making everyone laugh with his great sense of humor while offering many smart ideas.
“Ray Shero’s smile and personality illuminated each piece in which he entered and brightened the day of all those he met,” said Bettman. “Widely respected throughout hockey for his sense of team consolidation talent, he was even more liked about how he treated everyone quite lucky to have known him.”
