What's "it"? A defenseman that has 3 less years of development than Merrill a bust?
I'm not sure why we're denigrating Mueller. I think we all hope Mueller does well. Same with Merrill. It's' irrelevant to the people on this board if Merrill ends up an NHL washout.
Jim's point (and I've made the same before) is simply that Shero is making perplexing decisions in building our D.
Shero's approach seems akin to buying lottery tickets - he's bringing in low cost guys who:
- had good draft pedigrees but haven't panned out: Moore, Mueller, Erixon, Gormley
- he won with before: Lovejoy
- are overseas wildcards: Auvitu, Dyblenko
None of these have worked out. Meanwhile, he's let go of guys who are already on the team, but who are slower developing: Merrill, Schlemko. Merrill and Schlemko are better than all of the other D listed above.
(Yes, Shero gets credit for bringing in Schlemko - but we didn't resign him, and we didn't pick him up this offseason when he got traded for a 5th. And this is the guy who was so good, per other posters, that Mueller - who Shero traded a 2nd and 4th for - was blocked by him.)
To bring this back on topic, while the Erixon PTO is clearly a minor move, Shero's recent track record with the Devils D doesn't suggest that there's a lot of upside here.
I'm still holding out hope that there will be a chance for more significant improvements to the D toward the end of training camp.