All Hail Shero: The Best Damn GM In The Business

[Fire Shero*]

The Shero lovers give him way too much credit. We had all the cap space because we lost Staal, Sullivan, Asham, Michalek and replaced them with Tanner Glass and Sutter.

Shero failed to sign Parise, failed to sign Doan ( thankfully) and failed to sign Semin. The only one available was Semin. We entered the season with Eric Tangradi playing in the top 6.....

So it's great we had a lot of cap space, but we only had it because of a horrible offseason. I don't blame Shero for Parise, but he should have recognized the pens weren't really going to land him and have some sort of backup plan.

I might be negative, but I'm not on la la land like so many on here who defended Tangradi. It wasn't too long ago people were praising Boychuk he's just snakebitten, the flood gates will open any day!

 

[plaidchuck]

Told ya that wouldn't take long.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

The Shero lovers give him way too much credit. We had all the cap space because we lost Staal, Sullivan, Asham, Michalek and replaced them with Tanner Glass and Sutter.

Where did we lose them?

I was under the impression that Shero chose to trade/not re-sign them. Apparently foresight doesn't qualify as a positive attribute for a GM.

Shero failed to sign Parise, failed to sign Doan ( thankfully) and failed to sign Semin. The only one available was Semin. We entered the season with Eric Tangradi playing in the top 6.....

Do you realize how ****ing INSANE it is to criticize Shero for not getting the likes of Parise and Doan, and then shrug off his acquisition of Iginla because he wanted to come here? Newsflash: Doan and Parise absolutely preferred to go to where they signed.

You really want to have your cake and eat it too.

So it's great we had a lot of cap space, but we only had it because of a horrible offseason. I don't blame Shero for Parise, but he should have recognized the pens weren't really going to land him and have some sort of backup plan.

The back-up plan was loading up at the deadline, friend. Well hey, look what happened.

 

[plaidchuck]

Yeah I don't think Semin was missed when they were at 14 straight wins.

 

[Ragamuffin Gunner]

i like shero a lot. nearly every single move has a rationale. when he speaks to the media he's very honest and even sort of admits when he has overpaid for people.

i don't see what he's done to make him THE best though. he deserves credit for taking advantage of all the cap space the penguins made for themselves, i'll give him that. but iginla fell into his hands. a great trade, value-wise, but we should be thanking iggy more than shero. and if you remove that trade, his dead-line looks potentially mediocre/sub-par, having paid a premium price for players who are shells of their former selves.

we shall see. this thread overrates him though.

This.

Why are people acting like Shero worked some crazy magic to get Iggy for a pile of garbage. BOS made a slightly better offer and Shero lucked out that Iggy chose PIT. If Iggy would have accepted going to BOS he'd be a Bruin right now because Shero wouldn't outbid the Bs weak offer.

The Juice deal was great, the Murray deal is pretty good but not awesome and the Morrow deal is terrible. I love that Shero is going for it, but had he had a better off season he wouldn't have had to give up so many picks in a deep draft and Joe ****ing Morrow.

 

[Fire Shero*]

It wasn't Shero's fault that he didnt sign Parise. But a more prudent GM probably would have moved on after it became apparent he wasn't going to sign here. That's all.

The jokinen trade was fantastic. I personally think he will have a much bigger impact than morrow if he's given the opportunity. Although it won't take much to be better than Morrow.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

This.

Why are people acting like Shero worked some crazy magic to get Iggy for a pile of garbage. BOS made a slightly better offer and Shero lucked out that Iggy chose PIT. If Iggy would have accepted going to BOS he'd be a Bruin right now because Shero wouldn't outbid the Bs weak offer.

Have you ever played poker?

The Juice deal was great, the Murray deal is pretty good but not awesome and the Morrow deal is terrible. I love that Shero is going for it, but had he had a better off season he wouldn't have had to give up so many picks in a deep draft and Joe ****ing Morrow.

Why was Shero's off-season terrible?

He didn't like what was available so he didn't commit, thinking he could address issues later. Then he systematically addressed all the needs of his team - which was 1st in the conference at the deadline, by the way - at the deadline.

 

[MrBurghundy]

Shero has made some ****ing fantastic moves and he's made some crack smoking ones too.

Just like most arguments it rarely is as black and white as most people like to claim.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Shero has made some ****ing fantastic moves and he's made some crack smoking ones too.

Is that so?

It wasn't Shero's fault that he didnt sign Parise. But a more prudent GM probably would have moved on after it became apparent he wasn't going to sign here. That's all.

Moved on? To what?

What in the regular season, or post-deadline, suggests to you that Shero's course of action was faulty?

 

[plaidchuck]

This.


The Juice deal was great, the Murray deal is pretty good but not awesome and the Morrow deal is terrible. I love that Shero is going for it, but had he had a better off season he wouldn't have had to give up so many picks in a deep draft and Joe ****ing Morrow.

So is it deep or not? From what I've read there won't be much promise after the 10th pick.

 

[Dupree13]

Meh... we'll see. The names are nice but upsetting chemistry and getting slower isn't.

I agree with this. If this were EA Sports you couldn't argue with the moves, but there is definitely some risk that comes with such dramatic moves. Especially in a condensed season with so little time to build chemistry, etc. In trying to fix something that wasn't really broken, there is definitely some backfire potential.

 

[DoktorZaius]

Shero failed to sign Parise, failed to sign Doan ( thankfully) and failed to sign Semin. The only one available was Semin. We entered the season with Eric Tangradi playing in the top 6.....

There's a difference between "failed" and "wasn't able to." 29 other GM's also failed to sign those guys. Not to mention that, at the prices/term they went for, signing Parise & Suter is a little questionable. I don't think they're the worst deals ever, but unless the Wild win the cup in the next 5 years, they're going to be on the road to regretville with those deals. We also have no idea if Semin was even interested in coming here. He had talked **** about Crosby in the past, so it's not too much of a stretch to think that Pens weren't #1 on his list, contrary to the assumptions of Shero-haters.

We all have moves that we'd like to see made, and that we think could reasonably come to fruition. But there's a big difference between wanting a thing and thinking it might be possible, and it actually being possible. So wanting a (for example) discounted Seto and Stewart when they were rumored to be available doesn't actually mean that they were available (at least, for a palatable sum). Posters that bash on Shero for not acquiring rumored-to-be-available guys are getting themselves all worked up over nothing.

 

[Fire Shero*]

Have you ever played poker?

Why was Shero's off-season terrible?

He didn't like what was available so he didn't commit, thinking he could address issues later. Then he systematically addressed all the needs of his team - which was 1st in the conference at the deadline, by the way - at the deadline.

He made a panic move with Michalek. Isn't Muchalek playing on the top defensive pairing for PHX? They basically acquired him for free. But we just signed Ruopp!

There's nothing he could do about Staal. I wanted them to draft Keasel back then because the last thing we needed was a center.

I have no problem with letting Sullivan and Asham walk but find some respectable replacements.

 

[MrBurghundy]

Is that so?

Brenden Morrow and Tanner Glass are two names that pop into my head off the bat.

Don't just ignore the first part of my sentence though.

The guy is clearly not infallible like some want to claim however.

 

[DoktorZaius]

Oh and specifically on the point of Seto -- look how far off people were on him. Look at the Wild right now -- they traded HUGE futures for Pominville. Clearly they covet a good top 6 and winger depth, so it stands to reason that they probably weren't interested in moving a guy like Seto. Not that some of our board would have ever guessed that a few months ago.

 

[Ragamuffin Gunner]

Have you ever played poker?



Why was Shero's off-season terrible?

He didn't like what was available so he didn't commit, thinking he could address issues later. Then he systematically addressed all the needs of his team - which was 1st in the conference at the deadline, by the way - at the deadline.

I used to work for an on-line poker company, so 'yes' I've played poker, your point?

We've been over the off-season many many times, we all know what he did and didn't do. I'm just not in the "In Shero We Trust" crowd that gives him a free pass for every move he does or doesn't make and every player he drafts.

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

Brenden Morrow and Tanner Glass are two names that pop into my head off the bat.

Don't just ignore the first part of my sentence though.

The guy is clearly not infallible like some want to claim however.

Those weren't "crack-smoking moves" in the slightest.

It's incredibly easy to justify overpaying to get add some gritty leadership to our playoff scoring depth (especially considering how strong our defensive pipeline is), and Glass makes 1.1 mil per, for Christ's sake. We could've moved him at the deadline for futures if we wanted.

Shero's not infallible. He just makes better trades and manages the risk in those trades better than any other GM in the NHL.

 

[SEALBound]

He's awesome no doubt...he would have been God is Morrow was magically Clowe.

 

[99GoHabsGo99]

Iggy vs Jagr created by bruins fan, he posted link on bruins board and is making it look like everyone say jagr.. so ill post it here, go vote iggy! (It's in the poll thread)

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?p=63307829

 

[MrBurghundy]

I used to work for an on-line poker company, so 'yes' I've played poker, your point?

We've been over the off-season many many times, we all know what he did and didn't do. I'm just not in the "In Shero We Trust" crowd that gives him a free pass for every move he does or doesn't make and every player he drafts.

Seriously. Some people think he ***** gold and pisses excellence. Clearly he's an awesome GM, and I really wouldn't want anybody else running this ship, but I'm not about to give him a free ride on every move he makes either. Some are good, some are great, and some are pretty bad. Such as it is being human.

 

[sniugneP]

No general manager is perfect. Every one of them made some mistakes. Shero made a lot of good moves much more than bad moves. He's a top 3 in NHL, if not best.

 

[DoktorZaius]

He made a panic move with Michalek.

It wasn't a "panic" move. Michalek wanted out. Shero did the classy thing and trade him to Phoenix, opening up cap space early and getting a bit of a return for the guy. We had signed him as an FA to begin with, so it's not like getting some free futures for him is the end of the world.

I suspect, like many commentators including the ever-tapped-in Pierre McGuire did at the time, that Shero was opening up room to take a serious run at Parise and/or Suter. It's not his fault that Parise didn't find the Pens as ultimately compelling as the Wild, or that the whole Suter/Parise suicide pact thing developed as it did. We never could/should have been willing to sign BOTH of those guys at that much cap hit, so he made the right call by standing down. But if you think Shero erred by not seeing the writing on the wall sooner, then so did multiple other GM's, including Ken Holland. At that point, then, all of those GM's also suck, and only Chuck Fletcher made the right move. Seems like a really silly way to look at it, though. Once you realize that real life transactions don't take place like video games, you can understand why sometimes things don't work out how you'd like them to. Other times, they do (Iginla).

 

[MrBurghundy]

Those weren't "crack-smoking moves" in the slightest.

It's incredibly easy to justify overpaying to get add some gritty leadership to our playoff scoring depth (especially considering how strong our defensive pipeline is), and Glass makes 1.1 mil per, for Christ's sake. We could've moved him at the deadline for futures if we wanted.

Shero's not infallible. He just makes better trades and manages the risk in those trades better than any other GM in the NHL.

You really didn't dispute my point though.

I wasn't aware Morrow was the only veteran guy available, and I have no clue how you can argue the price is worth it based on how he looks and what his ultimate impact will be.

Then there is Glass who really has no business playing on this roster given the players we already have on this team. He's looked horrible all season.

As for your last part, see my last post on that subject. Clearly I think he's a great GM too. I'm just not giving him a free pass because of the great things he's done.

 

[TheSniper26]

He made a panic move with Michalek. Isn't Muchalek playing on the top defensive pairing for PHX? They basically acquired him for free. But we just signed Ruopp!

That was the point. It was a move to clear cap space because we were still in on Parise/Suter at that point. In the end, we didn't get them because they simply wanted to go somewhere else. The cap space that was freed up by moving Michalek(who, let's not forget, everyone hated all last season) was later put to good use anyway. Are we now criticizing Shero for being proactive and aggressive?

There's nothing he could do about Staal. I wanted them to draft Keasel back then because the last thing we needed was a center.

So why even mention it? Why do people keep bringing up Staal as if it was some failure on Shero's part? He made a very generous offer and Staal simply didn't want to be here anymore. So Shero made the best of the situation and ended up getting 3 good young players for a guy that was going to walk regardless. If anything, we should be talking about the Staal deal as one of Shero's finer moments.

I have no problem with letting Sullivan and Asham walk but find some respectable replacements.

Glass was meant to be the replacement for Asham. It hasn't worked out, but most people were happy with that signing at the time. Nobody foresaw Tanner Glass being this useless.

So we're left with Sullivan. Is that it? The big criticism of Shero's offseason is that he didn't get another Steve ****ing Sullivan?

 

[Dipsy Doodle]

I used to work for an on-line poker company, so 'yes' I've played poker, your point?

We've been over the off-season many many times, we all know what he did and didn't do. I'm just not in the "In Shero We Trust" crowd that gives him a free pass for every move he does or doesn't make and every player he drafts.

It should be obvious.

He's made more outstanding trades than any GM in the league, his rare misses have not once burned us for anything substantial, and his drafting has yielded some very promising players. If you're not in the "In Shero We Trust" crowd at this point, it's pretty clear no GM could satisfy your expectations.