News Article: Ray Shero late-night Q&A on all things Iginla

[TheOrder]

I've got to say that this is the most idiotic post I've ever read. I mean sincerely idiotic. It combines 20-20 hindsight, mind reading, speculation and a pathetic attempt top rationalizing Shero's poor decisions all into one package.

It's plain stupid to try to link these trades together in any way. Each trade should be evaluated independently. Shero drastically overpaid for Morrow and Murray.Then he lucked out when Iginla Picked Pgh over Boston. That's all there is to it.

I'll certainly admit that Shero masterminding the sequence of events leading up to everything that's happened so far might be more than a little far-fetched. Maybe Shero did overpay for Morrow and Murray for no reason and Iginla just happened to fall into his lap. Stranger things have happened in the NHL.

But answer me this: does Shero have a history that would suggest he'd be willing to overpay for guys who aren't sure things, like Morrow and Murray, for no other reason than to marginally improve the team in the short term? You could argue he did that in 2010 when he traded for Ponikarovski and Leopold, except he certainly didn't overpay by nearly as much to acquire them. More questions for you: why do you feel that we have to evaluate these trades individually, in a vacuum? Is that how we evaluate anyone's work, let alone NHL GMs whose job it is explicitly to look at the big picture for their team? Is it really that crazy to believe that maybe he had a plan in mind when he made three trades in the space of about four days? Did Shero really wake up on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday and decide on each of those days that he'd make a trade, without there being any relation between the three?

Your philosophy seems to be that GMs should be looking to win every trade, as if that was the main determinant for evaluating their work. I could be entirely wrong, but that seems like an awfully short-sighted way of going about doing things in general, including in the NHL. Certainly, even assuming Shero was actually doing exactly what I previously posted, the whole thing could have easily blown up in his face if Iginla hadn't targeted Pittsburgh as his number one destination. Whatever the case, the fallout from these moves seems to be apparent to others as well. Here's an example I found on the Bruins' board:

Anyone I've talked to this morning can't believe the events that took place and have no clue whats next.

Assume you're the GM of whatever team owns the "Plan B"

You're now aware Bruins had a deal in place and got nixed by Iggy/Feaster or whoever.

Now, has the price for "Plan B" just gone up knowing full well the Bruins absolutely have to do something? If it were me, damned straight it would.

Becomes a balancing act now. Can you beat Pittsburgh in a seven game series and are you prepared to overpay even more, or are you going to write off the season and make your best move in the off season and try again next year?

Tough call. Glad its not me deciding

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showpost.php?p=62611769&postcount=433

This doesn't make sense unless Shero does everything he did this week. Sorry for probably making Shero out to be a lot more competent than he might actually be, but all I did was offer my view of the situation. I now realize that declaring Shero a genius is awfully overzealous of me. That said, there no need to go into hyperbole and call my post the most idiotic post you've ever read.

 

[Crosbyfan]

Obviously prior to this week Pens were a favourite, but Boston was not far behind, and many would say with Iggy they would be looking pretty tough to last week's Pens, streak or no streak aside.

Morrow and Murray may have been that over the top signal Iggy was looking for, not really caring about the Pen's future picks so much as the team now, heading for playoffs.

So Shero may have done the very best, added insurance in case the Bruins got Iggy, and at the same time sweetened the Pens pot for the main decision maker in any Iggy deal, Iggy himself, while in a way reducing the look of the pot of the Bruins, by putting distance on paper between the best two lineups in the East.

 

[Dewey Eye*]

funny thing is, even with all the moves, it is still going to come down to the Forwards and D-men not making careless irresponsible plays between the blue lines

and whether or not Fleury can keep from letting in the proverbial first goal off of the top of his head or back of his arse or whatever to get him thinking bad thoughts

 

[madinsomniac]

IMO Shero made an offer, but wasnt trying to win. He didnt have to. we aleady got Morrow, who canplay on any of the to 3 lines and presumably fit in, and lets not take away from th reality that Bennet showed he was capable of NHL play up and down the rink. it was a first with two players off the non untouchable list of Calgary's choice. There is as uch specualtion that Calgary never really did ask Iginla if he would go to Boston... that it was assumed he would because theywere contenders, or that they were a second choice for him if the Pens didnt offer. Perhaps Calgarys GM was just using the Bruins to try to drive up the pens price, but when there was no moement he was stuck tryig to convince Iginla to go to Boston... The only thing known is Boston got screwed through no fault of their own. My guess is it was Feaster who ultimately did that screwing, either intentionally or through incompetance...