Speculation: The Next GM

[jkrdevil]

which is why our team improved as much as it did from the ****pile he started with. hopefully they stay hands off with the next guy too, this way they can focus on getting plastered and diving into piles of gold coins like scrooge mcduck

What improvement? Yes they have more assets and are in a better starting position with Nico and Hughes, but overall the team has not improved since Shero and this group took over. And you can’t really even credit them with Nico and Hughes as they came as a result of failure as it wasn’t like the team came in to tank those seasons (Nico’s draft year was Hall’s first season, and Hughes’ came off the failure to follow up on the playoffs).

 

[ChicksDigTheTrap]

Agreed, unless there's some major behind the scenes news we don't know about it certainly seemed like Shero got a lot of freedom during his tenure, so I'm not assuming the owners will suddenly do a 180 on that. Admittedly I just have some nervousness that in the desire to see the time finally contend again, poor or impatient decisions might be made...again, I'm scarred from my experience going to Queens, I think.

I get your point from this post and the above post, but IF the reports are true that ownership wanted to retain Hall they still allowed their GM to trade him. There is still no evidence they influenced a major decision that was made. Obviously past performance is no guarantee of what will occur in the future.

The other problem is ownership cannot win with fans. It was commented by posters last year that posters thought they did not care about the Devils and they were "absentee owners". Now we find out they communicated with Shero and now they are meddling.

Lets see what happens moving forward before thinking the worst.

 

[Maine Fan]

IMO the next Devil's GM must have experience GM to speed up the new rebuild. This can't be a GM learning experience while rebuilding the new team. Too many players and coaches to let go and acquire.

 

[Blender]

What improvement? Yes they have more assets and are in a better starting position with Nico and Hughes, but overall the team has not improved since Shero and this group took over. And you can’t really even credit them with Nico and Hughes as they came as a result of failure as it wasn’t like the team came in to tank those seasons (Nico’s draft year was Hall’s first season, and Hughes’ came off the failure to follow up on the playoffs).

I don't care about some simplistic comparison of their standings position from 2015 to 2020, the organization is objectively in a much better place than it was before Shero. No one is happy with the lack of progress made towards being a playoff contender, but this team has a ton more to work with going forward than we did 5 years ago. We have actual assets that can be used in trades to acquire other pieces to help our team now, or for the future. In 2015 this team had little of value on the NHL roster that could be used for futures, no high end talent in our prospect pool, no depth in our organization, and an antiquated front office that was still stuck in the 1990s.

There is no guarantee that all of these assets are turned into a competitive team, but whoever becomes the next GM is being given far more to work with than what Shero inherited when he got the job.

 

[Billdo]

It made them a team that made the playoffs and lost in the first round every year. IMO that is the worst place a team could be.

that's part of why we are where we are. A decade of picking in the late teens early twenties unfortunately set us back long term.

 

[MartyOwns]

What improvement? Yes they have more assets and are in a better starting position with Nico and Hughes, but overall the team has not improved since Shero and this group took over. And you can’t really even credit them with Nico and Hughes as they came as a result of failure as it wasn’t like the team came in to tank those seasons (Nico’s draft year was Hall’s first season, and Hughes’ came off the failure to follow up on the playoffs).

i don’t want to get into this again lol, the improvements have been said a million times (and you seem to acknowledge some of them in your own post, although restricting those improvements to just hughes and nico is odd).

so you’re saying we haven’t seen the results yet? ok, that’s fair. i guess all i can tell you is that the deeper the hole you’re in, the longer it takes to climb out. we are positioned better than 80% of the teams in the league, i’d say. improving that drastically in 5 years is impressive to me

 

[MNDevilsfan]

NHL teams are big bucks these days. I don't think it's realistic to expect the owners to stay completely out of the way. If they want to railroad everything, yeah, that's an issue but if they want to be one of many voices I am not terribly concerned about it. Part of being a good GM is being able to manage up, and I think it's reasonable to expect that they'd have to explain the rationale of their decisions to someone.

Overall I still think having a "hockey person" in the GM seat is a good idea, because the league-wide relationships are important to getting things done, but I absolutely think being willing to listen to people with lots of different backgrounds is important. Doesn't matter if you're talking about someone steeped in hockey ops or analytics, if you're closing yourself off to one (plus input from sports science people, business folks, etc., etc.) you're putting yourself at a disadvantage. Information is power, and being able to synthesize lots of different kinds of information is a boon when running a big organization.

Not to mention the Devils have one of the best in communicating the quantitative side of hockey to non-statisticians in Tyler Dellow. You don't have to resign yourself to letting a bunch of models build your team to use that effectively.

 

[Desert Devil]

The next GM absolutely must address our goaltending issues. I don’t care how well Schneider plays to end the season. We need to either trade him or buy him out. We need to sign a UFA goalie. There are a few out there that I like. Lehner being the leader. His regular stats and underlying stats over the past two season have been outstanding. He also is on record for not wanting to take a discount. We have the money for him. He and Blackwood would make a solid tandem.

 

[JimEIV]

IMO the next Devil's GM must have experience GM to speed up the new rebuild. This can't be a GM learning experience while rebuilding the new team. Too many players and coaches to let go and acquire.

Shero had 27 years experience as a GM and assistant GM.

When Lou took over in NJ in 1987 he had zero NHL experience... literally none, not as a player, not as a coach absolutely nothing from an NHL perspective.

Experience is overrated...being good at what you do is much more important. Experience only hones natural ability but experience doesn't make crap good over time.

 

[glenwo2]

The next GM absolutely must address our goaltending issues. I don’t care how well Schneider plays to end the season. We need to either trade him or buy him out. We need to sign a UFA goalie. There are a few out there that I like. Lehner being the leader. His regular stats and underlying stats over the past two season have been outstanding. He also is on record for not wanting to take a discount. We have the money for him. He and Blackwood would make a solid tandem.

I look to the Goaltender expert @Bleedred for his opinions on Lehner.

 

[Bcap88]

I have not been able to look online the last day or so but what makes you think the Devils will start looking to build through FA? "Numbers Guys" typically do not like UFA's due to the numbers showing they are at the age of decline. As an example from last off season, it was basic numbers that made Bobrovsky a likely poor signing. His save percentage had declined the previous 2 seasons and 29 is the age where goalies are likely to decline. It was likely a "Hockey Guy" decision to sign Bob to that contract.

How well do goalies age? A look at a goalie aging curve.

Just the reports of the owners wanting ray to make panic trades to add to the team early on. Just seems like the owners are getting antsy, which it seems like they want to accelerate this and I hope they don’t recommend we go sign free agents. I could be wrong

 

[Blender]

Just the reports of the owners wanting ray to make panic trades to add to the team early on. Just seems like the owners are getting antsy, which it seems like they want to accelerate this and I hope they don’t recommend we go sign free agents. I could be wrong

Which reports?

 

[NJDevs26]

Nobody specifically said the owners wanted to make trades, that's just the supposition of fans. What was reported is the owners second-guessed Shero not doing more early in the season which could be more of a slap at dragging his feet on the coach firing as anything else, and also second-guessed his not doing more about the goaltending situation in general.

 

[Bcap88]

Which reports?

Behind Devils’ timing and decision to fire GM Ray Shero: ‘These things don’t happen overnight’

lack of aggressiveness by Shero after losing the first 6 losses, Shero wanting to stay the course while management was getting impatient

 

[Emperoreddy]

Being impatient 6 games in is almost certainly wanting roster moves on top of a coaching change.

You rarely want ownership getting to involved in your team. Pick a sport. If ownership is making headlines it isn’t for a good reason.

 

[Blender]

Behind Devils’ timing and decision to fire GM Ray Shero: ‘These things don’t happen overnight’

lack of aggressiveness by Shero after losing the first 6 losses, Shero wanting to stay the course while management was getting impatient

Nothing in this article supports what you claimed. You are just assuming "lack of an aggressive response" means panic trades.

But it was also due to a lack of an aggressive response from Shero when the team face-planted in six straight losses to start the season and just two wins in October. Shero fired coach John Hynes on Dec. 3 with the team well outside the playoff picture, but he still felt confident in his plan in the midst of a disaster of a season.
That wasn’t good enough for Harris anymore, and with Shero determined to stay the course, friction began to mount.
“Ray wanted to keep doing it his way,” one person with knowledge of ownership's decision told NJ Advance Media.
Another person with knowledge of the call to fire Shero said Harris and co-managing partner David Blitzer arrived at the decision 10 days before making the announcement. After toying with the idea of Shero riding out the season before making the change, Harris and company fired Shero on Sunday, impatient to make the Devils a winning hockey team again.

 

[Bcap88]

Being impatient 6 games in is almost certainly wanting roster moves on top of a coaching change.

You rarely want ownership getting to involved in your team. Pick a sport. If ownership is making headlines it isn’t for a good reason.

Except for Cuban but I’m not entirely sure he even is involved in the operation he’s just more of a fan

 

[Bcap88]

Nothing in this article supports what you claimed. You are just assuming "lack of an aggressive response" means panic trades.

What else can it mean? Not like the GM is gonna lace em up and go play for the team. Agressive response=roster moves/coach firing(which was done)

 

[Bcap88]

They just have the guy a 4 year extension and were all aboard the process, the owners got impatient and fired him months later after being behind the slow/methodical approach. Impatience with owners leads to GM’s trying to accelerate the process I.E. trades, stupid free agent signings, sacrificing draft picks for players. You start doing that and you basically become Buffalo’s snd minneostas of the league

 

[Blender]

What else can it mean? Not like the GM is gonna lace em up and go play for the team. Agressive response=roster moves/coach firing(which was done)

Hynes wasn't fired 6 games into the season, which is what that line is talking about. Shero sat on it for months and we were done for the season by the time Hynes was fired.

 

[Bcap88]

Hynes wasn't fired 6 games into the season, which is what that line is talking about. Shero sat on it for months and we were done for the season by the time Hynes was fired.

Yea it also says that “ray wanted to keep doing it his way” I.e. build through the draft and developing prospects and then it says that wasn’t doing it for beavis and buthead anymore, meaning they got impatient with rays apporach what so impatient gm’s do? Make stupid moves and knee jerk decisions I.E. trades,free agency etc

Friedman also points out that they are sick of losing on the hockey side and tired of the “comp” tickets

 

[Blender]

Yea it also says that “ray wanted to keep doing it his way” I.e. build through the draft and developing prospects and then it says that wasn’t doing it for beavis and buthead anymore, meaning they got impatient with rays apporach what so impatient gm’s do? Make stupid moves and knee jerk decisions I.E. trades,free agency etc

Friedman also points out that they are sick of losing on the hockey side and tired of the “comp” tickets

Of course they are tired of Shero's plan, because it failed miserably. If they went to Shero and asked him what he was going to do to fix the issues, and he said he just wanted to keep doing his same process with no changes, I'd fire him as well. Shero is known for being stubborn and rigid to his ways, so I'm not at all surprised by talk that he refused to make changes and it cost him his job from a second organization.

 

[NJDevs26]

What else can it mean? Not like the GM is gonna lace em up and go play for the team. Agressive response=roster moves/coach firing(which was done)

 

[Emperoreddy]

This is so much when Yankee fans got impatient and started demanding George spend, he doing exactly that, and it of course not working because you don’t build a successful team like that.

Even in Yankee land the best success happens when ownership stays the hell out of Baseball Ops way.

 

[Bcap88]

Of course they are tired of Shero's plan, because it failed miserably. If they went to Shero and asked him what he was going to do to fix the issues, and he said he just wanted to keep doing his same process with no changes, I'd fire him as well. Shero is known for being stubborn and rigid to his ways, so I'm not at all surprised by talk that he refused to make changes and it cost him his job from a second organization.

What is the next GM going to do then? The opposite of shero, spend and spend and make dumb moves because of the pressure from ownership