Okay, I admit that I am a Ray Shero lover. First, the Penguins went to the Finals and won the Stanley Cup on Shero's watch. He had the guts to cut a Head Coach who went the the Stanley Cup Finals the year before, and replaced one Michel Therrien with a Head Coach (Dan Bylsma) who only had half a season of head coaching experience IN THE AHL before becoming bench boss of Pittsburgh in mid February 2009. All he has done since that day is win the Stanley Cup in 2009, and the Jack Adams as the league's best head coach in the 2010-2011 season. Since then, the naysayers have tried to creep in. It started with saying that the Stanley Cup winning team was really loaded with Craig Patrick's players such as Crosby, Malkin, Orpik, Fleury at the core. Then, people began to hammer at the choice of Jordan Staal, who was Shero's first pick in 2006, and second overall. Critics stated that the Penguins could have had players who score more than Staal who were chosen later, such as Jonathan Toews who was taken third, Nicklas Backstrom taken 4th, or Phil Kessel taken 5th. Others will even bring up Claude Giroux, who was taken 22nd by the Flyers in criticizing the pick of Staal. First, folks, as Seth Rohrabaugh pointed out in his column today, Shero was late to the party in 2006, and had to rely on the scouting done by Craig Patrick's group before using his own scouts after the draft. Second, though the three guys taken right after Staal have scored more goals and points, Staal was a better FIT for Pittsburgh, adding that complementary third line center who played the PK, scored BIG goals(see SCF 2009), and fit a ROLE to the tee. The only player I might rather have of those three picked after Staal is Toews, but I doubt he would have stayed like Staal has to this point. As far as Giroux, there are 21 GM's who might want to rethink that first round in 2006. Staal scored 29 goals as a rookie in 2006-07, played a key role in the Stanley Cup run in 2009, scoring a short handed goal in Game 4 that may have turned the momentum in Pittsburgh's favor, and played a key role for the last year and a half in the extended absences of Malkin and Crosby. Staal was the best player for Pittsburgh this year in their early playoff exit, and will either stay here or net a huge return ala the early offer of Carolina who is willing to give up Sutter, Faulk, and the 5th overall pick now for Staal and the big salary of Paul Martin. Sorry, folks, Staal who will only get better is NOT A SHERO miss, and he will be a key part of at least one or two more Stanley Cup teams, here, elsehwere or both.
There was a statistic thrown out there that of the 35 players drafted under Shero, only Staal has played a regular role in the NHL, leaving 34 others falling short. The article was written by a favorite writer of mine, Post Gazette beat writer Dave Molinari. If you read the article closely, Molinari does talk about the depth on defense currently, and I don't think meant to set a negative tone tied to Shero, but yinzer nation is hanging on the first statistic talking of 34 out of 35 Shero draft picks not playing a significant role in the NHL. In fact, Dustin Jeffrey has the second most man games of the crew, with a "whopping" and undistinguished 66 man games played. Another noted and respected Penguins writer, Seth Rohrabaugh today wrote about the Penguins having the 6th least man games played by players drafted since 2006. Rohrabaugh did a great job of putting this in perspective by also noting that the top two and bottom two teams in terms of man games played put this stat in question to begin with. The teams with the most man games played are the New York Islanders with 1510 man games played by their draft choices in that time frame, and the Columbus Blue Jackets have the second most man games played with 1348. Conversely, the teams with the least man games played from these drafts are the Vancouver Canucks with 104 man games played from these drafts and the Detroit Red Wings with 165 man games played during that stretch by players drafted from 2006 on. Vancouver has won back to back President's Cups and went to the Finals last season before losing to Boston, while the Wings won the 2007-08 Stanley Cup, and contend each year for the holy grail. Rohrabaugh also mentions the use of draft picks for key trades, and the fact that good players like Simon Despres may have logged more man games for a lesser team. Kudos to Rohrabaugh on both fronts as it correctly makes man games played by draft picks one of MANY ways to analyze the job done by a GM. You can get hung up on the one player of 35 getting significant NHL time from Shero's drafts OR you can look at how Shero has used all of his assets, including trading draft choices for specific team components to challenge for the Cup. I will take playoff runs and Stanley Cup rings thank you.
First, lets look at how Shero has used draft picks and an overloaded blue line to build a perennial contender. And I will start this by stating that in the seasons since Shero took over from 2006-07 through the current year 2011-12 there have been 6 seasons played. The Penguins have been to 2 Finals in that stretch and won the Stanley Cup in another. They went to the Finals in Shero's second year, and won the Cup in his third. They also have endured two seasons full of key injuries that may have killed a lesser team, and have finished near the top of the regular season standings in spite of the adversity in front of them. In one season, HIS coach, did such a great job he won the Jack Adams award as the best coach in hockey. Yes, I am saddened and almost sick about the three post season runs since the Cup win, but really this season is the only one without some sort of excuse. In 2009-10, it was the third year in a row they had played more hockey than anyone else, and maybe they ran out of gas. Last year, they entered the playoffs without their two top guns, and 2 of the top 5 players in the world and one of their two key penalty killers in Matt Cooke. They still took a team that went to the Conference Finals to 7 games before losing by one goal. I have none and will offer no excuses for what happened this year, but the Penguins were odds on favorites to win the Cup and have already been named the favorites by Vegas to win it next year at 7 to 1. So in six years he took a team to their first playoffs in years in year one, their first finals since 1991-92 in his second year, their first Stanley Cup in his third, a Jack Adams winning hand picked coach in his fifth, and the odds on favorite to win the Cup in his sixth, and again in his seventh. How bad of a job is that?
Second, in general, Shero's family friendly, straight up style has made Pittsburgh a favored spot for great players as witnessed by Petr Sykora asking to come here to start free agency in the 2007-08 off season, and Shero's ability to keep the core of this championship team together with players like Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Orpik, Fleury, and Letang all signing post entry level contracts for less than market value to stay in Pittsburgh and try add more hardware to their resumes. How did Shero help to build a championship caliber team for now and the forseeable future outside of the generalities described directly above? The following are some key moves involving key parties to the team's success: In the 2006-07 offseason Shero drafted Jordan Staal second overall, and added steady defenseman Mark Eaton to the mix, and quality agitator and sandpaper in Jarkko Ruutu. In keeping with the theme of getting Pittsburgh tougher, and more difficult to play against, on February 27th, 2007 he sent AHL prospect Noah Welch to Florida to get the tough net front presence and leaderhip of Gary Roberts, a key element in the 2007-08 run to the Finals. He also added premiere enforcer Georges Laraque when he sent assclown Daniel Carcillo and a late round draft pick to Phoenix. The Penguins were now a really tough team to play against, and their stars could be protected and given room by the presence of Laraque. In 2007, ahead of schedule the Penguins made the post season, only to be beaten in the 2007 playoffs in the first round by Ottawa. The Penguins entered the 2007-08 season hoping to improve upon their showing from the year prior, especially the sting of their first round exit at the hands of Ottawa. Shero then made some key moves involving draft picks that propelled Pittsburgh to elite status for the next several years. On February 26th 2008, Shero traded the 2008 second round pick and the 2009 fifth round pick to bring in shut down defenseman Hal Gill, a key component in the both Stanley Cup runs. He then made the move that to me propelled Pittsburgh from fringe contender to bonafide contender when on the same day he sent Colby Armstrong, Erik Christenson, 2007 first round pick Angelo Esposito, and their 2008 first round pick for Marian Hossa, a bonafide top flight winger, and Pascal Dupuis a versatile winger, who is still contributing to this hockey club. Pittsburgh went on a roll, cut through the 2008 playoffs like a knife before losing in six games in the Finals to Detroit. At the time, many thought we gave up too much for Hossa, especially when he did not re-sign in favor of Detroit in the 2008-09 offseason. But, the move signalled to the team that the time was now and they were good enough to win it all. They learned what it took to win it all that year, and I don't think they win in 2009 without the Hossa deal propelling them to the Finals in 2008. Also, Armstrong and Christensen have never been much in the NHL since, and Esposito has never made the league at all. Today it was announced that Dallas is not even bringing Esposito back to their AHL club. We will never know who Pittsburgh may have taken with their 2009 first round pick, but Dupuis has been the most valuable player in the NHL dollar for dollar the past two seasons, and Pittsburh was the clear cut winner of that deal. Shero shocked the hockey world with that one!
The 2008-09 season saw Shero have to scramble to replace Hossa, Roberts, Ruutu, and Laraque in the offseason, and he added Fedotenko, Cooke, and Satan to do so. He also had to fire Therrien in February as the Penguins fell to 10th place after getting crushed by Toronto. He chose an inexperienced Dan Bylsma in a move that many thought signalled an acknowledgement that Pittsburgh was giving up on the season and looking to the following year. Instead, Shero traded highly regarded Ryan Whitney to Anaheim in return for Chris Kunitz and prospect Eric Tangradi. He then claimed key penalty killer Craig Adams off of waivers in March, then completed his team at the deadline sending a conditional pick to New York for veteran leader Bill Guerin. Shero had now given Crosby a gritty puck retrieving winger in return for a defenseman, and a leader and sniper in return for a draft pick. The rest is history as Pittsburgh won the Stanley Cup with a group of players that Shero built around the core. Fedotenko, Cooke, Kunitz, Gill, Eaton, Staal, and Guerin played key roles in the championship run..
Post cup win, Shero continues to do a wonderful job. Noting the lack of scoring on the wings, and the overlfow of young defensemen, Shero sent Alex Goligoski to Dallas in the spring of 2011 in return for power forward James Neal, and young defenseman Matt Niskanen. Shero was questioned when both struggled a bit to close out the 2010-2011 season. Well, in the 2011-12 season, James Neal was a big part of the best line in hockey, netting 40 goals, and in his first full season with Pittsburgh, Niskanen was arguably one of the best and most consistent blue liners on the team. So, in return for a young defensman whom we have plenty of, Shero got a premiere power forward and a top five defenseman. Since then, Neal has been locked up long term to a good contract for Pittsburgh. And oh, yeah about those draft picks. Pittsburgh is poised to make some trade noise this offseason, as some of Shero's draft picks such as Despres, Morrow, Strait, Bortuzzo, Morrow, Sneep, Samuelsson, and Jeffrey are valuable assets that could be used to bring in more assets to reload this team for another Cup run. In addition, there is a rumor that Carolina is willing to take on the bad Martin contract and Jordan Staal in return for solid young center Brendan Sutter, large young defenseman Justin Faulk and the eighth overall pick in the draft. Sutter is a good third line center, Faulk would add a piece to the blueline or be a good trade bait, the early pick could give Pittsburgh an impact player in the draft and two round one picks AND 6.5 million additional dollars in cap space. In short, Staal will either sign here and be a big part of our future OR he will bring a return that could help Shero reload this team for the future. Yinzers, you could have a team run by Scott Howson or Garth Snow that is bad enough every year that draft picks play a lot of games, or you can have a GM like Shero who uses all of the team's ASSETS to build a team capable of going all the way every year! Any way you slice it, all in all, IN SHERO WE TRUST! Thanks for helping to make the Penguins an elite franchise Ray.
No comments:
Post a Comment