Clearly the news on Monday afternoon was the end of Lou Lamoriello’s 28-year tenure as Devils GM but going forward the focus now will be on Ray Shero, just the fourth GM in the 33-year history of the Devils.  Of course Shero has big shoes to fill, and it’s not realistic to expect him to be similar to Lou in every way personality-wise or with general philosophy.  It’s not too much of an exaggeration to think that a sea change like this is going to affect everything from off-ice stuff (most likely more player/coach access for media and fans, for starters) to on-ice decisions.  To what degree remains to be seen, and whether you believe or care if Lou was forced out or not, he did endorse his supposed hand-picked choice in every way:

“I think we’ll be the beneficiary of [this hire] as an organization,” Lamoriello said. “The one thing that has been consistent in this organization and with every conversation I’ve had with Ray was the ability he has. He has no ego and knows the logo is the most important thing and when you get that that’s a good feeling; a very positive thing happened today.”

Certainly, Shero’s no rookie and every hockey fan knows he was the GM of the Penguins from 2006-2014.  During his tenure the Penguins made the playoffs every one of his eight seasons, winning a Stanley Cup and two Eastern Conference Championships.  Yes, he fell into a good situation with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury and Kris Letang already in place but make no mistake about it, Shero’s a hockey lifer with plenty of positive credentials.  Shero was the assistant GM of Ottawa from 1993-98 and an expansion Nashville team from 1998-2006 when both organizations started their rise to perennial playoff teams, and as most tri-state area fans know, he has a revered hockey name as dad Fred Shero was a HOF coach with the Flyers (winning two Cups) and Rangers (making the 1979 Finals), and also worked briefly with the Devils organization as a radio color commentator.  Current GM Ray’s history with former GM Lou goes back to Ray’s college days as a player when he played against Lou’s Providence teams.  As Ray joked at his introductory press conference he’s been interviewing for this job since 1980.

Shero’s tenure with the Penguins wasn’t perfect, to be sure.  This summary from the Hockey News shortly after he was fired last Spring gives a five best/five worst list of moves from his tenure as the Penguin GM:

http://www.thehockeynews.com/blog/the-five-best-and-worst-moves-of-the-ray-shero-era/

Obviously being in a situation with so many talented players led to a lot of win-now trades, such as the Murray one referenced in the post above.  Indeed if you look at the Penguins’ draft record, you notice three things – one, they essentially didn’t have a 2008 draft with their first pick being at the tail end of the fourth round (with other high picks in other years missing as well).  Two, Shero picked a lot of defensemen early despite a crying need throughout the last few years for more wingers capable of playing with their superstar centers.  And three, their draft record save a few hits like defenseman Olli Maatta really wasn’t that great overall.  Our organization needs quality forwards by any means necessary and besides Jordan Staal – drafted #2 overall – they really don’t have much to show in their last decade of drafts up front.  Kind of like our drafts, defensemen heavy but not a lot of skilled forwards.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/teams/dr00007475.html

Ironically his record in Pittsburgh is a lot like Lou’s recent records…fairly good with trades for the most part, somewhat spotty on big contract signings (though they don’t have as many onerous contracts for older players as we do, they do have the oft-injured and one-dimensional Kris Letang signed forever to big money, and they offered Staal a ridiculous contract before he turned it down – and to their credit they worked out a good trade for him), good on defensemen drafting and bad on forwards drafting.  Perhaps the main thing to remember though, is Shero certainly can get smarter at his second job much the way Lou himself did after his first few years here.  He wasn’t Lou The Great from 1987-1993 though he had his share of good moves, it wasn’t till 1994 where the organization itself was able to take the next step.

What all this means for the organization going forward is anyone’s guess.  Off ice, clearly few organizations restricted player and coach access like Lou, who didn’t allow Twitter accounts (which I agree with), didn’t have open practices (which I don’t agree with) and had a bunch of other rules and regulations that may or may not be relaxed under the new regime.  Whether the players are allowed to grow facial hair or wear high numbers remains to be seen.  In this day and age it is hard to expect new-school players to be decidedly old-school, even harder when you don’t have the cache of a Lou Lamoriello to enforce that culture.  Very little of that stuff is important to me as a fan, I just want to see the team win and feel having a team-first culture is still possible even without everything that made Lou what he was – although I admit it will be nice to see the Devils on shows like 24/7 and NHLN team shows, if that’s in the cards for future seasons.  Of course I’m not looking forward to the day of the inevitable third jersey but us and Detroit have been the only outliers, every other hockey fan has to deal with mostly abominations of third jerseys to this point.

On-ice, Shero in his first few interviews (see the Devils’ website or YouTube for links to all of them) played his cards close to the vest, though he did indicate he wasn’t looking for any quick fixes which I agree with.  Between not having enough forward talent and the defensemen still needing some time to mature, this team isn’t ready to win and reckless moves aren’t going to serve any purpose but to prolong the cycle of rebuilding.  However, this team can be infinitely more competitive next year with a series of calculated moves.  Of course Shero’s first major move will probably be the coaching decision, which will be telling to see what kind of direction he sees for the franchise.  While former Penguin coach Dan Bylsma is a popular name of speculation for obvious reasons – Shero hired him, they won a Cup together and he wasn’t around long enough to fire Bylsma – sometimes the easy narrative isn’t always what gets written.  While the new GM admits he’d prefer to have a coach in place before the draft late next month, he’s certainly not going to rush a timetable.  Especially given more big-name coaches could be available in the next few weeks.  Perhaps a good coaching hire, the right picks, trades or both on draft day in June and the right UFA signings in July could turn us into a playoff contender again, which right now looks pretty good.

I admit it we all got spoiled as Devil fans, not so much expecting the team to contend for a title every year but in being dismissive of 100-point seasons where we lost in the first round.  At times, especially during 1996-99 and 2008-2010 the regular season felt like waste when the team would have great seasons and then blow up in the first round of the playoffs.  However even seasons like that are infinitely better than last year when the team was basically out of it from the middle of December on.  If you’re going to watch/attend/read about 82 games a year it’d be nice to have something to play for.  Blowing up a team entirely and committing to a five-year rebuild plan sounds nice on a video game, but not when you’re actually waiting five years in real life for something that isn’t even a guarantee to work.  Islander fans are still waiting for their playoff series win since 1993, and Panther fans are still waiting for a first playoff series win since 1996 and both have gone through countless ‘rebuilds’.

Despite all that I’m not one of those fans who are forever going to lament the good ol’ days and curse the fact Shero isn’t like Lou…expecting Shero or anyone else to walk out of here with Lou’s track record is an exercise in futility.  However if Shero can get this team back to consistently winning and perhaps eventually win another Cup of his own, he won’t have to apologize to anyone.  In the end, that’s the goal and that’s the part of Lou’s legacy I do hope Shero carries on.