A lot of times in media, people use the words stunned or shocked a little too liberally but it’s not hyperbole to say pretty much me and the entire hockey world was shocked to see the news of Ray Shero’s passing this morning, originally posted on the Wild’s Twitter account since he was currently a senior advisor there to ex-player and current Minnesota GM Bill Guerin. There was no indication as far as I know of him being sick and he was only 62 years old (I’d guesstimated late 50’s, early 60’s without looking it up) so it’s useless to speculate, I’m sure at some point we’ll get an indicator over what led to this sudden passing.

His tentacles were spread far and wide in the hockey world, starting with his dad former NHL coach, GM and broadcaster Fred Shero, who was a bit before my time so unfortunately so I know very little about him apart from his role in building the expansion Flyers to a two-time Stanley Cup winner in the mid 70’s, then later going on to coach the Rangers and work on the Devils’ radio network after his NHL coaching career had ended. It sounded like he had a very gregarious personality though, which I’d believe judging by his son’s own career and media persona. It is a bit eerie his dad also passed away in his mid 60’s (due to stomach cancer), but it’s entirely possible that isn’t related to Ray’s untimely death.

Like many people, I first heard of Ray Shero when he became the GM of the Penguins, although before that he played a key role as an AGM in building up both Ottawa (from 1993-1998) and Nashville (1998-2006) as expansion teams so taking over a Pittsburgh team in need of a ground-up overhaul was something he was clearly qualified for, albeit one with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin already in place from the previous two drafts. Still, Shero built around them – eventually piecing together a two-time Eastern conference winner and Stanley Cup champion in 2009. Pittsburgh never was able to match the success of the 2007-09 seasons though, and Shero was eventually let go after 2014.

Just one year later, he was tasked with yet another rebuild – the Devils, a team in transition after moving on from Lou Lamoriello as franchise czar and appointing Shero the new GM in May 2015. My initial post on his hiring is still up here (though some of the links have since expired) so I’ll re-post it now. There were certainly ups and downs of what wound up being a nearly five-year tenure as Devils GM. Some would argue his most consequential moves revolved around Taylor Hall, first in trading Adam Larsson for the future 2017-18 Hart Trophy winner with this evergreen Bob McKenzie tweet saying it all:

Hall would become the first – and as of now still only – Devil to win the Hart Trophy for league MVP in a transcendent 2017-18 season, which led to a surprising playoff berth in year three of the Shero tenure here. Unfortunately, Hall’s injury the next season derailed the Devils and a series of win-now moves failed to rejuvenate a stalled rebuild, eventually leading to Shero’s dismissal in January 2020. To his credit, at least Shero didn’t give Hall a stupid contract trying to retain him and wound up working out a good deal with Arizona once he cashed out, getting back defensive prospect Kevin Bahl along with the picks that eventually turned into Dawson Mercer (draft) and Jonas Siegenthaler (pick trade).

I would actually argue his most important move as the Devils GM was drafting Nico Hischier over Nolan Patrick in 2017. It wasn’t a slam dunk move, indeed Patrick was thought of as the clear #1 when we won the first of two draft lotteries in Shero’s tenure. However, once we won the pick gradually word started to leak out we might prefer the young Swiss center over the anoited big North American kid. To his credit, Shero and the people who worked for him – including then-AGM Tom Fitzgerald – had a conviction and stuck to it. While Patrick’s career sadly stalled due to injuries (definitely a pre-draft concern), Nico’s become one of the best two-way players in the game. Shero, and some lottery luck are fully responsible for that guy being in red and white.

I actually thought he’d get one more crack at being a GM after his Devil tenure ended, in spite of my ambivalence over his up and down track record, but it never did. I guess we’ll never know if he just didn’t want to be part of the grind or the league was done with him. While I understand him wanting to stay involved with a front office – going to Minnesota as a senior advisor – it is kind of unfortunate for the rest of us that Shero never got involved in the media aspect of the league, he certainly had enough of a personality that he could have become a good media person if he’d wanted to. Exhibit A being his response to the rumor that holdout RFA Pavel Zacha (Shero’s first-ever draft pick as Devils GM) was considering a move to the KHL.

In a sad irony, the Devils play the Penguins in Newark on Friday – and a lot of people on both sides of the blueline have personal connections to Shero including Crosby and Malkin for the Penguins, and current GM Fitz along with many of the players for the Devils. Among others, Jesper Bratt took to Instagram to leave a note of thanks for Shero, the man who drafted him in the sixth round and saw him develop as an NHL player here. Before a lot of games there’s a moment of silence for someone around the sport who’s passed, but the one before Friday’s game will have a more poignant resonance for everyone in the building.