KDKA Pittsburgh Sports Insider
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May 16, 2010 9:18 AM
PITTSBURGH - MAY 12: Matt Cooke(notes) #24 of the Pittsburgh Penguins battles for a loose puck with Jaroslav Halak(notes) #41 of the Montreal Canadiens in Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Semifinals during the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Mellon Arena on May 12, 2010 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo By Dave Sandford/Getty Images)
With the hockey season over with, it's time to evaluate everyone and that includes Pens General Manager Ray Shero. I've noticed that he's a guy that rarely gets questioned or criticized by the media. I'm not here to say he's done a bad job, only to say that his reputation might be abit overrated.
First of all, the Penguins made the Stanley Cup Finals in consecutive seasons because of the core put together by former GM Craig Patrick. That group of players includes Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury, Sergei Gonchar, Kris Letang, Max Talbot, Rob Scuderi. Shero did draft Jordan Staal and acquired Marian Hossa, Billy Guerin and Hal Gill but they won the Cup because of the core.
To this point, the Shero era is entirely known for his deadline deals. He's done alot of trading away the future in order to help the present and alot of time that's helped. However, he has traded a lot of prospects and draft picks in order to do this. Let's take a look:
2006-07 Season:
*Traded Noah Welch to Florida for Gary Roberts (Good deal)
*Traded Daniel Carcillo and a 3rd round pick to Phoenix for Georges Laraque (Real bad deal, I'd love to have Carcillo on this team, plus he included a 3rd round pick)
*Traded a fourth round pick (2007) to Florida for Joel Kwiatkowski
*Acquired left wing Nils Ekman and goaltender Patrick Ehelechner from San Jose in exchange for a 2007 second-round pick. (Another wasted 2nd round pick)
*Signed Mark Eaton to a 2-year deal (Good signing)
2007-08 Season:
*Acquired Hal Gill from the Toronto Maple Leafs for a second and fifth round draft pick in 2008. (Good deal because they won the Cup but another traded 2nd round pick)
*Acquired Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis from the Atlanta Thrasers in exchange for Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen, Angelo Esposito and a first round draft pick in 2008 (Alot given away for a rent a player.....Top prospect plus a 1st round pick (Is this one of the reasons that the Penguins haven't been able to develop a solid winger in years? Just asking)
*Acquire a third-round round pick in 2007 from Atlanta Thrashers for Chris Thorburn.
2008-09 Season:
*Traded a 2nd round pick for Bill Guerin (Good deal)
*Claimed forward Craig Adams off waivers from the Chicago Blackhawks. (Good signing)
*Acquired left wing Chris Kunitz and winger Eric Tangradi from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for defenseman Ryan Whitney (Good deal but I don't think Kunitz is worth $4 million per season.....This will be a real good deal if Tangradi turns into a productive winger)
*Signed forward Matt Cooke to a two-year contract worth $1.2M per year. (Very good deal, maybe on of his best)
*Signed forward Miroslav Satan to a one-year $3.5M contract and forward Ruslan Fedotenko to a one-year $2.25M contract. (Not good deals)
*Signed right wing Eric Godard to a three-year, $2.25M deal. (Alot of money for a goon)
2009-10 Season:
*Acquired defenseman Jordan Leopold from Florida in exchange for a second round pick in the 2010 NHL Amateur Draft. (Leopold was bad defensively and wasn't worth a 2nd round pick)
* Obtained forward Alexi Ponikarovsky from Toronto in exchange for Luca Caputi and Martin Skoula. (I'd rather have Caputi)
Here are two other observations: 1) When talking about Rob Scuderi everyone says the Pens couldn't afford to keep everyone and Scuderi priced himself out of Pittsburgh. True, but, he wouldn't have priced himself out if the Penguins would've thought ahead and signed him prior to the season and not let him reach his free agent year. Same goes for Matt Cooke. Unless he decides to give the Penguins a hometown discount, Cooke is gone. He'll command too much on the open market. The Penguins knew what they had with Cooke and shouldn't have let him become a free agent. 2) Why haven't the Penguins and Shero been able to develop a winger in 4-5 years? It's amazing that not one winger has been able to be developed since acquiring Crosby and Malkin? Why is that? The sad part is that aside from Tangradi (who they didn't draft), there's still nothing in the minors. All of the winger prospects with the Baby Pens team are all considered to be 3rd line players. What's going on with the Penguins drafting? Maybe they haven't been able to draft an wingers because they've traded away some many high picks for rent a players.
Shero has done an OK job as Pens GM but he has a lot of work to do to convince me that he's better than Craig Patrick.
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