Saturday, May 27, 2006
With Nashville, Ray Shero encountered a team in a similar situation.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Ray Shero spent his first full day on the job as the Pittsburgh Penguins' general manager Friday. His schedule included meetings with coach Michel Therrien and scouts, and plenty of introductions to club employees.
No doubt this was also on the agenda: Finding out how to go about fixing this mess, and as quickly as possible.
"I'm really thrilled to get this thing going here," he said.
Give him a couple of days to see what the Penguins have beyond Sidney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury, Ryan Whitney, Colby Armstrong and the rights to Evgeni Malkin, and he might change his mind. There is much wrong with the Penguins, and they have spent the last four seasons going backward rather than making a move to get things right.
Glory days
The Penguins, once one of the NHL's showcase franchises with players like Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Ron Francis, a couple of Stanley Cups in the display case and a mentality that any season could bring another Cup, have become hockey's version of the Pirates.
Bad -- and not just once in a while, but every season. Not since 2001 have the Penguins made the playoffs or won more than 28 games, a refresher course on what it was like during the dreadful pre-Lemieux Penguins of the early 1980s.
Initially, Shero is expected to hire a details-oriented assistant general manager, something predecessor Craig Patrick never had, but is not yet ready to choose his man.
The coaching staff also needs another assistant -- Michael Yeo was Therrien's only full-time aide -- but, again, no hiring is imminent. The Penguins also have been without a director of player personnel, a role formerly held by Herb Brooks, who died in a 2003 car accident.
For now, Shero plans to take a few weeks, make a thorough evaluation of what the Penguins have and what they need before beginning to make any moves.
"I want to evaluate things, and take some time to do that," he said.
Next big step
He said chief scout Greg Malone will be responsible for most of the June 24 draft, though Shero will have the final decision on the No. 2 overall pick -- the fourth time in as many drafts that the Penguins will choose first or second.
All those prospects drafted in all those drafts make Shero think the Penguins can be good again soon. While serving as the assistant GM in Nashville and Ottawa, Shero waited through a series of losing seasons before those organizations' moves began to pay off.
"I thought the [Ottawa] team was built correctly," he said. "I thought the team was built with patience, a lot of losses along the way, but it was built the right way and they've made the playoffs every year since [1997] and have been a force in the league.
"In Nashville, the same situation happened where we went through a period of five years without making the playoffs. I think we did a great job of building. We've made it [to the playoffs] two years in a row now and I think Nashville is poised to be a long-term playoff contender. That's what I'd like to have happen in Pittsburgh."