Pens’ Shero willing to take risks

His crafty rebuilding job has Pittsburgh in the NHL’s Eastern Conference finals.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — If Ray Shero has displayed nothing else during his nearly two-year run as the Pittsburgh Penguins’ general manager, it’s that he is not afraid to make a potentially risky move.

After succeeding Hall of Famer Craig Patrick in May 2006, Shero was very tempted to make a very young Penguins team better in a hurry by dealing the No. 2 pick in the following month’s draft for several proven players.

He didn’t make a move many young GMs might make, passing up several significant trade offers to draft Jordan Staal, who didn’t turn 18 until several months later. Shero was rewarded with a 29-goal rookie season by Staal, the kind of production a veteran added in a trade might not have matched.

Shero also could have fired coach Michel Therrien and brought in his own coach, the very move many new GMs make. He didn’t, and Shero was rewarded with the fourth-best turnaround season in NHL history in 2006-07 — and a 2007-08 season that was nearly as good despite injuries to Sidney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury.

Crosby, Fleury and Evgeni Malkin, the Penguins’ most important players? They were already in place, or on their way, when Shero arrived. But many key components of the team that will play Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference finals beginning Friday were not.

Shero’s crafty rebuilding job is a major reason why the Penguins are one of four teams still playing for the Stanley Cup, and his players recognize that.

“He deserves a lot of credit for the team we have here,” forward Gary Roberts said Tuesday.

Shero’s biggest moves were signing the playoff-experienced Petr Sykora and renowned agitator Jarkko Ruutu and trading for forwards Marian Hossa, Pascal Dupuis, Roberts, enforcer Georges Laraque and Hal Gill, the kind of physical, shutdown defenseman the Penguins have long lacked.

Hossa, Dupuis and Gill were added at the trading deadline in February, deals that required Shero to give up promising forwards Colby Armstrong, Erik Christensen and Angelo Esposito plus two draft picks. With Hossa unsigned for next season, Shero risked giving away a lot for only a few weeks of production.

Shero was convinced a team only two years removed from being the worst in the conference was ready to win a Stanley Cup, and not in a year or two. He didn’t want to sit around all summer second-guessing himself for not making a move that might have made a difference in April, May — or June.

“We are fortunate that Ray Shero made fantastic moves at the trade deadline to pick up players that are the caliber to play with Sidney Crosby,” Therrien said. “A lot of credit goes to Ray Shero for making those moves.”