Time to Grade Ray Shero's Season

At first glance it may be hard to give Shero anything but an A+ grade considering his team just won the Stanley Cup. But when you look at some of the decisions he made last off season i think his grade may fall a bit. Lets take a look case by case of the moves he made during the season.

1. Tried to sign Hossa to a long term deal, but failed to do so. I don't blame this on Shero he made a great effort Hossa just didn't want to stay here.

2. Shero traded Malone and Roberts away for draft picks. I am still not sure how i feel about this move, i would have liked to have seen Shero at least offer Malone a contract before trading him. That being said i would have never paid Malone what Tampa did. So in summation trading Roberts and Malone away to replace some of the picks we gave up in the Hossa trade gets a B grade from me that would have been an A+ if they would have offered any contract to Malone that he turned down.

3. Shero didn't sign Rutuu because we wanted a 3 year deal. This move gets a D, Rutuu was a valuable player to this team and we saw just how much they were missing him early in the season.

4. Shero signs Orpik to a 4 year deal worth $4,000,000.00 a season. This is definitely an A+ signing, Orpik is one of the most physical D-men in the league and the only one that plays this style on the Penguins team. Also he is continuing to improve defensively over the years.

5. Shero signs Matt Cooke to replace Rutuu. I like the signing of Cooke but he is not the same player as Rutuu is. This move gets a C.

6. After Shero was unable to land Hossa he made no play for any of the other noteworthy scoring wingers that were available in free agency, even though Crosby had no worthy wingers to play with. This move gets an F

7. Shero signed Satan and Feds saying that they would replace the goal scoring we lost with Malone and Hossa leaving. From the second i found out we signed Satan i was disappointed and was happy about Feds but thought it was ridiculous to say he would put up Hossa or Malone type numbers. This move recieves a D.

8. Early in the season Shero traded Sydor who requested to be traded to Dallas for Boucher. To me this was a terrible trade, we already had 8 NHL contracted D-Men and had Gogo ready to come up from the baby Pens. They should have traded Sydor for a prospect, draft pick, or any player not making as much money as Boucher. This move also gets a D.

9. Shero trades or back up goalie, Ryan Stone, and a 3rd round draft pick to Edmonton for back up Goalie Mathew Garon. This would have been a good trade is Garon could stop a puck or we at least didn't give up the third round pick. Grade on this trade C.

10. Shero trades Whitney to the Ducks for Kunitz and Tangretti. I think Shero made the right move trading Whitney but i don't think he got enough for him. Honestly i wouldn't have minded the trade as is if Kunitz wasn't making $3.75 million a season. For a winger that in my opinion is a second line player at best this is a lot of money. Shero either needed to get a better player for Whitney or dump some Salary on this trade. This trade will land up hurting us in the 2009-2010 season when we still have no scoring wingers because we couldn't afford to fit any of them under the cap. This trade gets a C.

11. Shero trades a 5th round pick away that turned into a 3rd round pick after we advanced through the 1st round of the Playoffs for 38 year old scoring winger who brought a veteran presence to this team Bill Geurin. This trade unquestionably gets an A+, without Geurin we probably lose in the Washington series.

Overall grade for Shero C+, you won't see a grade like that to often for a GM who's team just won the Stanley Cup. But then again most GM's are not fortunate enough to inherit a team with Malkin, Crosby, and Fluery on it.

If Shero handles everything right this off season we will not only win another Stanley Cup but the Presidents Trophy as well.