It's hard to talk about the Sidney Crosby-era Pittsburgh Penguins without talking about former general manager Ray Shero.
Sadly, Shero died Wednesday at the age of 42. And he leaves behind a legacy in Pittsburgh that won't soon be forgotten.
The organization brought Shero on in 2006, and he made a pretty immediate impact in his first season. His very first draft selection was Jordan Staal (2nd overall), and he took the pieces already in place with Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Marc-Andre Fleury to take a lottery team to the Stanley Cup playoffs in year one.
From there, the Penguins only skyrocketed to new heights. The following season, the young team found themselves vying for the top spot in the Eastern Conference leading up to the NHL trade deadline. Wanting to go all-in, Shero took the initiative to approach ownership about accelerating the timeline for the team's "five-year plan."
And, with the blessing of then-majority owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle, he did just that. His trade for the biggest name on the market that season – forward Marian Hossa – propelled the Penguins to the Stanley Cup Final and set the precedent for all the years to follow with the organization.
The Penguins won Shero's only Stanley Cup just one year later in 2009, but his "big move" in 2008 is what catapulted the organization into being the perennial contender that it is. From that point on, the Penguins solified the all-in, win-now approach that they became known for in all the years to follow – something that made them a model franchise for the better part of two decades.
With a very young core, he knew how to balance that youth and inexperience with valuable veteran acquisitions such as Gary Roberts, Bill Guerin, Chris Kunitz, Pascal Dupuis, and Petr Sykora. He prioritized development and wanted the Penguins' AHL and ECHL teams to be vying for championships, not simply acting as a farm for the big club.
He put Pittsburgh on the map, and – although he was fired by the Penguins in the summer of 2014 – he was a huge reason why the Penguins had the foundation in place for sustained success, even after he moved on to the New Jersey Devils and Minnesota Wild.
Ray Shero is synonymous with the Crosby-era Penguins. And his contributions to the franchise – and to hockey – will continue to live on beyond his passing.
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