Shero Signed to Extension; Hynes Named to Worlds

According to Marc Ciampa, who writes for the Devils’ official website, “General Manager Ray Shero has been given a contract extension.”

Ciampa said that it was “a multi-year contract extension” announced today by Devils Managing Partner Josh Harris. He quoted Harris as saying: “I’m incredibly optimistic about the future. My optimism starts with what you can’t see, what goes on off the ice with our front office and coaching staff.”

He continued that Coach “John (Hynes) did an excellent job creating a culture, players that care who want to win. I’m incredibly optimistic about continuing to work with Ray. We’re investing across the board in every area. More scouting out there, hiring analytics people, hiring sports science people. That’s how you build a winner. You start with excellence off the ice and then you get it on the ice. We extended Ray and as you know we extended John. We have a good young core with Nico and Jesper. There are no shortcuts to the top, there are only shortcuts to the middle. Ultimately, we’re going to get where we need to be which is an elite team who can compete for the Stanley Cup.”

According to Ciampa, Harris concluded: “Thank you for your trust and we’re not going to let you down.”

This is good news, I feel, due to Shero’s insistance on getting things done the right way. Not to point fingers at a rival, but the Philadelphia Flyers are a team that was on track to do things similar to how Shero is doing it (build through the Draft, be patient, etc.) under Ron Hextall.

Then ownership went into a panic, wanted to win now and fired Hextall. Now their GM Chuck Fletcher is vaguely talking about blowing things up and starting over. Not a reflection on Fletcher, just that the Flyers’ ownership went into panic mode too early and did not allow things to develop in an organic manner.

Shero and the ownership group is doing things slowly (maybe too slow for some fans, but that’s another story for another time) and letting the young players develop and building through the Draft and not exclusively through free agency. Shero is absolutely correct when he says that free agency should be a supplement to a team built through means that are less of a crapshoot.

The Devils are in good hands for the time being and that stability is something that we should all appreicate as Devils fans.

In another bit of Devils-related news, head coach John Hynes has been selected as an assistant coach for Team USA at the upcoming IIHF World Championships. He will serve under Detroit Red Wings’ coach Jeff Blashill (who takes the post for the third straight year) along with Dan Bylsma and Kevin Reiter. The news comes via USA Hockey.

In addition, Devils equipment manager Chris Scoppetto will also be working with Team USA at the Worlds. Congratulations to both men on this honor.

The World Championships take place May 10-26 in Kosice and Bratislava, Slovakia.