It took nearly a year, but former Penguins general manager Ray Shero has a new job.
He has been hired as general manager in New Jersey, where he will replace Lou Lamoriello. Shero will report to Lamoriello, who remains with the Devils as team president.
The Penguins did not seek compensation for Shero, content simply to get the final year of his contract — believed to be worth about $1.5 million — off their books.
While the Penguins were entitled to request compensation, the Devils would have had no obligation to provide it, and a dispute over that issue ultimately could have scuttled Shero’s chances of getting the job.
In a conference call Monday, Lamoriello, 72, said Shero, fired as the Penguins general manager after the 2013-14 season, will select the Devils’ next coach.
That means Dan Bylsma, fired as coach of the Penguins a few weeks after Shero lost his job, figures to get consideration.
The Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2009, when Shero brought in Bylsma from their minor league team in Wilkes-Barre to replace Michel Therrien in mid-February, triggering a surge that got them into the playoffs and ended with a championship celebration in Detroit four months later.
Other members of the Penguins’ management team, most notably assistant general manager Tom Fitzgerald and director of player personnel Dan MacKinnon, also could be in line for jobs with the Devils. Both have long, strong ties to Shero.
Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford, who said last week that he would not stand in the way of any staffer who could get a better position with another organization, said near the close of business Monday that the Devils had not approached him for permission to speak with anyone from his management team.
Dave Molinari: Dmolinari@Post-Gazette.com and Twitter @MolinariPG.
First Published: May 4, 2015, 8:26 p.m.
Updated: May 5, 2015, 2:00 a.m.
