By MATT VENSEL

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

(TNS) —Former Penguins general manager Ray Shero, who oversaw the team’s run to the Stanley Cup in 2009, has died, the NHL announced on Wednesday. Shero was 62.

Shero worked in the NHL for more than three decades and he spent time with five teams, most recently the Minnesota Wild. The Minnesota native was also actively involved with USA Hockey and was a member of its national team advisory board.

The hockey lifer reached the pinnacle of professional hockey here in Pittsburgh.

Shero was hired as GM of the Penguins in 2006, replacing the great Craig Patrick. He inherited an incredible young core highlighted by Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury. Three years later, they won the first Cup of the Crosby era.

Shero drafted Jordan Staal in 2006. He acquired key veterans such as Bill Guerin, Pascal Dupuis, Petr Sykora and Hal Gill. And midway through that 2008-09 season, he replaced coach Michel Therrien with Dan Bylsma, a catalyst for their Cup run.

“Raise your hand if you knew who Dan Bylsma was before Feb. 15,” Shero told a crowd as the Penguins celebrated their championship in the streets of Pittsburgh.

Shero was unable to get the Penguins back to the Cup Final. The closest they came was the Eastern Conference finals in 2012-13, the year he orchestrated the Jarome Iginla trade. The Penguins fired Shero after a second- round playoff exit in 2014.

“Eight years,” Shero told the Post-Gazette in 2015. “A lot of games. I have good memories.”

Part of Shero’s legacy with the Penguins will be his willingness to make bold moves, even if they did not yield the ultimate prize. His most famous move in Pittsburgh was the blockbuster Marian Hossa trade in 2008. Hossa famously left in free agency for Detroit after the Red Wings beat the young Penguins in the 2008 Cup Final.

“In this job, this business, you have to take chances, take risks,” Shero said in 2010. “Some [trades and signings] haven’t worked out as well as others, but you have to take that chance sometimes. Hopefully, you have more good ones than bad ones.”

Technically, he never won a second Stanley Cup. But he helped lay the foundation for two more titles in Pittsburgh with the draft selections of Matt Murray, Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust and Olli Maatta, amongst others. He drafted Tristan Jarry, as well.

Shero, the son of Hockey Hall of Fame executive Fred Shero, went on to be the GM of the New Jersey Devils from 2015-20. He had spent the last four seasons as a senior adviser for the Wild, working alongside one of his former players, Guerin.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman released a statement following Shero’s passing.

“Ray Shero’s smile and personality lit up every room he walked into and brightened the day of everyone he met,” Bettman stated on Wednesday. “Widely respected throughout hockey for his team-building acumen and eye for talent, he was even more beloved for how he treated everyone fortunate enough to have known him.”

Bettman added: “Whenever we ran into each other at a rink when he was scouting, it was clear he loved what he was doing and I always marveled at his infectious enthusiasm. The entire NHL family mourns his passing and sends our deepest condolences to the Shero family and Ray’s many friends throughout the hockey world.”