from Scott Burnside of The Athletic,

Unless you’re a true devotee of the New Jersey Devils or a devotee of the corporate machinery of professional sports teams, you could be excused for not knowing who Josh Harris was until the managing partner and chairman of the Devils stepped up to a microphone Sunday and announced the team fired GM Ray Shero.

That’s generally how owners like it. Out of the limelight unless they’re on hand for some celebratory event, like say the awarding of the Stanley Cup.

That’s not going to happen for the Devils anytime soon.

And now Harris and David Blitzer, who purchased the team in the summer of 2013, have emerged from the shadows in a most awkward fashion, making themselves a very big part of the story of a franchise that went in an instant from disappointing underachievers to curiosity.

That’s what happens when out of nowhere you fire a respected GM on a Sunday afternoon hours before a game in the middle of an already lost season.

continued (paid)