Devin Shore doesn’t check Twitter.
Sure, he has an account. But Shore hasn’t sent a Tweet since September 2017. He doesn’t have the application on his phone and only sees a tweet when someone else, maybe a teammate, shows it to him on their device.
It’s a decision Shore made early in his NHL career: he was going to ignore the outside distractions. It’s the same reason he told me last season, “I really don’t read anything you guys write, and I like you guys. But I just like to stay in my own bubble of my game.”
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For that reason, Shore is blissfully unaware of his enigmatic status amongst the Stars fan base. In the arena and off the ice there is no doubt Shore is a fan favorite, a status that has only been solidified by his willingness to play his best Buddy the Elf-type character in numerous bits on the arena video board.
But when it comes to execution of his job on the ice, that’s where battle lines are drawn.
When Shore’s two-year contract extension worth $2.3 million per season was announced earlier this month the reception was mixed, particularly on the medium that Shore has completely deleted from his personal life – Twitter.
In both tweets to the team and others announcing the deal, fans and observers had one of two reactions. They either tweeted some sort of celebratory GIF, because Shore has been quite a GIFable person during his NHL career, or they asked something along the lines of “Why?”
I saw one fan on the verge of canceling their season tickets over the annual contract. It certainly didn’t help that the deal comes with more annual value than Radek Faksa ($2.2 million) and at the same cost that Mattias Janmark was signed for a week later.
In many ways you’d think more people would root for Shore. He was a second-round pick that had season-ending shoulder surgery after tearing up the AHL for two months during the 2015-16 season, he overcame his own injury to win a full-time NHL job and played all 82 games during the 2016-17 season.
Using that as a baseline, Shore should have been in the camp of players like Antoine Roussel or Tyler Pitlick last season — players who filled a bottom-six role reliably, worked hard, and fans generally like to root for.
But his usage both helped his checkbook by team perception and hurt him in the court of public fan opinion. Ken Hitchcock looked at Shore as a top-six option, even giving him extended minutes on the top power-play unit. It’s a role that Shore more or less held the entire season and the results, on a statistical level, made Hitchcock look like a coach that couldn’t see the evidence in front of him — a team-worst minus-30 (tied for sixth-worst in the NHL) and the lowest Corsi score at even strength (48.74) of any player that skated in at least 40 games.
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When it came time pay Shore as a restricted free agent, he was compensated like a player that has played every game over the past two seasons, one of just 29 in the entire in the NHL, and has done so by gaining the trust of two different coaching staffs.
“It’s a good feeling, definitely some luck is in involved, we play a pretty rough game, and a lot of time injuries happen when there is nothing you can do about it. Fortunately, so far that hasn’t happened to me. Try to work hard and try to take care of your body so you are good to go and prepared,” Shore told The Athletic. “And then on the other hand it means a lot that the coaches have faith in me and put me in there.”
Shore can see both the good and bad in his last season. He looks at the opportunities he had, his confidence has grown, and the fact he’s scored 30-plus points in back-to-back seasons gives him even more confidence. He also knows he was on the ice for way too many goals against, his plus/minus may be partially impacted by happenstance, but for the most part a minus-30 is earned. That stings a bit more when you’ve played every single regular-season game, and then watched the playoffs from your couch.
“It (was) tough watching the playoffs, it looks like the most fun type of hockey to play, and unfortunately, we haven’t gotten the job done, that’s in the back of your mind the whole summer,” Shore said. “Throughout your training to play in games like that, that’s what we’re all chasing — everyone in the league is. When you have long summers like this you are trying to get everything out of it, you put yourself in the best position to make amends this coming season.”
Now the key question becomes, where does Shore fit in this lineup to make his own amends?
New Stars coach Jim Montgomery told The Athletic last week that he sees Shore as a player that can move up and down the lineup and that the forward can play with anyone.
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Shore has similar thoughts on his role. He doesn’t like to project a particular line or spot he’ll play, but knows that he’ll get a variety of opportunities, he could be a top-six option again — especially if Valeri Nichushkin doesn’t deliver on the hype — or he could be the ideal fit to center the fourth-line on opening night with Martin Hanzal missing at least a couple of months to start this season.
“I think the biggest thing for me is earning the confidence in the preparations, so hopefully, those opportunities do come and hopefully you’ve done everything in your part to work hard in the offseason,” Shore said. “Throughout the year, be ready on your own, for when opportunities like that do arise. And then you are ready to go and just build on that experience.”
Stars General Manager Jim Nill thinks Shore is on the right pace, and he probably got pushed into NHL duty quicker than expected because of other injuries two seasons ago.
“The coach had a lot of confidence in him, played him a lot,” Nill told The Athletic. “When you get that ice time, he was probably hoping for a little more production wise, but I think we’re gonna see that come. It’s two years in the league (now) and we’re looking for continuing growth moving forward.”
Growth can manifest in different ways, and there are several areas the Stars will be tracking, but points and possession are ultimately going to be how Shore is judged and they will determine what type of NHL player he truly becomes.
If he’s a top-six option, can he tread water with the top dogs well enough finish with more than 40 points? If he’s not a top-six option, which is likely, can he drive his own line like he was able to during his brief AHL cameo that featured 26 points in 23 games?
That’s part of Montgomery’s job this season; finding the right fit and helping set a realistic expectation for Shore’s role on an NHL roster. Once that’s more established Shore will have a better chance to succeed as an NHL player, and if he’s able to excel he may even change some minds on Twitter.