Devils fire David Conte

This is a few days old,but I finally had a few minutes to write a little about the man to my right (pictured with Lou Lamoriello) as David Conte was relieved of his duties as the Devils director of scouting.

David Conte was usually a name that Devils fans discussed about the draft,saw him announce the first rounder and then retreat back into the fold for a year to repeat the cycle.
Conte at one time was considered by Devils fan to be the eventual successor to Lou Lamoriello as the man that would run the franchise as he was an integral part of the Devils long time run at the top of the league.
Conte was responsible for most of the Devils stars that were drafted in his 22 seasons with the Devils ranging from Brendan Shanahan and Scott Niedermayer early in his tenure to Martin Brodeur and later Zach Parise among others.
The problem became that Conte became a victim of his own success as the Devils consistently drafted at the bottom of the first round and only Adam Larsson  (4th in 2011) and Pavel Zacha last month were in the top ten.
That saw Conte become more of a gambler and the Devils struggled in drafting forwards through the last ten years of his tenure.
Other than finding Adam Henrique (3rd round in 2008) and the jury still being out on Jacob Josefson and Stefan Matteau,Conte became known more for out of the box picks (Adrian Foster) than for coming up for productive players,although he still had a knack for finding quality defense prospects in the middle or later rounds as the Devils drafted Jon Merrill,Damon Severson and Eric Gelinas all in the second round in different drafts.

It had become clear to Devils fans over the last handful of years that David Conte had not made the adjustment to the new faster post-lockout style of play and his selections were based on the slower,more plodding era,which then resulted in what you saw on the ice-a team that were usually out-skated and speed deficient.
It's always sad to see someone that had such a large cut of the franchise success leave,but this had to be done,
Ray Shero has to have his people in place to implement his style and it has to start with the rebuilding of a farm system bereft in scoring talent.
It'll be an interesting hire and whoever it is will need to hit the ground running.....