 Greg ShermanGeneral Manager Greg Sherman was named General Manager of the Avalanche on June 3, 2009 and recently completed his fourth season in that role. Prior to being named GM, Sherman, 42, spent the previous seven years as the team’s Assistant General Manager. He has been associated with the franchise for the last 15 years. Sherman oversaw an active 2011 offseason which included selecting Gabriel Landeskog with the second overall pick and Duncan Siemens with the 11th overall choice at the 2011 Entry Draft. The Avs became the first NHL team since 2002 to draft two players in the top 11. A week later, Sherman and his staff acquired goaltender Semyon Varlamov from Washington and capped off a busy first day of free agency by signing J.S. Giguere, Jan Hejda and Chuck Kobasew. Heading into the summer, Sherman and his staff locked up their top prospects, signing Tyson Barrie, Stefan Elliott, Joey Hishon, Brad Malone and Calvin Pickard to entry-level contracts. In Sherman’s first season of running the franchise in 2009-10, the Avalanche enjoyed the second-best turn- around of any team in the NHL, improving by 26 points to secure a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Colorado became the first Western Conference team to make the playoffs after finishing last in the conference the previous year since the league expanded to 30 teams in 2000-01. Head coach Joe Sacco, Sherman’s first hire as GM, was named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s coach of the year. In just his first few weeks on the job, Sherman hired a new coaching staff, restructured the hockey operations department and announced the selection of Matt Duchene as the third overall pick in the 2009 Entry Draft. He also appointed a new coaching staff for Colorado’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Lake Erie Monsters. Sherman was instrumental in helping to launch the Avalanche’s affiliation with Lake Erie in 2007, and served as the liaison between the two franchises over the first two seasons. Born in Scranton, Pa., Sherman was raised in Denver and has spent most of his life in Colorado. After graduating from Cherry Creek High School in Englewood, Colo., Sherman received his bachelor’s degree from the University of San Diego in 1992. Greg and his wife, Tamara, reside in Highlands Ranch with daughters Katelyn (11) and Delaney (8). |
