The Pens free agency results tally as such:

Losses:
Marian Hossa (Detroit)
Ryan Malone (Tampa)
Jarko Ruutu (Ottawa)
Ty Conklin (Detroit)
Georges Laraque (Montreal)
Gary Roberts (Tampa)

Additions:
Mirolav Satan (NY Islanders)
Ruslan Fedotenko (NY Islanders)
Matt Cooke (Vancouver/Washington)

Retentions:
Marc-Andre Fleury
Evgeni Malkin
Brooks Orpik
Pascal Depuis

The biggest two losses are, of course, Hossa and Malone.  Both were key contributors to the Pens Cup run, and although Hossa was strictly a rent-a-player move at the start, there was a lot of hope that he'd sign a long-term deal with the Pens.  Curiously, he rejected the Pens multi-year offer to sign a one-year contract with Detroit for essentially similar money.  His statement was that Detroit gave him the best opportunity to win a Cup.  That may or may not be true - obviously Detroit is going to field another strong title contender, but the West is a highly competitive market, and Dallas made some moves that may make them seem like the Cup favorite coming into the 2008-2009 season.  So yes, losing Hossa hurt, especially when he could have anchored the right wing for years to come with Sid Crosby, but Hossa made the decision that best suited his needs.  Who knows - maybe Hossa wanted another stellar year in the playoffs to try and parlay that into a far higher contract?  One thing's for sure - he'd best not get injured.

The loss of Ryan Malone also hurts, but in terms of production it's not a killer loss.  It hurts because Malone's a local kid, and a character-type player.  He's big and strong, and there's some thought that he could evolve into a big-time power forward.  Assuming that he's mated with LeCavalier and St. Louis, the Lightning will roll out a very powerful first line, and will have an equally dangerous power play unit.  But the Pens had forecast him as a $30 million dollar player, and were not willing to overpay him.  Given the amount of GMs overpaying for players this free agency season, perhaps Ray Shero's move not to resign him is more shrewd than people realize. 

The losses of Roberts, Ruutu and Laraque don't hurt nearly as much.  As a group, they were the grit players who brought an edge and physical play into the game.  They were all replaceable, and so far the Pens have signed players to replace them, and did so without too much fuss or notice.  Roberts especially is nearing the end of his career, and resigning him was probably not much of a priority for Shero.

The retention signings are probably the biggest.  Cementing the skills of Malkin, Fleury and Orpik for years, while all 3 players are in their prime, essentially makes the Pens perennial Stanley Cup contenders.  That core group is going to be among the NHL's best, and the "big three" are still so young that they have years before exiting their prime.  In all professional sports the talk is of the championship window - the Pens have opened the window wide for probably 5-7 years in total.  And that's not something that any other team in the NHL can claim.  Orpik's brutal physicality brings an edge to the defense corps that the Pens desperately need.  They have solid, puck-moving defenseman already in Gonchar, Whitney and Letang, and still have Daryl Sydor to bring needed defense-first to the game.  The Pens defense is now set for a few years, and those guys playing in front of the brilliant Fleury again make the Pens look even better.

The additions are all nice, and fill various gaps.  The additions of Satan and Fedotenko bring some scoring talent back even out the first and second lines.  Figure both players are already penciled in with Malkin and Crosby, to go along with Sykora and Depuis.  The Pens offense will be again very high-powered, and they will again feature two absolutely lethal power play units.  Keeping Therrien also means the Pens will play that same offensive/defensive blend that served them well this year.

All things considered, GM Ray Shero has performed admirably.  The losses hurt, but then they always do.  The additions are nice, but are never quite as good (at least before the season begins) as the losses.  The retentions were critical in this case, and Shero's magnificence there cannot be overstated.  Most NHL teams have a rather short window of opportunity to win the Cup.  Detroit, for example, has another dominant team, but the entire team will age yet another year.  Can they do it again, even with their own version of the "big three" all being in their prime?  Dallas made several stellar moves, and the addition of Sean Avery I'm sure was done just to annoy the hell out of Detroit.  Regardless, no other team in the NHL except perhaps Detroit has iced up their key performers for such a long time, and in such a way that the team has salary cap room for years to come.  Imagine, two of the uber-stars of the NHL both signing less than max contracts, and somehow that's exactly what Shero convinced both Crosby and Malkin to do.  Fleury at $5 mil a year ensures the Pens will long have money available to keep top-level defenseman.  Crosby and Malkin at $8.7 a year ensure the Pens can continue to add better than average to top forwards for years to come. 

Maybe Ray Shero lost the Marian Hossa sweepstakes.  But I'm sure that Shero is now looking at his team, looking at all those long-term contracts, and seeing all the money still on the table for future players, signings, trades and free agents, and positively drooling.  The Pens management, including Mario himself, have got to be slapping Shero's back hard enough to leave red marks, congratulating him on a job exceptionally well done.  Should the Pens win the Stanley Cup anytime in the next 5 years, you can thank one person's foresight. 

As far as I'm concerned, the front office of the Pittsburgh Penguins gets an "A" for their work.