Lamoriello leaves Devils for Leafs GM position
Lou Lamoriello is the new Maple Leafs GM. (USATSI)
In what has to be one of the most shocking developments of the entire offseason, longtime New Jersey Devils executive Lou Lamoriello resigned from the only NHL organization he has ever known Thursday. If that wasn’t surprising enough, it was revealed minutes later that Lamoriello signed on as the new general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Leafs had not yet replaced fired GM Dave Nonis, but were utilizing assistant GMs Kyle Dubas and Mark Hunter in that role jointly, with Brendan Shanahan running the show as president of hockey operations. It was unclear if they would add an additional executive to that mix. Now Lamoriello will take the reins after 28 years within the Devils organization.
Lamoriello recently stepped aside as Devils GM, making way for Ray Shero to take over the role. Lamoriello stayed on as president until Thursday, when the team announced his resignation. Minutes later, the Maple Leafs confirmed that Lamoriello was named their new general manager.
The Maple Leafs will have to compensate the Devils with a draft pick for hiring Lamoriello as GM, according to multiple reports.
During Lamoriello’s time in New Jersey, the Devils won the Stanley Cup three times. He is already in the Hockey Hall of Fame, having been inducted in the Builders category in 2009.
The Maple Leafs have made other big-time splashes this summer. First they landed Mike Babcock as new head coach, then shipping out star forward Phil Kessel and now adding a GM with Lamoriello’s experience and pedigree. There’s no doubt that this latest maneuver is the most surprising of them all.
Lamoriello leaves with him a lasting legacy in New Jersey that may never be matched again.
“Lou Lamoriello created and defined what it meant to be a New Jersey Devil,” said Devils co-owner Josh Harris in a statement. “His brilliance in shaping this franchise into one of the most storied and celebrated organizations in sport will make him a New Jersey Devil for life. He represented this organization, our current and former players, the state of New Jersey, and the greatest fans in the National Hockey League in a manner that exemplified character, class, and dignity.”
Under Lamoriello’s watch, the Devils went 1093-759-179-109 (W-L-T-OTL), however the club has been in a precipitous decline since reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2012. The Devils went 32-36-14 last season, which was the worst record during the Lamoriello era.
Judging Lamoriello on his entire body of work shows a talented executive, who deservedly earned a Hall of Fame nod before he even retired. But the recent years in New Jersey have been abysmal and many of the moves the now former GM has made haven’t worked out.
Some of the Devils’ plight was out of Lamoriello’s hands. Ilya Kovalchuk bolted to the KHL mid-contract. Zach Parise left in free agency. Martin Brodeur eventually aged. But there wasn’t enough of a contingency plan to keep the Devils among the class of the league and now they’re a long way from it. Many of the post-Parise era free agent signings haven’t worked out and there were no young players in the pipeline to step up adequately enough. Shero has a mess to clean up now and has already started doing his part to fix things.
When Lamoriello stepped aside for Shero, it looked like his time as a GM was over and that he’d quietly slip further away from those responsibilities and maybe even retire one day. He is 72 after all. But this move obviously blows up that notion.
Now with Lamoriello in the mix, it will be interesting to see how responsibilities change within the organization, particularly for Dubas and Hunter. It will also be interesting to find out just how long Lamoriello stays on the job. If he’s a placeholder for one of Dubas or Hunter, or perhaps even Shanahan to become GM, then there are probably few better mentors out there than the experienced Lamoriello.
That said, this hiring comes at a strange time for the Maple Leafs. After trading away Kessel, they are clearly in some form of rebuild mode. Other deals may come soon as well. There hasn’t been a whole lot of rebuilding necessary in New Jersey… until now, that is.
With Shanahan at the top of the pyramid, how the power structure works going forward is fascinating. Lamoriello is famously old-school. He keeps his lips sealed and is used to everything running through him. The Leafs, meanwhile, have new executives that have already set the wheels in motion on a plan for the future that should be hesitant to change what they’ve been doing of late. Not only that, but throw Babcock into the mix, and you’ve got one of the most interesting mixes of personalities anywhere in the NHL. It almost seems like there’s powderkeg potential here.
Lamoriello is unquestionably one of the most respected individuals in the game, but in 28 years in New Jersey, he never experienced anything quite like this. The Maple Leafs are going to present new challenges. Perhaps that energizes Lamoriello after spending nearly three decades in the same spot. Or perhaps the challenges prove too great.
Even if Lamoriello is only a stop-gap at GM, the decisions made during his tenure will have a lasting impact on where Toronto goes next, for better or for worse.
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