Five vital questions about Lou Lamoriello joining Maple Leafs

Lou Lamoriello shocked the hockey world on Thursday when he resigned from the New Jersey Devils’ presidency and agreed to become the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. 

It wouldn’t be Lou if we didn’t have more questions than answers right now – after all, this is the man who used “status quo” to address 80 percent of the media queries he fielded over 28 years with the Devils.

Here are five vital questions about Lou Lamoriello’s decision to leave the Devils, join the Leafs and his introductory press conference.

1. Is Lou ready to be less important than his coach?

Mike Babcock has an eight-year contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs worth a reported $50 million. Lou Lamoriello has a 3-year deal that we imagine isn’t netting him $6.25 million annually.

Which is to say that for the first time in his NHL career, Lou Lamoriello is less important to the organization than his coach.

Oh, he’s had stars behind the bench before. Herb Brooks coached the Devils. Jacques Lemaire was a Canadiens icon that Lamoriello sold on coaching the team. The late Pat Burns won a Cup in Jersey.

But each of them was secondary to the man upstairs, and that’s just not the case in Toronto: This is Mike Babcock’s team, and Lou Lamoriello is essentially serving at the pleasure of a coach he didn’t hire.

Leafs president Brendan Shanahan – also more important than Lou, for that matter – doesn’t see this as a problem.

“I spoke to Lou about Mike, and Lou is a big fan of Mike Babcock and Mike Babcock is a big fan of Lou,” he said. “I don’t think this is a big issue.”

Hey, it’s not like the guy they just hired hadn’t gone through 22 coaches in 28 years, including naming himself head coach on three different occasions.

Oh, wait …

2. Will Emperor Lamoriello be one of many voices?

While it’s usually protocol for newly hired general managers to clean house and bring in their own front office personnel, the Toronto Maple Leafs are quite happy with Mark Hunter as director of player personnel and Kyle Dubas as assistant general manager.

They’re both strong-willed executives with their own ideas for the direction of the club. Throw in Shanahan, and that’s a lot of influential voices in the Leafs front office, talking to a general manager that’s been a solo act for 28 years.

Given Shanahan’s reverence for Lou, one assumes Lamoriello will get final say on player personnel decisions, and Lou seemed to signal that on Thursday.

“No one makes any decision without consulting the people that are around them. But if you know anything about me: We’ll make the decisions,” said Lamoriello, in a ‘buck stops here’ moment during his press conference.

Are the Leafs better off with Lamoriello calling the shots for the next three years, or having his voice as one of many in the front office?

3. Can an old dog learn new math?

Lamoriello has been receptive to the advanced stats movement, if not necessarily preaching from the Corsi pulpit. When the Devils hired poker ace Sunny Mehta, at the behest of the team’s new owners, Lamoriello said he had already “added value” to the team’s talent evaluation.

Lou has a background in math, so that open-mindedness isn’t too unexpected. But the Leafs have been one of the most aggressive embracers of advanced stats, led by Dubas.  

Being open-minded is one thing; but is Lamoriello ready for analytics to be the foundation for player personnel moves?

Shanahan thinks the new school can teach the old school, and vice versa.

“I always think there are advantages to hiring people on the way up, but I did think we were lacking in some experience,” he said. “I think our young, highly talented management group will be a complement to Lou, too.”

4. Were the Devils’ finances to blame for Lamoriello’s demise?

One of the most surprising moments of Lamoriello’s presser was when he blamed the Devils’ finances for his inability to maintain success in Jersey.

“Maybe it was a thought process of the way things have gone in the last five years in New Jersey. There’s a lot of things that have transpired there that really … some are public, some are not, with reference to changes in ownership,” he said.

“You weren’t allowed to do some of the things for financial reasons, to be perfectly honest. It really started to change a little.”

Devils co-owner Josh Harris thought that was a reference to embattled former owner Jeff Vanderbeek – who, it should be said, funded the Ilya Kovalchuk contract – and said the following, via Fire and Ice:

“I think he was referring to Vanderbeek,” Harris said. “The answer, like we’ve said countless times and we’ll say again, our ultimate goal is to build a consistent winner and elite team. … We’re not going to be silly about it.  But we are happy to invest on an intelligent basis across the board.

”That said, the Devils were in the bottom half of the league in payroll the past two seasons and it appears right now as if they will be in the bottom five teams in in payroll in the NHL in 2015-16. Harris said those decisions are not based on owner-imposed economic restrictions, though.

“In order to build a good team, there’s free agency, there’s trades and there’s drafts,” Harris said. “And you know, we are going to make intelligent (decisions) with our goal in mind, we are going to make intelligent decisions in all those areas.  There is a cap in place in this league and we are not going to invest in assets that we think will hamper our long-run strategy.”

That speaks to another one of Lamoriello’s comments, about the direction of the current Devils: “I thought maybe there was a change in the thought process as far as a transition,” he said of current ownership.

Even if Lamoriello wasn’t given the financial backing he had in previous years, there’s no question he was able to make some large financial commitments: Landing Mike Cammalleri at $5 million annually; keeping Travis Zajac at $5.75 million through 2021; giving Cory Schneider a $6 million annual deal through 2022; and, of course, making one of the all-time worst signings in Devils history: Ryane Clowe, making $4.85 million against the cap through 2018.

Speaking of the Devils …

5. Has Lamoriello lost it?

Lamoriello is 72 years old. He’s been at this for decades. And the game has changed dramatically over that time, both in the way it’s played in the NHL and the way teams are built in the cap era.

The fact is that the Devils were mismanaged under Lamoriello for several years before Shero replaced him. That 2012 run to the Stanley Cup Final – fueled by awesome postseason performances by Ilya Kovalchuk and Martin Brodeur – was an outlier. From 2008 through 2015, it was the only time the Devils advanced past the conference quarterfinals, missing the playoffs entirely four times.

The good news is that instead of making ill-fated moves to desperately keep a fading core relevant, Lamoriello is in charge of a Leafs team that’s rebuilding.

The bad news is that not only had the Devils drafted poorly in the last decade, there were times when Lamoriello’s opinion on what makes a solid NHLer in 2015 seemed at odds with what actually makes a solid NHLer in 2015.

So once again, it comes down to Lamoriello’s ability to lead a coalition rather than act as the dictator he was in New Jersey for 28 years. To open his mind to the idea of the other talented people in the Leafs’ braintrust, from Babcock to Hunter to Dubas to Shanahan.

“I think what Lou brings to us is very valuable. What Lou said is that this is like an orchestra, and this orchestra works well with Lou,” said Shanahan.

“But I also think the guys that we’ve assembled here are going to be good for Lou.”

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