When do we question Lou Lamoriello's legacy as a general manager?
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vadim sharifijanov
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to me, the legacy of lou’s extremely successful first act was inheriting a really good core and then knowing which pieces were indispensable, which pieces needed to be upgraded, and which valuable pieces he could afford to lose to gain in other areas. of course he also had great scouts, led by conte, and knew well enough to listen to them.
the goaltending is a great example of this. he inherited four highly regarded young goalies (sean burke, kirk mclean, chris terreri, craig billington), all future starters in the league, two of them future vezina finalists. knowing sean burke is ready to join the team after the olympics, he immediately trades one for veteran help, mclean and greg adams for patrik sundstrom. he also acquires a PMD (tom kurvers) for a third round pick. that first devils team of his made the playoffs for the first time ever and came within a game of the finals. both acquisitions made huge contributions: sundstrom led the team in playoff scoring, kurvers led the D with 15 pts. burke was a revelation, going almost undefeated in the stretch run after the olympics before starring in the playoffs, and was getting dryden comparisons and was labeled the best young goalie in the game.
flash forward to the 1990 draft. burke and billington are both 23 year old former top 25 picks. terreei is ok the cusp of a leap that would see him get vezina votes in 1992 and 1993. but lou knows, if i want to be a great, not just good, team, i don’t have the cornerstone goaltending i need longterm. so in that draft, he takes three goalies, brodeur, dunham, and schwab. he also significantly passes up trevor kidd, one of the top two or three goalie prospects to enter the draft in the previous decade. i don’t give him credit for knowing that brodeur (who iirc was a reach at 20?) was going to be better than kidd, or knowing that kidd was overrated, but i do give him credit for listening to his staff.
you can say the same about how he parlayed muller, verbeek, kurvers, burke, and weinrich (which around the turn of the decade looked like a solid B+ core) into richer, claude lemieux, niedermayer, and holik. you can pick apart each individual move say he got lucky or it was a lateral move, but you have to look at the big picture. that cup winning devils core was built by good process.
People forgot that they come very close to beating Tampa Bay in game 7. They could have beat the Habs at the final to win the stanley cup in 2021.
Pavel Buchnevich
"Pavel Buchnevich The Fake"
I don’t know how you can say it doesn’t matter. It’s not all that matters, but it’s part of his history as a GM.
Him and Trotz stick out to me out of all the GMs. They are making questionable decisions, mistakes and maybe the problem is they only hire staff that won't question or oppose them.
Should add to this while he was winning Stanley Cups with the Devils, he also ran the NJ Nets during the only period of time that organization had success. Most notably it was him that stepped in and stopped Nets ownership from interfering and allowing Nets GM Rod Thorne to trade for Jason Kidd. It’s also kind of known that George Steinbrenner and points tried to pry him away to run the Yankees.
Lou’s strength is his ability to cut out the BS in an organization and get everyone focused in one direction. That’s why Shanny brought him to Toronto, that’s why he was able to turn around the Islanders after 15+ years of disfunction. There are many teams that need that organizational structure and focus (looking at the direction of the Sabres).
You want to credit Brodeur for the Devils prolonged success. Well Lou drafted him. Lou hired the scouts that had him ahead of Kidd allowing them to trade down and still get him.
You want say Niedermayer was lucky. Partly yes. The target was Lindros. But Lou was the one who identified a sucker team that could fall back and give him their #1 more than a year in advance (Sam Pollack and Bill Torrey are in the HHOF for similar moves).
He also crafted the legal argument and case for Stevens as compensation even when the Blues presented what was otherwise a strong package.
Finally, Barry Trotz does not come to Long Island if Lou isn’t the GM.
Lou’s strength is his ability to cut out the BS in an organization and get everyone focused in one direction. That’s why Shanny brought him to Toronto, that’s why he was able to turn around the Islanders after 15+ years of disfunction. There are many teams that need that organizational structure and focus (looking at the direction of the Sabres).
You want to credit Brodeur for the Devils prolonged success. Well Lou drafted him. Lou hired the scouts that had him ahead of Kidd allowing them to trade down and still get him.
You want say Niedermayer was lucky. Partly yes. The target was Lindros. But Lou was the one who identified a sucker team that could fall back and give him their #1 more than a year in advance (Sam Pollack and Bill Torrey are in the HHOF for similar moves).
He also crafted the legal argument and case for Stevens as compensation even when the Blues presented what was otherwise a strong package.
Finally, Barry Trotz does not come to Long Island if Lou isn’t the GM.
One more thing. He was also the GM of the only US team (so far) to win a best on best tournament.
His legacy as one of the best sports executives of the 20th and 21st centuries is secured even if the team he manages now goes through a down cycle.
His legacy as one of the best sports executives of the 20th and 21st centuries is secured even if the team he manages now goes through a down cycle.
SmoggyTwinkles
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Imagine getting old (if you're lucky)
And some nerd on the internet wants to ask around about how to evaluate your life.
And some nerd on the internet wants to ask around about how to evaluate your life.
Martin Skoula
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The organizational reshuffling stuff sounds like something a president or some other made up role can do without the downside of 8 years of Engvall and Zaitsev. His actual on-paper txs have been rough for over a decade, I don’t know that they’re a necessary vital component of the rest of the Lou process.
Cut through the corporate bullshit, get everyone shaving, let someone else handle trades and FAs.
Ridiculous hyperbole.
20 years ago, Lou was coming off three cups and four finals in a 10 year span.
Breakers
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Jauffre
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See the "like"? Didn't mean exactly. Also he built the core before that. After 09-10 season it has been disastrous
ItWasJustified
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The Islanders were 2 goals away from a Stanley Cup final against the Canadiens three and a half years ago.
Mike C
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Prettyisland
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Menzinger
Kessel4LadyByng
Lou was a fantastic GM during the older, pre-cap era NHL. The work he did with the Devils during that period speaks for itself.
In the current NHL, he's still very capable of bringing stability to organizations in chaos, but struggles during the actual team building part of things. He's much more suited to being a president/senior advisor than a GM now
In the current NHL, he's still very capable of bringing stability to organizations in chaos, but struggles during the actual team building part of things. He's much more suited to being a president/senior advisor than a GM now
Louskoolaid89
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Curufinwe
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Alexander the Gr8
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I generally agree with this assessment, except for the part where they didn’t have a shot at winning a Cup.
If they beat Tampa in Game 7 during the 2021 semifinals, we all know they would’ve defeated Montreal in the SCF.
I don’t like his recent work, but he managed to make the Isles more successful after Tavares’ departure.
Shane Diesel
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Someone probably can clarify, but didn't he set Daneyko straight on a substance abuse issue he had?
I also recall someone on here saying he helped Lehner through a dark time.
(I could be misremembering both)
I also recall someone on here saying he helped Lehner through a dark time.
(I could be misremembering both)
Beukeboom Fan
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That is called putting a cohesive management team in place. While you might fall into group think, if you have good hockey folks that's a lot better than people who have wildly different approaches trying to align.
Beukeboom Fan
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Were the Flyers legit contenders in 2010? As a Hawks fan, I 100% say yes. Same with the Oilers last year.
No one is calling the Isle Champions for 2020-21, but it's complete BS to retroactively say they didn't have a chance to win the Cup when they were one bounce away from playing a team they would have heavily favored against.
