Lamoriello decision a big part of off-season
Montreal general manager Marc Bergevin arrived in Toronto with a vote of confidence of this week, after owner Geoff Molson offered his support when approached by reporters during a Belgian royal visit. And his Leafs counterpart, Lou Lamoriello? No one’s looking for a vote of confidence, just a little clarification.
The GMs are watching Canada’s most storied franchises go in different directions — the Canadiens, plagued with injuries, about to miss the playoffs for the second time in three years; the Leafs, challenging the leauge’s elite, headed to the post-season for the second year in a row.
Bergevin’s Canadiens are clearly missing the youthful energy and the depth of talent that has made the Leafs a paradigm for many rebuilding franchises in the NHL.
Lamoriello, who built the New Jersey Devils into an annual contender that won three Stanley Cups and reached two more finals, has overseen the Leafs’ rapid rise from a last-place team two years ago. But he’s also 75 years old, and his contract is up at the end of the season.
Thus the need for a little clarification.
Leafs president Brendan Shanahan Shanahan hasn’t spoken to Lamoriello about his contract or his future, or those who could be most directly affected by any decision to stay or go, according to a report on Hockey Night in Canada. Of course, there’s still the present, and the fast-approaching playoffs, to worry about.
Lamoriello certainly doesn’t appear to be slowing down, but it is believed his contract might contain succession clauses, including the possibility of another executive, advisory-type role when his GM days are done. And there are certainly candidates within the organization to take over when that time comes.
That’s another reason for Sha- nahan keeping things close to his vest.
Many believer the favourite is 31-year-old Kyle Dubas, who has spent three years as an assistant and has been the GM of the superbly run Marlies, who have graduated several cornerstone players to the parent club. But there are a wealth of top hockey men in the front office: fellow assistants Mark Hunter and Brandon Pridham, senior adviser Cliff Fletcher, director of team operations Brad Lynn, director of hockey and scouting operations Reid Mitchell, and director of player evaluation Jim Paliafito.
Hunter might chief among that group, the one executive the Leafs can’t afford to risk as collateral damage in any GM decision they make.
Don Cherry recently spoke of the AAA hockey games he goes to in the GTA, and he mentioned he only NHL executive he regularly sees at the rinks is Hunter. The 55-year-old former NHLer is one of the game’s pre-eminent talent evaluators, and his work has led to the Leafs’ success in the last several NHL drafts.
Consider, for instance, the most recent draft, where the Leafs chose defenceman Timothy Liljegren. That selection was made as much on Hunter (and others) watching Liljegren from his early teen years, as it was on projecting his 18-yearold talent level into an NHL serviceable blueliner.
Several of the Leafs young core players were selected based on the same model of pre-emptive scouting – miles of it, in fact, that goes largely unnoticed.
Shanahan clearly has a delicate balancing act in hand, when he makes his decision on Lamoriello and the future of the GM position.
Interestingly, Lamoriello and Detroit’s Ken Holland are the only two NHL GM’s with expiring contracts this summer.
Holland has links to Leafs coach Mike Babcock, the Red Wings’ former bench boss, and speculation about Holland’s future is already a hot topic of conversation in Toronto and elsewhere.
But there is only one Lamoriello. He believes in people, and has connected with some current Leafs as far back as their early teen years.