Focus on the team
Lou reveals Isles’ plan post-Tavares
It has not been the easiest week for Lou Lamoriello and the Islanders, but they are doing what they can to not let the loss of John Tavares crush them.
Certainly, that’s easier said than done after the franchise player decided to bolt for his hometown Maple Leafs when free agency opened on Sunday. In the ensuing days, Lamoriello has tried to bolster his roster with character players, and he hopes that can help reestablish a winning and professional culture within the organization.
“First of all, we did everything we possibly could to keep John,” Lamoriello said on SiriusXM Radio on Thursday in his first public comments since Tavares left. “He’s been an exceptional player for the Islanders and he’s a quality player. But he now is with another team. That’s the past. What we’re doing right now is trying to get knowledge of who we are — that is, myself learning more about each and every one of the players here.”
Lamoriello took over as team president on May 22, and within two weeks, he relieved general manager Garth Snow and coach Doug Weight. On June 21, he was able to hire new coach Barry Trotz just days after he had won the Stanley Cup behind the Capitals’ bench.
The thought was that showed a newfound commitment to winning which might keep Tavares with the team that drafted him firstoverall in 2009. But it wasn’t enough, and now the Islanders have to get on with trying to improve.
“Barry and I and our staff will get prepared for next year,” Lamoriello said. “The one thing I’ve always said, and I’ve said it repeatedly: Individual players win games, but teams win championships.”
Of course, Lamoriello has extensive experience with winning, having brought home three Stanley Cups during his reign as general manager of the Devils. He also kickstarted the rebuilding in Toronto, where the Maple Leafs have one of the brightest young teams in the league, led by well-respected coach Mike Babcock — also one of the reasons Tavares found it such an attractive place to play.
But Lamoriello is not treating this like a total rebuild, as he did in Toronto. Instead, he said he sees some good core pieces already on the roster and is hoping more to improve the team on the fly.
Lamoriello added a couple of veteran players, including signing 31-year-old winger Leo Komarov to what most considered a very expensive four-year, $12 million contract.
“There’s no question that you look at that contract and you might say you’re overpaying for a player,” Lamoriello said.
But he cited Komarov’s “intangibles” in the locker room, and added one more caveat about contracts in general.
“I haven’t met a player that we haven’t overpaid for yet,” he said, “and they smile when I say that.”
The team also added goalie project Robin Lehner, which doesn’t rule out the possibility Lamoriello still will try to trade for a clear-cut No. 1. As expected, Trotz added Lane Lambert to his staff as an associate coach after the two worked together in Washington and previously in Nashville.
So maybe it’s not a total rebuild, but the Islanders sure are going to look different — and Lamoriello hopes that is for the better.
“It certainly is a lot of easier when you have players that have been together and have extra talents,” Lamoriello said. “But the team is what you have to do.”