Shanahan goes with a hockey godfather
When Dean Lombardi was named a general manager for the first time he was scared to death, so he called Lou Lamoriello. He didn’t know Lou, but he asked the boss of the New Jersey Devils for an audience, and Lou granted it. They talked for three hours, and it was never about the team: it was about the organization, culture, values. Dean still doesn’t know why Lou did it. But he knew he needed help, so he went to New Jersey.
In a sentence nobody ever expected to read, Lou Lamoriello is now the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Like Dave Nonis before him, he says he has autonomy; like Nonis before him, the final vision and decisions rest with team president Brendan Shanahan. Lamoriello drafted Shanahan as an 18-year-old in 1987.
This will be a different thing, for both of them.
“He’s much more nimble than people think. He’s much more flexible than people think,” Shanahan said.
“I’m not afraid of very talented, strongwilled individuals. I actually think it’s an asset to have that in the organization. I think as long as the leadership is right, it can work."
“I just don’t see the logic in saying, just hire less competent people because they’re more likely to get along.” Shanahan said.
“I want winners. Winners know how to adapt to win. Will it be a challenge? Yeah, sure. It’s a challenge to have a great hockey team. It’s not easy to have a team full of superstars.”
Shanahan was criticized by some for moving too slowly; maybe now he will be criticized for doing too much. But he has assembled a fascinating array of strong voices for the Leafs, and it’s up to him to manage them. The Devils have been an act of Lamoriello’s will for 28 years. Mike Babcock is the coach that Lou finally cannot fire. The rest of the room will include wunderkind assistant GM Kyle Dubas, who was born the year before Lamoriello drafted Shanahan, and scouting boss Mark Hunter, and assistant Brandon Pridham. Shanahan says he doesn’t want yes-men, and he wants to be challenged. Well, here they go.
“I just believe in no tiptoeing,” said Babcock in a phone interview, in which he praised the hiring. “I tell that to the athletic therapy people, to physios, the equipment guys, to my coaches. I tell everybody, I’m not tiptoeing around you, and I don’t expect you to tiptoe around me. I want you to fight for your idea. (Detroit general manager) Kenny Holland used to say, ‘You don’t mind managing, so I’m going to coach the team.’ So I’d give him my input, and he’d give me his input.
“When I’m dealing with Hunts, you bet I’m giving him my input. When I deal with Kyle Dubas, I’m doing the same. And I expect the same. I think the most confident people, the best CEOs, hire the best people. That’s what I try to do. Hire the best people because they make you better, they challenge you to be better.”
That’s the play here, all right. Lamoriello isn’t here for the long haul; he’s 72. It’s a three-year deal, and you can bet there’s an option to be a senior advisor after that, and either Dubas or Hunter could become the GM. If Lou can teach them how to see the poker table of the NHL, with all its corners, that’s an organizational win. As one league source put it, Lou doesn’t just know where the bodies are buried, he may have dug some graves.
Of course Lamoriello being in charge isn’t a guarantee of anything. The 2012 voyage to the Cup final aside, the Devils have lagged in the cap era. Largely empty drafts, old free agents, battles with the new ownership over how to do things. That’s why Shanahan was able to get Lou: because Lou wasn’t in charge anymore, and didn’t get to decide who was. Shanahan told him, “Every time you feel like you’re not in the fire . . . think about this conversation.”
So Lou is in the fire again, and he’s used to being in charge of everything from uniforms to haircuts. But he says he is committed to the slow and patient road, just as Babcock did. A 72-year-old godfather with a three-year deal doesn’t scream patience, but that’s why there’s a bigger voice in the room.
Which is why, more than anything, this is a bet on Brendan Shanahan. He’s betting that he can handle all these powerful personalities, that he can set the vision, and that he can pull the best out of everyone.
“(Lamoriello) comes into this job with his eyes wide open as to how I envisioned the organization, which is the same as Mike,” says Shanahan. “Which is that Brandon Pridham is just as important to him as anyone else that I’ve hired, in his own way. As is Mark Hunter. As is Kyle Dubas. As is the coach, and the GM. As is (Marlies coach) Sheldon Keefe.
“My challenge, and my job, is to make it all work. It’s to put the team together, and allow people to do their jobs, and I think I know Lou well enough that reputations and rumours aside, that he is not someone that only knows how to do things one way.”
This is the team. The Leafs are the challenge. Here they go.