DiManno: Shanny, Lou on opposite ends of their careers, pulling strings.
Leafs’ Shanahan wouldn’t give up on Lamoriello
One is an iconoclast — architect of the New Jersey Devils Way, which for nearly three decades was the Lou Lamoriello Way, full stop.
One is rapidly proving himself to be the un-conventionalist — architect of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ reinvention, evolving.
A stunning development, Brendan Shanahan hiring Lamoriello as GM, the man who drafted him into the NHL as an 18-year-old, Lamoriello’s first significant act with the franchise he has now left behind.
They are on opposite ends of their executive careers, Shanahan the newbie prez, open-minded, and Lamoriello the old-school patriarch who will turn 73 shortly after the 2015-16 season launches. A hockey eminence grise, already in the Hall of Fame, to balance out the youthful (and crowded) front office that Shanahan has assembled, a collective high on zeal but low on NHL experience.
Absolutely nobody saw this coming, thus notch up another gobsmacker for Shanahan. The Leafs will be hardpressed to be as entertaining on the ice come October as they have been off the ice this summer. We tend to forget, so enthralled with all the comings and goings, that this remains a club of utterly undistinguished content where it most matters, and considerably less impressive with the shedding of its only bona fide star, Phil Kessel. And you’ll have to consult your program to keep all the Team Shanahan job titles straight.
After a season spent watching the product, saying almost nothing, doing even less, Shanahan has gone manic on his Leafs fixer-upper project, driving the U-Haul backwards by nailing down the most illustrious coach in the game, Mike Babcock, before filling the general manager vacancy. Lamoriello, quick on the fire-trigger, will not be hiring a bench boss in these parts unless he’s still here as an octogenarian. Fire Mike? Just the kind of scenario that local hockey media would put to the incoming general manager during his introductory session at the Air Canada Centre Thursday. “Mike hasn’t coached a game,” Lamoriello objected. “I haven’t been here a day. And you’re trying to make trouble. Next question.” But Toronto needed a GM and Shanahan insists he got the guy he’d most coveted, at least since Lamoriello relinquished the Devils’ reins in that capacity to Ray Shero in May, floating upwards to executive elder, presumably to gather moss until dignified retirement. Instead, Shanahan came a-hunting and a-luring, offering the initially disinterested Lamoriello a seductive shot at a second act.
“After I decided to form a transition and bring in Ray Shero and maybe take life a little easier and become president, and become a lifetime Devil, Brendan, when we had the conversation, said ‘I know you too well. This is not going to last long. I want you to think about something, just think about it.
“It wasn’t once he said that (but) eventually he got to me.’’
Shanahan, said Lamoriello, was dogged. He didn’t take no for an answer. And his powers of persuasion, as we’ve seen in recent months, are extraordinary.
Says the prez: “When you’re the youngest of four Irish boys at a dinner table your whole life, you learn how to fight for the last potato.”
Lamoriello is the potato.
One potato, two potato, three potato, four . . . a description of Shanahan’s management cadre. How this will all shake out in practice remains to be seen, betwixt and between Lamoriello, Mark Hunter, Kyle Dubas and Brandon Pridham. Mentor to assistant GM (GM-in-grooming) Dubas, clearly.
“I think having Lou in the organization is an opportunity for him to mentor us all,” said Shanahan in a smooth segue. “Lou was somebody that certainly had an influence on me. Even after I left New Jersey, Lou and I kept up a very good rela- tionship during my career and even after my career.”
Further from the prez, on how this un-orthodox structure will operate with Lamoriello at the top of the pyramid: “I’ve got a lot of faith with guys like Brandon and Mark Hunter and Kyle Dubas. I’ve always thought there are certain advantages to hiring people on their way up that are looking to prove themselves and have that sort of hunger and energy to make a name for themselves. But I do think we are lacking in some experience. So if I could map out or draw out a description of the kind of person that we wanted, it would be Lou.”
Traditionally, general managers have the authority to make unilateral decisions, with presidential and board approval sought on the big moves that involve big bucks. “No one makes any decision without consulting the people that are around them and their supporting staff,’’ noted Lamoriello. “But if you know anything about me, we’ll make the decisions.”
Except we do know quite a lot about Lamoriello, and he’s never been particularly consultative as a hockey executive, neither on the big stuff or the little stuff. (The Lamoriello Way, for instance: No facial hair, he even forced Pat Burns to shave off his beard when hiring the former Leaf coach who brought New Jersey a third Stanley Cup in the Lou Era.)
“I made a joke with Lou, I don’t wear ties every day,” recalled Shanahan of their discussions, which were off-and-on, start-and-stop, hot-and-cool, and then suddenly came to fruition over a few days in the past week. “He laughed and said, that’s fine with me. As far as Mark Hunter, I think Mark Hunter can keep his facial hair.” So this is something of a reinvention for Lamoriello, too.
That can’t be easy for someone accustomed to being the only voice in the room, he who must be obeyed. Assured of GM autonomy here, he indicated, “That’s what I’m told.”
But 28 years a loyal Devil — how to discard that identity?
He admits to melancholy in departing New Jersey. “That was the toughest thing at the end. I use the
“I think having Lou in the organization is an opportunity for him to mentor us all.” BRENDAN SHANAHAN LEAFS PRESIDENT