Brooklyn Boro

Captain Lou to the rescue for Islanders?

Could Brooklyn be Hall of Fame General Manager’s next/last stop?

May 3, 2018 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle
After stepping down from a very successful three-year stint as general manager in Toronto, Lou Lamoriello may be available to take the helm of the struggling Brooklyn-based New York Islanders this summer. AP Photo by Mel Evans
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Lou Lamoriello’s legacy as a Hall of Fame general manager is already secure.

But could the architect of the New Jersey Devils’ well-chronicled run of three Stanley Cup titles and five Finals appearances between 1995-2012 be headed back to the tri-state area in a bid to help the Brooklyn-based New York Islanders return to their former glory, if not just relevance on the NHL landscape?

A lot would have to happen for the 75-year-old Rhode Island native to be back in charge of a local franchise less than a week after ending a successful three-year run as GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

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First, the Islanders would have to give Garth Snow his walking papers, which should be the easy part since the former goaltender has overseen four playoff appearances, including just one postseason series win, over the last dozen years.

Then, team owners Scott Malkin and Jon Ledecky, who are trying to get their state-of-the-art arena constructed in Belmont, N.Y., while holding on for dear life to the franchise’s most important player, John Tavares, would have to convince Lamoriello to take the position.

One definite lure for Lamoriello to move into his new office on the corners of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues would be that his son, Chris Lamoriello, is already on the job in Brooklyn.

Chris Lamoriello has been Snow’s assistant general manager and the Islanders’ Director of Player Personnel since August of 2016. He also worked under his dad in New Jersey for almost two decades, serving in various roles, including GM of the team’s AHL affiliate in Albany.

Despite claiming that he would live up to his contract in Toronto and serve out the next couple of years in an advisor’s role, it’s hard to imagine the senior Lamoriello watching from afar as someone else takes charge of the foundation he has built with the Maple Leafs.

“I made an agreement and a decision three years ago and it’s my intent to honor that,” Lamoriello said when asked if his eyes were already roaming the NHL landscape for another GM job.

The legendary team builder, who also led Team USA to a memorable World Cup Championship over Canada in 1996, will likely wait for Maple Leafs Team President Brendan Shanahan, a player Lamoriello drafted second overall for New Jersey back in 1987, to name his successor before playing the field.

The word is that 31-year-old assistant GM Kyle Dubas is next in line for the suddenly open position in Toronto after learning under Lamoriello, who took the Maple Leafs from 69 points in 2015-16 to a franchise-record 105 this past season.

The Isles certainly need a shakeup after missing out on the playoffs for a second straight year despite boasting a load of offensive talent, including team captain Tavares, who is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

Snow’s job with the team likely hinges on whether he can get Tavares, the Isles’ first overall pick in 2009 and their best player since the halcyon days of the 1980s, to sign on the dotted line this summer.

The perennial All-Star center and two-time Hart Trophy finalist has taken a wait-and-see approach to his pending free agency, likely waiting to see whether he feels there is an opportunity to hoist the Stanley Cup at some point during what will likely be an eight-year pact in the $110 million range.

“It’s a big decision and there’s a lot that goes into it and that’s a big reason why I’ve taken my time,” said Tavares, who led the Isles to their only playoff series win since 1993 during the team’s inaugural campaign in our fair borough back in 2015-16.

“For me personally, you realize that you don’t know how many opportunities you get to get to this point and possibly see what the landscape is,” he added. “I don’t necessarily know if that’s even what I want to do yet.”

Players like super rookie and likely Calder Trophy winner Mathew Barzal, Anthony Beauvillier, Josh Bailey, Jordan Eberle and Anders Lee, the team leader with a career-high 40 goals last season, point to a bright future for New York.

But the team’s defense yielded the most shots and goals in the NHL in 2017-18, offsetting what should have been a breakthrough year for the franchise after Ledecky and Malkin won the coveted Belmont bid.

Instead, the Isles sunk deeper into irrelevance, averaging an NHL-low 12,002 fans per home contest at the not-built-for-ice-hockey Barclays Center.

That’s more than 1,000 less fans per game than the 30th-ranked Arizona Coyotes, a shameful statistic when considering what a hockey hot bed New York is compared to the Grand Canyon State.

With one skate already out of the door in Brooklyn following the announcement that they will play half of their home games at the renovated Nassau Coliseum over the next three campaigns, the Isles need a powerful voice in the organization to make them appear more like a team on the rise, rather than one sailing aimlessly on a rudderless ship.

Lamoriello’s experience and proven track record make him a perfect candidate to step in and seize power in Downtown Brooklyn, if, of course, he is interested in revamping yet another organization.

“As an organization we will be evaluating all aspects of our hockey operations and then we will make decisions based on what is best for the future of our club,” Ledecky said at Barclays during last month’s end-of-season, state-of-the-team address.

“We believe it is essential to our success to have a thoughtful evaluation process, to look at the past and more importantly, assess the future of our team, on and off the ice,” he added.

While there is still plenty of time to evaluate and make decisions, the Isles should be ready to pounce as soon as Shanahan names his new GM in Toronto and Lamoriello decides to leave Toronto.

The alternative is more of the same for a franchise that hasn’t really mattered on the New York sporting scene since Denis Potvin, Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy ruled the NHL roost more than 30 years ago.

Isle Have Another: The Isles were saddened to announce yesterday afternoon that Bill Torrey, the architect of their legendary Stanley Cup teams of the ’80s and general manager during the franchise’s first 20 years of existence, had passed away at the age of 83. “Bill set the model for how to build a franchise with the leadership he instilled through his coaching staff, his innovative drafting methods and the trades he executed,” Snow said in a team-issued statement. “He was a pioneer, who became a mentor and even better friend, to so many in the industry. The teams he constructed set records that may never be broken, including the four straight Stanley Cup Championships and 19 straight playoff series wins. On behalf of the entire organization, we send our deepest condolences to Bill’s family.”


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