Lamoriello on board to save Isles’ sinking ship

Hall of Fame exec named Islanders' President of Hockey Operations

May 22, 2018 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Lou Lamoriello, the Islanders’ new President of Hockey Operations, has three Stanley Cup rings, a gold medal as general manager of Team USA and a bust in the Hockey Hall of Fame. AP Photo by Mel Evans

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“O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,

The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won.”

Former Brooklyn Eagle editor and legendary American poet Walt Whitman’s words were ringing throughout Downtown Brooklyn yesterday morning when the New York Islanders officially announced that Hall of Fame executive Lou Lamoriello was climbing aboard the franchise’s unsteady ship.

The 75-year-old Rhode Island native, the overseer of three Stanley Cups as general manager and team president of the New Jersey Devils from 1987 to 2015, was relieved of his GM duties in Toronto several weeks ago after three solid rebuilding campaigns.

Though Lamoriello had four years remaining on his pact with the Maple Leafs, it was evident to all that once his previous job was filled last Friday by 32-year-old Kyle Dubas, the sage executive would be back in play to overtake another organization.

The Athletic reported Monday night that Lamoriello, who also served as general manager for the World Cup-winning Team USA squad in 1996, had agreed to a post with the reeling Islanders.

Yesterday morning, the Islanders themselves made it official, naming Lamoriello their new President of Hockey Operations.

“We are grateful to (Maple Leafs chairman) Larry Tanenbaum and the Toronto Maple Leafs for their courtesy in allowing this move,” said Islanders co-owner Scott Malkin in the team’s official release.

“We are committed to giving Lou every resource and the full support of the entire organization as we pursue our program to compete at the highest level.”

That level hasn’t been reached by this franchise since the halcyon days of the 1980s, when New York reeled off four consecutive Stanley Cups behind Hall of Famers like Mike Bossy, Bryan Trottier and Denis Potvin.

The Isles advanced as far as the Eastern Conference Finals in 1993 and have won just one playoff series since, knocking off the Florida Panthers in the first round in 2016 to highlight a memorable inaugural campaign in our fair borough.

Making matters worse, the team ranked dead last in the NHL in home attendance last season, coming in at 12,002 per night at a building that is ill-equipped to host a professional hockey team.

Current general manager Garth Snow, who has delivered four postseason appearances in a dozen years on the job, is now officially on the clock for potential removal or re-assignment.

Second-year head coach Doug Weight, coming off a deeply disappointing season that saw New York burst out of the gate only to fall well short of playoff contention, should also be sitting by the phone.

One team employee Lamoriello is more than likely to keep around is his son, Chris, who has been Snow’s assistant GM since 2016 and worked under his father for the better part of two decades in New Jersey.

“I am excited to join such a storied franchise and look forward to working with Scott Malkin and the entire New York Islanders organization,” Lamoriello said in a team-issued statement.

Putting Snow and Weight aside for a moment, Lamoriello’s primary task in righting the Isles’ ship is to get team captain and face-of-the-franchise John Tavares to sign on the dotted line within the next month.

The Isles’ first overall pick in 2009 has until July 1 to hit unrestricted free agency and can begin courting other teams’ offers in the week leading up to that deadline.

Lamoriello, who helped make the Devils a perennial powerhouse and resurrected Toronto into a formidable Eastern Conference contender over the past three seasons, was likely lured here to show Tavares that the Isles had a brilliant hockey mind in place to make their own push toward a Stanley Cup.

Though he has remained steadfast in his desire to remain with the only organization he has ever known, Tavares hasn’t fully committed to signing the eight-year, $100-million-plus pact that the Isles have on the table.

Lamoriello has reportedly already met with Tavares, doubtlessly trying to find out what it is the 27-year-old two-time Hart Trophy finalist needs, besides money, to remain an Islander.

With a new state-of-the-art arena scheduled to open in Belmont, N.Y., in 2021, the Isles will split their home dates over the next three seasons between the Barclays Center and the renovated Nassau Coliseum.

Lamoriello’s job, beginning with bringing back Tavares and orchestrating next month’s NHL Entry Draft, is to make this ongoing “in-between era” a fruitful one for a franchise that has failed to reach anything resembling steady relevance on the New York sporting scene for most of the last three decades.

If anyone can do it, Lou can.

Isle Have Another: Anders Lee, who led the Isles this past season with his first career 40-goal campaign, scored an empty-netter Sunday morning to cap Team USA’s 4-1 victory over Team Canada in the bronze medal game at the 2018 IIHF Championships in Denmark. Lee, the lone Islander on the American squad, was up against New York teammates Mathew Barzal, Jordan Eberle, Anthony Beauvillier, Josh Bailey and Ryan Pulock during the two-week tournament. Despite coming home without a medal, Barzal, the heavy favorite for NHL Rookie of the Year honors, piled up seven assists in 10 games for the Canadians. The bronze was Lee’s second in IIHF play as he also grabbed the third-place prize with Team USA in 2015.