Lou Lamoriello shockingly New Toronto GM; he's been great but I'm glad we have a younger progressive gm instead of a dinosaur

Yesterday it was shocking to announce that the Toronto Maple Leafs hired former longtime New Jersey Devils General Manager Lou Lamoriello as their new GM. Lamoriello had been the GM of the Devils since 1987, before stepping down this past May but remained team president before leaving to go to the Leafs.

Lamoriello is a hall of fame GM for building the Devils into a Cup contender for most of his 28 years on the job. They missed the playoffs only six times since he's been there (although four times have occurred in his last five seasons there) and have won the Stanley Cup three times while losing twice more in 2001 and 2012.

Lamoriello is a living legend if you will and his time in New Jersey should be celebrated minus the fact if you are like myself, you hated the Devils and their stupid Neutral Zone Trap which helped really ruin the game of hockey. Nevertheless, the Leafs are doing something teams especially a big market like Toronto tend to do and that's reach for the past.

Of course Buffalo teams were really good at that but thankfully under the Pegula ownership, both Bills and Sabres are no longer doing that (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/im-glad-sabres-no-longer-reaching-in.html). I am mush more happy we have a young more progressive GM in Tim Murray then the old guard who has great ideas from about 20-25 years ago but does not have a clue in this day in age.

Now Lamoriello is not a part of the Leafs organization ever, but his past success is still reaching for past success with another team I might add. It is said that he drafted current Leafs President Brendan Shanahan so they have a good relationship. He was successful with the Devils in the past, the key word is WAS. Lamoriello was very successful, maybe most successful GM prior to the 2004-05 lockout with all three of his Cups in his first 17 years as GM. Post 04-05 Lockout was not as successful. While the Devils won four division titles in the first five years post 04-05 lockout (ironically same amount of division titles in his first 17 years), the Devils failed to make it out of the second round each year with three times losing in the first round.

The last five years of his tenure saw the Devils miss the playoffs four times with one notable exception being that they made it all the way to the Cup Finals in 2012, where they lost to the Los Angeles Kings. One of the biggest reasons for the decline was that Martin Brodeur was not the elite goalie (while still pretty good) as he was before the lockout. His numbers steadily declined as his save percentage kept going down each year and his playoff numbers and performances (minus the 2012 run to the finals) were bad, really bad as he was a shell of his former self.

Other reasons include Lamoriello's ability to be penny pinching, which worked for some time when they had really great talent on the blue line along with a hall of fame goalie in his prime. All that starts to catch up as they lost talented players such as Brian Gionta, Scott Gomez, and Zach Parise as he let them walk and trading away other key veterans (such as Jamie Langenbrunner) or letting them walk in free agency.

Losing Parise was especially tough as he failed to get a deal done before he became an unrestricted free agent after the 2011-12 run to the finals. Actually, Parise was an unrestricted free agent in 2011, but signed a one-year deal to remain after he missed most of the season with a knee injury, but Lamoriello failed to lock him up long term and he's been doing great in Minnesota while New Jersey struggles to be competitive.

He did trade for Ilya Kovalcyuk in 2010 and managed to sign him to a 15-year, $100 million deal that saw him fight with the NHL which was eventually solved, but not without the NHL fining them and taking away a first round pick for circumventing the salary cap originally. Kovalchuk's deal hurt the Devils' cap space as in 2010-11, that along with injures forced them to dress as few as 15 players at one point in a game and management came under intense scrutiny for that.

Kovalchuk was very productive in New Jersey and I don't blame Lamoriello one bit for signing him because they were terrible offensively minus Parise during these years. Kovalchuk suddenly "retired" from the NHL in 2013 and went back to Russia to play in the KHL. That hurt the Devils even more. Kovalchuk might have cost them a chance at re-signing Parise or maybe they thought they would lose him, whatever.

I can't blame Lamoriello for these moves, maybe should have done a better job with Parise so he made some moves out of desperation. He's signed old, past-their-prime players such as Shanahan, Brian Rolston, Bobby Holik, Petr Sykora, and Henrik Tallinder during his final decade there. To help make up for the loss of both Parise and Kovalchuk in 2013, Lamoriello decided to trade a top-10 pick for goalie Cory Schneider.

Schneider is very good and has been very good for New Jersey. But they thought they can get back to the old glory days of finding an elite goalie to make up for a loss of offense, which does not happen in this day of age. You don't need a big time, big money goalie you need elite forwards. Schneider is in a seven-year deal with a $6 million a year cap hit. That's a recipe for disaster. I like Schneider a lot, he's one of my favorite goalies, but he's in no man's land with no elite players in front of him which won't lead to a ton of success.

That's just Lamoriello reaching for the past of defense and elite goaltending, which is not that game anymore. Lamoriello gets credit and rightfully so for winning, but he gets too much credit like many who are successful for a long period of time for developing a "culture of winning" and "building a winner." If you know me you know that I think that whole culture of winning is a crock. Well it's not but only if you get great players and win. Then and only then do you build a culture of winning. It's not something you go into a locker room or front office and just say you're going to do it and make up some phony things that lead to building a winning culture.

Perfect example a few years ago, the Kansas City Chiefs hired Scott Pioli from the New England Patriots to run their team. He was from a winning culture known as "the Patriot way." He tried to establish that same culture in Kansas City by doing such small and petty BS things like make sure trash is picked up by placing a candy bar wrapper and see if anyone cleans it up and throw a fit if no one does. If you think I am kidding, go Google it. How did that work out? He and his cronies were fired in less than four years with one of the worst teams in the NFL. What about that winning culture? It turned out they couldn't bring Tom Brady with them.

So how did Lamoriello build a winning culture? It wasn't because he placed trash and made sure people picked it up or cleaned the bathrooms. It was because he found great players, especially in the draft. He obviously hit on Brodeur and Patrik Elias in late first and second rounds, drafting Shanahan 2nd overall, and even signing or trading for star players that were drafted at the top of the draft for other teams like Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer.

Some of Lou's bizarre tactics such as firing coaches just before the regular season and even appointing himself as head coach, signing cheap veterans, and letting players go worked because they kept come of their best players and just fit the pieces around them. He kept the great players like Brodeur, Stevens, Niedermayer, and Elias while letting other replaceable players go. It's as simple as that.

Great players build a winning culture and the GMs, scouts, and coaches get ridiculous amounts of credit for star players. Chicago was terrible for a long, long time maybe because the culture in the locker room or bathroom or wherever was awful. People must not have been picking up their candy bar wrappers and now maybe finally someone has taken the initiative to clean up the mess. That or they were so bad and got a lot of great players like Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews at the top of the draft but believe whatever you want. The reason I laugh and take shots at takes like these is because it's total nonsense and BS.

Speaking of being terrible and finishing at the top of the draft for great players, the Devils really should have done that last season. Last season, they really should have went after McEichel by bottoming out. Instead, they finished with the sixth-worst record in the NHL and were 24 points behind the Sabres for 30th, yet finished 21 points out of the playoffs. That's even worse than the Flyers did (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/07/flyers-are-in-terrible-cap-situation.html) as both organizations are going nowhere fast.

People hate bottoming out but that's what you have to do if you want to get great players to contend and win the Stanley Cup, unless you're lucky and can get a big time free agent, but those days are no more. I for one am glad the Sabres decided to take the bottoming out role and getting Jack Eichel instead of middling it for years and years to come.

I am no way saying that Lamoriello doesn't deserve the credit for what he's done overall. However, it should be noted the last 5-10 years did not go too well and I don't expect him to come in a build a winner in Toronto. I like the way Toronto is doing their rebuild and if they want to be successful, hopefully they don't go the role of Lamoriello and how he build the Devils in recent years. He was successful, but I'm glad the Sabres are not reaching for the past in their organization or off other successful organizations.

Flyers Are in Terrible Cap Situation; One of the Teams I Don't Want to Be; They Should have Tanked for McEichel

Boy I've said it many times just recently but I've also been saying it since the beginning of last season, the Philadelphia Flyers are one of the top teams I'd least like to be. Now after a season in which they finished 12th in the Eastern Conference and were 14 points out of the playoffs, the prophecy is even more true. Now word on the street is that they are facing a horrific cap situation to make matters even worse (http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/eye-on-hockey/25244976/flyers-face-daunting-salary-cap-situation-in-2015-16-and-beyond).

The Flyers should have really bottomed out for McEichel. They were in a terrible spot, so bad not to make the playoffs but not bad enough to finish 30th or 29th. I'm sure Philadelphia was fine not finishing last because they have too much pride like the Boston Bruins and New Jersey Devils, the tough gritty northeastern teams. Boston is the team I'd least like to be because of their idiocy at the top of the organization letting go of top notch players for ridiculous reasons.

New Jersey and Philadelphia are very close and all three of these teams need to reload and retool and bottom out and need several years of high draft picks to be great again. These are long rebuilds unlike the Sabres. Of course Boston had several high draft picks gifted to them only to throw them away for nothing. Montreal, despite their regular season successes the last three years, is approaching team I least like to be status due to lack of big play scoring forwards (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/carey-price-cleans-up-nhl-awards.html).

The Flyers also made numerous dumb moves much like the Bruins have. They got rid of Jeff Carter and Mike Richards because they "partied too much", well Richards turned out to be ok to let go of because of recent events and his decline but not before winning two Stanley Cups with the Kings. Carter on the other hand was a very foolish move to get rid of him. He's been great for LA. They got good players in return for both such as Jakub Voracek, Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn, and Sean Couturier.

The problem isn't what they got back it's that no one else has stepped up. The bottom six forwards don't score and the defense and goaltending have been nightmares. And the flyers have spent a ton on absolutely nothing and that's what's been ruining them. Other dumb moves the Flyers have made include trading Carter and Richards to clear up cap space to sign Ilya Bryzgalov. Their goaltending wasn't great but they went to the finals in 2010 with three goalies and lost in six games to Chicago. One of those goalies ended up being Sergei Bobrovsky, who's won a Vezina and has been great for Columbus. Had they not blown it all on Bryzgalov they'd still had Bobrovsky.

After buying out Bryzgalov after two lousy years, they went back with Ray Emery and Steve Mason as neither worked out. Other foolish moves include trading former number two overall pick James van Riemsdyk to Toronto for failed defenseman Luke Schenn and signing 35 year old Vincent Lecavalier to a five year deal with a $4.5 million cap hit, 37 year old Mark Streit to a four year deal, and Andrew MacDonald to a six year $30 million deal. All these moves the Flyers have made have only given them only half a million dollars worth of cap space left.

That doesn't include the fact that Voracek is set to be an unrestricted free agent and they must do whatever to keep him and both Couturier and Brayden Schenn are set to be restricted free agents next year. That's insane some of your best young players are set to be free agents with that low amount of cap room shows just how awfully mismanaged the Flyers really are. Claude Giroux has a $8.275 million cap hit but he's obviously worth it. Simmonds has a cap hit just under $4 million and that looks like an incredible bargain.

Good news is that Sam Gagner's $3.2 million cap hit and Luke Schenn's $3.6 million cap hit both come off the books after this season and RJ Umberger's $4.6 million cap hit, Mason's $4.1 million cap hit, and Streit's ludicrous $5.2 million cap hit (when he's 39) come off the books after  the 2016-17 season. Lecavalier doesn't come off the books until 2018. That's messed up considering he scored only 8 goals and 20 points in 57 games last year as it will only get better keep telling yourself. Same with newly signed defenseman Michael Del Zotto, who signed a two year deal to help the struggling blue line and carries a $3.875 million cap hit.

What's happened to the Flyers? They were the team I wanted to be back around 2008-2011 because of the moves they made. Of course I wanted to be a lot of teams not named the Sabres at that time now I'm proud what the Sabres are doing. Anyways, the Flyers had the worst record in 2006-07 with 22 wins and 56 points. The Sabres won the President's Trophy with 53 wins and 113 points and they destroyed the Flyers 9-1 early that season, which saw them fire both Ken Hitchcock and Bobby Clarke shortly after.

The Flyers made a ton of spectacular moves by acquiring Martin Biron, Kimmo Timonen, Scott Hartnell, drafting JVR second overall, and then signing Daniel Briere from the Sabres along with youngsters like Richards and Carter stepping up. The changes saw the Flyers goes from 56 points to a whopping 95 and made the Eastern Conference Finals. Many thought the Flyers would not make the playoffs let alone go to the Eastern Conference Finals one year after being the worst team in the league. It shows you that turnarounds don't have to take forever as the Sabres are looking to show the NHL that same thing.

Two years later, the Flyers lost in the finals to Chicago and beat the Sabres in the first round in 2011 before they started to make puzzling moves to put them in the position they are currently in. I hope the Sabres show similar progress from last year to this year, which is not crazy to do. Let's hope however they don't make the same mistakes the Flyers did or like the Bruins by letting go of great players for stupid reasons.