Lamoriello on Leafs: 'Everything is about going forward'
by Steve Simmons, Toronto Sun
“Decisions,” Lou Lamoriello says — and then he repeats the word just to make sure he is being clear.
He doesn’t like to tell you much. That’s his style. He is more than cordial and less than revealing about the business of his Toronto Maple Leafs.
But he will tell you this: He plans on being busy and active, preparing still for this weekend’s NHL draft, working the phones for trades — he made a lot of calls to a lot of hockey people and wound up with goaltender Frederik Andersen on Monday — seeing what other deals can be made, putting in hours on possible free agents and trying to figure out what’s next for this Rubik’s Cube of a roster with the rather odd payroll circumstance.
“We have a lot of decisions to make,” said the general manager of Leafs. “A lot of decisions.”
The first big one after Andersen may be the most comfortable. The Leafs will draft Auston Matthews with the first pick in the NHL draft on Friday night. He becomes the centrepiece of Lamoriello’s rebuild. Lamoriello is less than one year on the job, a 73-year-old growing younger by the day.
No matter how much he will try to limit the hype around Matthews — and he will — the big natural centre buys Lamoriello a little time and some possibilities as he actively works on bringing the Leafs back to competitive relevance.
This is the circumstance he has inherited here in Toronto. His highest-paid player is Nathan Horton, whose career is over. His second-highest-paid player is Joffrey Lupul, who has told friends he believes he’s played his last game as a Leaf. Just how Lamoriello will finesse his way out of this will certainly be worth monitoring.
Some of his other top-salaried players are Brooks Laich at $4.5 million a year; Milan Michalek at $4 million a year; Jonathan Bernier at $4.1 million a year. Counting the money the Leafs still pay Phil Kessel, that’s more than $25 million for players not expected to be prominent in any way in the Leafs lineup.
When I asked Lamoriello if he has to get his payroll in some kind of logical order, he answered rather clearly without really answering at all.
“I think you’ve got a handle on it,” he said. “There were things that were done here for reasons. To put the plan in place, sometimes you have to take a step back to go forward. You’ll see all of this form some type of picture in the near future.
“This is all just part of the process. We can’t get ahead of ourselves. Even if we take a step back, it will always be so we can take a step forward. Everything is about going forward.”
Matthews instantly changes the depth at centre, and certainly the size and skill level at a position in which the Leafs have struggled since Mats Sundin departed in 2008. Sundin, a first-overall pick by Quebec, led the Leafs to the post-season in eight of his 13 seasons in Toronto, missing in the final three years of the mistake-filled John Ferguson Jr. era. The Leafs have not been in the playoffs after an 82-game season since Sundin’s departure.
There are scouts who make favourable comparisons between Matthews and Sundin, although they are stylistically diverse, about the impact Matthews can eventually exert in Toronto.
The challenge for Lamoriello is complicated, although he did take care of one area with the acquisition of Andersen. He believes his goaltending is in good hands for the next five years and maybe more.
“We did a lot of work on him,” he said. “We’re confident in his abilities.”
The rest of the roster is confounding and exciting. Up front, along with Matthews, there is a long list of prospects of some quality to go along with young veterans such as James van Riemsdyk, Nazem Kadri and Tyler Bozak.
Lamoriello doesn’t like to publicly discuss where his youth is at and where it might be going, but with Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Connor Brown, Nikita Soshnikov, Kasperi Kapanen and Dmytro Timashov, there is a buffet of young players — 22 and under — and if half emerge, the Leafs will be OK.
There are the older youngsters, Zach Hyman, 24, and Josh Leivo, a restricted free agent at 23, who may factor in some way.
“We can’t say where our players are at,” said Lamoriello. “Players develop at their own pace. You can’t put a time frame on things. We’re not going to rush anybody. If anything, we’re going to be late rather than early.”
Marner’s stock has risen after a magnificent junior season and record-breaking Memorial Cup. He should start next season in Toronto.
Nylander looked like an NHL player at the end of the season, but disappointed some Leafs people with an understated playoff run. The Leafs are a little concerned about where he is as a player.
Brown has been an organizational favourite since turning professional. Hyman plays the hard-on-the-puck game that Brendan Shanahan so admires, as does Soshnikov, who brings a major-league shot in his arsenal.
Pittsburgh just won a Stanley Cup with terrific speed, not much size, and nine scoring forwards instead of six. The Leafs may be headed in a similar direction with their depth up front.
There are still places for the veterans such as Laich and Michalek, and a first-line spot for JVR, assuming the Leafs don’t move him for a quality defenceman.
Defence is where the Leafs are most thin. They have Morgan Rielly signed for the next six years and, after playing in the world championships for Canada and then for the young guns team at the World Cup of hockey, he should come back in October a more polished player than he left. He is the prize on defence.
After that, and a big improvement from Jake Gardiner under coach Mike Babcock, there are mostly questions.
Which Martin Marincin will play for the Leafs? The first-half defenceman who barely looked the part of NHL player, or the second-half player who graded out well to finish the season?
How quickly will Nikita Zaitsev, a stay-at-home defenceman, adjust from KHL to NHL? Is there a place for Babcock favourite Matt Hunwick? The more he played, the more exposed he seemed.
Lamoriello wouldn’t admit the Leafs are thin on the blue line — “I really don’t know what the definition of thin is,” he said — but it’s clear he realizes this is an organizational area that needs all kinds of upgrade. Based on his late-season run and his play with the Marlies, the Leafs need to sign restricted free agent Connor Carrick, who should find a place on the Toronto defence. But this is an area, through draft, trade and possibly free agency, that Lamoriello and Co. will address.
What Lamoriello is most impressed with after 11 months on the job: His own staff. The staff he mostly inherited from Brendan Shanahan.
“What Mike (Babcock) did with our group, what our scouting staff has done, how we’ve stayed on the same page. We know what needs to be done and we’re working together to do it.
“I marvel at the job they did with Gardiner, the way he played. There’s still so much work to do. We have our young players like Rielly and Kadri, who are part of our core. Now we have to do work in every area to get better with everything we do.”
Lamoriello won’t say a word about free agency, about the availability of Steven Stamkos — or any player for that matter. By the rules of the NHL, he can’t say anything.
But by the rules of Lou, he won’t even go off the record — the way some general managers will — to give you a hint about the direction he’s heading.
“You know I can’t answer that,” he said. “I really don’t talk about anyone else’s players. And that shouldn’t be read one way or the other.
“Right now, our focus is on the draft. We have 11 more picks. We’re staying the course here. Every day is different, things change, factors change, but the plan stays the same. We stay the course. We have to stay the course.”
MAPLE LEAFS DEPTH CHART
This is how Postmedia views the Leafs organizational depth. Note: positions of forwards, especially wingers, can be changed at the whim of coach Mike Babcock.
Left wing
James van Riemsdyk
Leo Komarov
Milan Michalek
Josh Leivo (RFA)
Colin Greening
Dmytro Timashov
Centre
Auston Matthews
Nazem Kadri
Tyler Bozak
Brooks Laich
Byron Froese
Right wing
William Nylander
Zach Hyman
Nikita Soshnikov
Mitch Marner
Connor Brown
Peter Holland
Joffrey Lupul
Kasperi Kapanen
Left D
Jake Gardiner
Martin Marincin
Matt Hunwick
Rinat Valiev
Right D
Morgan Rielly
Nikita Zaitsev
Connor Carrick (RFA)
Frankie Corrado (RFA)
Goalie
Frederik Andersen
Jonathan Bernier
