Lou Lamoriello

Louis Lamoriello (May 2012)

Louis "Lou" Lamoriello (born October 21, 1942 in Providence , Rhode Island ) is an American ice hockey official of Italian descent. Since June 2018 he has been General Manager and President of Hockey Operations for the New York Islanders in the National Hockey League . Prior to that, he was General Manager, CEO and President of the New Jersey Devils for 28 years and was also responsible for the Toronto Maple Leafs for three years . He has been a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame since 2009 .

Career

Before joining the Devils, Lou Lamoriello was a math teacher at Johnston High School in Rhode Island for several years.

Lamoriello was the athletic director and men's ice hockey coach at Providence College . He coached the Providence ice hockey team from 1968 to 1987 and was promoted to athletic director in 1982. As athletic director, he hired Rick Pitino to head the Providence Men's basketball team. Pitino brought Providence to the Final Four in 1987.

Lamoriello became president of the Devils in April 1987 through the then owner John McMullen . Lamoriello appointed himself general manager shortly before the start of the next season - a move that surprised many NHL observers. The American had never played in the NHL, coached or managed a team, and was virtually unknown outside of the American college hockey community.

Since then, Lamoriello has chaired one of the most successful rebuilding projects in North American professional sports history. In his first season as general manager, the Devils reached their first participation in the Wales Conference playoff final in their history. With the exception of two seasons since 1987, they have reached the playoffs in Lamoriello's tenure and played in the Stanley Cup finals in 1995, 2000, 2001 and 2003 . In 1995, 2000 and 2003 they each won the coveted trophy. In 2000, Lamoriello was named CEO of the Devils.

Lamoriello served as General Manager for Team USA in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano . In 1992 he received the Lester Patrick Trophy for outstanding service to ice hockey in the United States. He also played an important role in negotiating player salaries in the 2004/05 NHL lockout .

Lamoriello is known in NHL circles for his tough approach to contract negotiations. Pat Verbeek , Kirk Muller , Bill Guerin and others were transferred from the team after their contract negotiations went negative. In 1989 he almost transferred Ken Daneyko , the player with the most games for the Devils. According to Daneyko, Lamoriello believes that a third-row player should earn as much as a first-row player if he is of equal value to the team.

On December 19, 2005, after the surprising resignation of Larry Robinson as head coach of the Devils, Lamoriello took over the position temporarily. The Devils reached the Eastern Conference semifinals and lost to the Carolina Hurricanes .

On April 2, 2007, Lamoriello took over the coaching office again after he had fired Claude Julien . The dismissal came when three games before the end of regular time and the Devils were on their way to the second best season performance in the conference and on the way of a franchise record in Siegen for regular time.

In 2009 Lamoriello was honored with the induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame . On October 15, 2012, he was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame for his services to ice hockey in the United States .

After the 2014/15 season, Lamoriello resigned as general manager of the Devils, leaving the position to Ray Shero . At that time, at 28 years of age, Lamoriello was by far the longest general manager for a franchise. During his tenure, the Devils won the Stanley Cup three times. A little later, the American resigned from his position as President of the Devils in order to work as General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs . There he signed a three-year contract and handed over the position to Kyle Dubas to take over as the new President of Hockey Operations for the New York Islanders in May 2018 . There he dismissed Doug Weight as head coach and Garth Snow as general manager only a little later and took on the latter function himself.

Web links

• Lou Lamoriello in the database of the Hockey Hall of Fame (English)
• Lou Lamoriello at hockeydb.com (English)
• Biography on the New Jersey Devils website ( August 8, 2007 memento on the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ news.sportsinteraction.com, NHL: Strong Bond Exists Between Devils, Kings GMs
2. ^ Mike G. Morreale: US Hockey Hall of Fame to honor many individuals. National Hockey League , October 13, 2012, accessed October 15, 2012 .