Toronto Maple Leafs: Who Will Follow Lou to the Island?
By Josh Tessler
Former Toronto Maple Leafs‘ general manager, Lou Lamoriello is now responsible for general manager duties for the New York Islanders.
On May 22nd, the Islanders hired Lamoriello to be their President of Hockey Operations. The Toronto Maple Leafs are out one ‘special advisor.’
This comes a few weeks after the Leafs decided to move on from Lamoriello and put Kyle Dubas in charge of the general manager duties.
In Lamoriello’s first move as head of hockey operations in New York, he decided to relieve Garth Snow and Doug Weight from their assignments.
Snow and Weight both are to remain with the Islanders for the near future. Although, you’d have to assume that they’d both be given an advisor title. In addition, they’ll both probably look for new roles outside of the organization. They’d most likely look outside since an advisor title is just a way of saying will pay you to do nothing out of respect for the time that you spent here.
With Lou making a ton of changes in the front office, it’s likely that he might try to lure a few current and former Toronto Maple Leafs’ employees to fill those new holes. D.J. Smith, Sheldon Keefe, Mark Hunter and/or Jacques Lemaire could be packing their bags for Long Island.
Which Maple Leaf Employee Is Most Likely To Move To NY?
If I was a betting man, I’d say that out of all of them that Lemaire is the most likely to pack his bags.
Lamoriello brought him on board in both New Jersey and Toronto as a special assignment coach. My assumption is that he might find himself behind the bench for the Islanders as an assistant coach.
With a new head coach coming to the Islanders, it would only make sense for the Islanders to hire a former head coach. Lemaire coached the Montreal Canadiens, the New Jersey Devils and the Minnesota Wild in the past. He’d be a great mentor for a first time head coach that is if the Islanders should hire one.
Besides Lemaire, I believe that D.J. Smith will be the next Islanders head coach. The former head coach of the OHL’s Oshawa Generals has been mentioned prior as being a great candidate for a head coach job.
A lot of Maple Leafs and Islanders fans might argue that Keefe could be their next head coach. I’d have to disagree though. Keefe and Kyle Dubas have a strong relationship. Dubas hired Keefe to coach the OHL’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in 2012. I doubt that Keefe would abandon Dubas. In addition, I believe that Keefe is the heir to the throne if Babcock were to leave.
D.J. Smith
Roughly two months back, I wrote a post on why D.J. Smith would be a great fit for the Islanders’ rival, the New York Rangers.
The same arguments behind why I thought that Smith would be a good fit with the Rangers applies for the Islanders. Ultimately, the Islanders need help. Their defensive core was abysmal last season. They gave up the most GF/GP in the NHL last season with 3.57 goals. Yes, some of the blame can be attributed to poor goaltending, but their defensive core wasn’t strong either.
With Smith behind the bench on Long Island, he’d be able to mentor the Islanders’ defensive unit into a winning machine.
No Mark Hunter?
I’d be rather shocked if Hunter decided to join Lamoriello in Long Island. Sure, I don’t believe that Lamoriello will run the team all by himself, but Hunter won’t be hired.
Prior to his days with the Maple Leafs, Hunter helped run the OHL’s London Knights alongside his brother, Dale. I believe that Hunter will return to London and help continue to run the team with Dale.
In his post-NHL career, he’s had the most success in the junior ranks. Since the Hunter family bought the Knights in 2000, they have won the OHL Championship four times. Plus, they took home the Memorial Cup trophy twice. After all the success that he has had in London, I doubt he’ll look to go fix the rebuilding mess in New York.
Recap
To recap, I do believe that Lamoriello will try to bring some Toronto Maple Leafs employees down to Long Island. I believe that he’ll lure both Lemaire and D.J. Smith to Long Island as he’ll need to start rebuilding the Islanders coaching staff.
Next: Odds of Leafs Bringing Back Each Free Agent
It’ll be interesting to see what Lamoriello decides to do. The NHL Draft and Free Agency aren’t that far away and Lamoriello will need to start sending offer letters out well before then.
stats from NHL.com