3 Worst Lou Lamoriello Signings as Toronto Maple Leafs G.M.

Lou Lamoriello did a great job as the G.M. of the Toronto Maple Leafs, but not everything he did worked out.

Yesterday, we talked about the three most important signings by Lou Lamoriello as Toronto Maple Leafs G.M., and today we’ll be talking about the three worst signings he made.

Every G.M. is going to make mistakes and sign a player to be a bad contract, but you hope that it doesn’t happen too often.

Although you’d prefer to talk about transactions freely, nothing can be said without seeing how the deal affects the two scariest words in professional hockey: Salary Cap.

Even if you sign a good player, unless they live up to every single penny of their contract, fans will go crazy and want to bring in a cheaper player to do the same thing.

It’s a very difficult position to be in as a G.M.

Even when you win, the next question is “How are you going to afford to bring these players back and win again?”

In three seasons as Leafs G.M., Lamoriello made a number of signings. Most of them were pretty insignificant and were minor-league deals, but he did execute a few bigger moves that fans hoped would lead to long playoff success.

Unfortunately, the team could never win a playoff round when Lamoriello was the G.M., but he did help turn around a franchise that was in dire needs of a rebuild.

It’s a lot harder then people think to tank and rebuild quickly, especially in a market that is so starved for good hockey. The Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres have been dying for their franchise to turn around and even though the Oilers have the best player in the world, it still hasn’t guaranteed them a playoff berth over the last five years.

Sometimes you’re going to hit big in Free Agency and sometimes you’re going to fail.

Here are the top three worst signings by Lou Lamoriello as Toronto Maple Leafs G.M.