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.
#3. Matt Martin Signing
Contract Details: Four Years, $10 million contract ($2.5 million per season)
Off the ice, Matt Martin is one of the best people in hockey and was loved by everyone in the dressing room; especially Mitch Marner.
On a team full of rookies, he was a great mentor and could stick up for Marner and Auston Matthews if they ever got into trouble.
However, this contract was a disaster.
If you want a comparable contract in the NHL, Zach Hyman currently has a four-year $9 million contract that expires after next season.
Let’s compare stats for these two when they played together in Toronto
Zach Hyman:
- 2016-17 Season: 10 goals, 28 points
- 2017-18 Season: 15 goals, 40 points
Matt Martin:
- 2016-17 Season: 5 goals, 9 points
- 2017-18 Season: 3 goals, 12 points
Hyman’s 2016-17 season was his rookie-year, so it was low for his standards, whereas the seven-year NHL veteran at time, Martin, couldn’t even score 10 points on the season.
During his time in Toronto, every point Martin scored was worth $238,095. That’s not a good return on investment.
Martin was never brought in to score 20 goals, but at $2.5 million per season, that player has to contribute offensively, at least a little, in today’s NHL.
It’s unfortunate that this never worked out because Martin was such an awesome dude, but this was definitely a signing Lamoriello wishes he had back.
#2. Nikita Zaitsev Extension
Contract Details: Seven Years, $31.5 million contract ($4.5 million per season)
The Nikita Zaitsev extension is kind of like a Las Vegas wedding.
You meet someone, get drunk, and a few minutes later, say screw it, “let’s get married!”
Zaitsev was a catch during his first season in Toronto. He scored 36 points and was arguably Toronto’s second best defenseman, behind Morgan Rielly.
Right-handed defensemen are rare in the NHL, so after seeing Zaitsev perform for a year, they wanted to be together for a very long time, so they signed him to a seven (!) year extension.
That’s when everything fell apart. Everyone sobered up and all of a sudden the Leafs wanted a divorce.
Unfortunately, they never signed a prenup so Zaitsev was laughing to the bank as a rich 26-year-old, while the Leafs were doing everything they could to get out of the marriage.
Zaitsev never had a season where his Corsi was above 50 percent, and his offensive numbers completely dropped after signing the extension.
Similar to the marriage example, it’s kind of like someone who had a six-pack when they got married, then all of a sudden started eating McDonalds every night and didn’t care about their appearance anymore.
Zaitsev went from having 36 points in his rookie season to only having 27 points in his next 141 games.
Lamoriello and the Maple Leafs thought they were going to live happily ever after with a stud right-handed defenseman from Russia, but instead were cat-fished.
They were fortunately able to get out of the contract quickly by trading him to Ottawa, but that money could have spent in one hundred different ways if it wasn’t wasted on Zaitsev.
#1. Patrick Marleau Signing
Contract Details: Three Years, $18.75 million ($6.25 million per season)
Patrick Marleau is a first-ballot Hall-of-Fame player, having played over 1,700 games, while scoring 562 goals.
Having played his entire career with the San Jose Sharks, it was a shock to see him sign in Toronto, but he only did it to get another crack at winning a Stanley Cup.
If this signing was a one-year deal, it can’t be criticized. However, the fact that it was three years makes it terrible.
When Lamoriello signed Marleau, he knew that he would be 40-years-old when the contract finished. Although his legs looked good in his first season, father-time is always going to catch up to you and that’s exactly what happened with Marleau.
Signing any player over 35-years-old to anything but a one-year contract is ludicrous. As a G.M., you have to understand that your bet is getting incredibly riskier for every year you add onto a player of that ages contract.
Just because Marleau scored 30-plus and sometimes 40-plus goals in the NHL consistently, that’s all in the past and you have to sign someone for what they will become, not what they used to be.
As mentioned, Marleau’s first season was great as he scored 27 goals in the regular season and then contributed with four goals in seven games in the playoffs.
However, the year after he only had 16 goals and didn’t score once in the playoffs.
You could clearly tell that he wasn’t himself after last year and the team had to move on from him to clear cap-space to sign their younger core.
The Marleau experiment was over and it cost them a first-round pick to trade him.
Next. 3 Most Important Moves by Lamoriello as Leafs G.M.. dark
Although the Toronto Maple Leafs turned their franchise around with Lamoriello in charge, you can see he made a few mistakes along the way.