The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Lou Lamoriello's Time With The Toronto Maple Leafs

The Good

When Lou was hired, he was revered around the league and signing him was seen as a giant leap forward for a team that had been mired in incompetence for decades. This was a major turning point for the organization and there was of course a lot of good that he did.

Culture Changes

Although Lou is known for being on the far end of the spectrum in terms of the borderline authoritarian culture that he fosters within his organizations; It can be quite effective. There are some strange and ridiculous rules that he puts in place like no facial hair/hair length restrictions and his near refusal to give high draft picks contract bonuses.

However, his hardcore policies against leaking inside information to the media makes sense. By and large, most people seem to have felt that he is respectful and he seems to have garnered the reverence of the hockey world for a reason. He is no Mike Babcock or Mike Keenan, thankfully. So, his strict rules can mostly be tolerated.

Although, some of the effects that he has is overblown with some insinuating that he would have gotten the “big three” under contract sooner and with much more team friendly terms. His history does not seem to indicate this is the case and given he allowed William Nylander to play out his contract and with other deals he handed out that I will touch on later. Regardless, I do feel that he made a positive impact on the team’s culture.

Kadri & Rielly Extensions

In April 2016, Nazem Kadri and Morgan Rielly were signed to contract extensions. Even at the time, everybody knew that these signings would look like steals a few years down the line. He signed Kadri to a team friendly six-year deal carrying a $4.5 million AAV, buying multiple UFA years in the process. He also locked up the Leafs future number one defender, Rielly to a similar six-year $5 million AAV deal. 

This locked up two valuable members of the team’s core moving forward for less than $10 million a year combined. Although Kadri is long gone, he was a high-end second line center in his prime and although Rielly is probably miscast as a number one defender, he is one of the better offensive defensemen in the league and could retire as the highest scoring Maple Leaf of all-time at his position.

Cap Creativity

Although it was brought up before, the Leafs under Lou were ruthless in the way they handled players by placing them on LTIR with no regard. Stephane Robidas is the most notable example but there was also; Joffrey Lupul, Jared Cowan, and Milan Michalek who were all essentially pushed out from the team by being placed on LTIR. This was one of the many ways that Lou got creative with the team's salary cap situation.

Another way that Lou was able to get creative with the salary cap was by leveraging the team's available cap space to acquire less desirable contracts. His first move with the Leafs was a trade where they traded five players to the Islanders in exchange for Michael Grabner and his caphit.