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

The Bad, Continued

Roster Construction

Although more a philosophical difference, Lamoriello’s roster construction has proven to be quite faulty at times throughout his career as GM.

In Toronto specifically, there were some obvious holes that were present during his time here that made little sense.

He was able to address the starting goaltending problem by acquiring Frederik Andersen but failed to get an optimal backup goalie which necessitated Andersen to play 66 regular season games each year under Lou. 

Moving outside of the crease, he failed to adequately address the clear need for an upgrade on defense.

He inherited players such as Morgan Rielly, Jake Gardiner, and Roman Polak who were mainstays during his tenure. Aside from trading away captain Dion Phaneuf his first year and signing Nikita Zaitsev, he made no big splashes involving defense.

Instead, opting to mostly fill holes with veteran pieces such as Matt Hunwick and Ron Hainsey. It is unclear why he refused to splurge on a legitimate top-four option and his failure to do so is a major black mark on his regime.

Although there was plenty of opportunity given to young players, which is a good thing, he did not properly surround them with good veteran talent. Instead he signed Patrick Marleau to an albatross contract and his failure to consistently find a suitable fourth line center forced him to trade assets at the deadline to find an upgrade. Those assets could have been used to acquire an aforementioned top-four defender or a more tangible upgrade in the upper-parts of the lineup.