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

The Toronto Maple Leafs hired longtime and legendary, hall of fame general manager of the New Jersey Devils, Lou Lamoriello nine years ago this week. I decided it would be fun to reminisce on his tenure and look at the good, bad, and ugly.

By Gordon Munro

2017 NHL Draft - Rounds 2-7
2017 NHL Draft - Rounds 2-7 / Jonathan Daniel/GettyImages
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The Ugly (Continued)

Nikita Zaitsev Extension

Signing top KHL Free Agent, RHD Nikita Zaitsev to a one-year entry-level contract was symbolic in many ways.

It was a shift in the way the Maple Leafs were perceived. Before, rumors were always circulating about the Leafs being contenders to get big name free agents and trade targets.

There was Jeff Carter, Brad Richards, Roberto Luongo, Steven Stamkos, and more who had all evaded the franchise. Now, the team was able to persuade a marquee target to come and play for them. 

He came over to Toronto and was good in his rookie season, playing consistent top-four minutes and was a staple on the powerplay. He was able to produce four goals and 36 points in 2016-17, which earned him a $4.5 million contract over seven years.

The problem was that Zaitsev had some major flaws, he was not particularly great defensively and even on the offensive side of the game his underlying numbers indicated that his performance would not be very repeatable.

This was especially true given that the only reason he received so much powerplay time was because head coach Mike Babcock was purposefully not giving Morgan Rielly a lot of powerplay time in order to get him to focus on his defensive game. 

Many were weary of the signing when it happened but understandably the Leafs did not want to lose him for nothing.

So, they settled on paying him at market rate which was well above his actual on-ice value. So, the following season(s) when Rielly was back on the powerplay, Zaitsev’s production plummeted and so did most of his value. He never came close to his rookie totals again, in fact he never even hit 20 points again.

When GM Kyle Dubas took over, he unfortunately had to package Zaitsev with Connor Brown and take on Cody Ceci and his $4.5 million contract for one season in order to facilitate a trade.

This undoubtedly was a road block for the team but was made necessary given the anvil of a contract that Zaitsev had.

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