Hiring Old-School Lou Lamoriello Puts Maple Leafs' Move to Modernize in Question

Three straight non-playoff seasons, including four of the last five. A rash of recent terrible personnel decisions, such as letting Zach Parise leave as an unrestricted free agent, then using his money to re-sign the underwhelming Travis Zajac to an eight-year, $46 million contract. When David Clarkson walked away for nothing, he was replaced by the injury-prone Ryane Clowe, who has played a grand total of 56 games the last two seasons, at nearly $5 million per.

This is Lou Lamoriello's recent track record as the longtime general manager of the New Jersey Devils. Make that "former GM." On Thursday, he shocked the hockey world by quitting as Devils team president to take the GM job with the Toronto Maple Leafs, according to Sports Illustrated's Allan Muir. 

Bill Kostroun/Associated Press

The track record from further back is marvelous: three Stanley Cups and two other trips to the Cup Final, lots of prudent draft picks and trades, and a demeanor that, while tough, seemed to inspire loyalty from players who often took hometown discounts to stay.

But NHL GMs and those from other sports get old, too. They are prone to the same kinds of dramatic falloffs in performance as the 37-year-old player who just can't do it anymore. 

This is not an ageism argument. Who cares how old someone is as long as they're doing the job? This is an argument about the 72-year-old Lamoriello's job performance over the last five years, which begs the question why the Maple Leafs would want to make him their GM.

Toronto already had a lot of chiefs in the front office with team president Brendan Shanahan and assistant GMs Kyle Dubas, Mark Hunter and Brandon Pridham. Is adding one more making too much of an already big crowd? Can the notoriously controlling Lamoriello really handle working as a committee member with three other colleagues who have lots of say on personnel decisions?

Dubas, in particular, is known as a huge proponent of using analytics in making personnel decisions. He's a Moneyball guy. Lamoriello is an old-school hockey guy who doesn't give much thought to a player's Corsi numbers. Assuming Lou has more power than Dubas, isn't there a good chance of friction between him and the other analytics guys? We'll see, but his hiring sends a confusing signal to Leafs fans.

(To be fair, the Devils did hire an analytics guy, Sunny Mehta, in 2013, but the move was widely seen as having been pushed upon Lamoriello by team ownership.)

Weren't the Leafs supposedly eager to jump into the modern age, with new ways of thinking becoming more the norm around the league? Now, they seem to be pinning their hopes on a man of the past. 

Newark Star-Ledger Devils beat writer Rich Chere, who was covering them when Lamoriello came to the team in 1987, had this to say to Bleacher Report on what Lamoriello was like and what he'll be like moving forward.

"Although Lou has always said that he doesn't care about his critics, I think he surely views the move to Toronto as a chance to prove that he's not over the hill," Chere said. "Everyone knows the Devils have become also-rans the last three years, and some of Lou's moves can be blamed. 

"I've known him since the day he arrived in New Jersey in 1987, and there was no way he was going to accept such a limited role as Devils president. He's a very good person whose only concern was protecting and insulating his players, often at the expense of reporters and fans. I don't think age is an overwhelming concern, but his willingness to adapt to today's game and players will be something worth watching closely."

In his own column for the Star-Ledger, Chere pointed out some of the flaws in Lamoriello's recent tenure in New Jersey:

"

As long as he was winning Stanley Cups and has past owners' support, Lamoriello was allowed to refuse attempts to market the team through use of players, fan events and alternate jerseys. However, once the team became an also-ran four out of the last five seasons and dollars-conscious owners moved in, he was a roadblock.

Ownership tried to ease Lamoriello into the modern world, but he fought it and continued to keep practices closed, argued against marketing ideas and even handcuffed the organization's own website from covering the team more extensively.

"

Former Avalanche GM Pierre Lacroix ran into similar problems toward the end of his otherwise very successful run with the team. Lacroix was very old-school when it came to things like marketing. There was never a single player promoted on billboards or TV ads during his reign. It always had to be a "team" picture. But on a team with Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Patrick Roy and other stars, fans hungered for more of them and less of, say, Jon Klemm.

Another point from Chere:

"

Lamoriello is proud of the fact that he is an old-school disciplinarian. He kept tight reins on players to the point that they were afraid to laugh or talk without wondering if it would get back to Lamoriello.

He also timed trips so that players would have less time in cities and less time to potentially get into trouble. There were a lot of good intentions, but today's young players don't react as well to that management style.

"

That last sentence from Chere is true. Players today just don't react well to drill sergeant management types. Joe Sacco was one of those types, and while he was a Jack Adams finalist his first year with the Avalanche, in 2009-10, he drove the players crazy much of his final three years with what they perceived as outmoded thinking. Lacroix's "my way or the highway" approach with players led to some very good ones leaving—by choice.

Nobody can take away Lamoriello's accomplishments. In his 27 years at the helm, the Devils made the playoffs 21 times. He was sometimes hampered by financial messes involving ownership but still managed to keep the Devils a winner. 

Well, except for the last three years. Now he takes his act to a team that hasn't won a Stanley Cup since 1967 and hasn't been to the playoffs in nine of the last 10 seasons. 

The Maple Leafs seemed set to move into the more modern ways of hockey with energetic, fresh new ideas. Now, they seem to be moving more into the old ways of the past.

Adrian Dater covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him @Adater.