Assessing Lou Lamoriello's Legacy with the Devils: How Bad Was His Final Decade?

Perhaps more than ever, the New Jersey Devils are headed for uncharted territory. 

With Lou Lamoriello's decision to leave his position as team president of the Devils to become the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, New Jersey will be without the Rhode Island native for the first time in nearly 30 years. 

Overall, Lamoriello's legacy as a hero of the New Jersey Devils is already secure. The Devils won the Stanley Cup three times under him, made the Stanley Cup Final two other times and had a regular-season record of 1,093-779-268. He was rightfully inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009.

But the majority of that success came prior to the 2004-05 NHL lockout. Without a doubt, the biggest criticism of Lamoriello and his time in New Jersey was that he failed to adapt to the changes in the game that came after the NHL's lost season. 

A close look at Lamoriello's final decade in charge reveals that these criticisms have some merit but can also be difficult to fully assess.

There is little doubt that at least the results of Lamoriello's first 17 seasons in charge of the Devils were much better than those of his last 10. A comparison of these two periods makes this perfectly clear.

First 17 Seasons

• Three Stanley Cups
• Four Eastern Conference titles
• Five division titles
• Two missed playoffs (11.7 percent of seasons)

Final 10 Seasons

• Zero Stanley Cups
• One Eastern Conference title
• Four Division titles
• Four missed playoffs (40 percent of seasons)

2006-2010

Perhaps the biggest surprise in these numbers is that the Devils actually won their division as many times in the post-lockout era as they missed the playoffs. Of course, each division title came in the first five years of this period, which reflects the fact that New Jersey entered this period with a solid roster but failed to adapt as time went on.

The Devils scored 242 goals in the 2005-06 season, 21st in the NHL, so they were no offensive powerhouse. Still, the team had respectable offensive talent in Brian Gionta, Scott Gomez, Jamie Langenbrunner, Patrik Elias and a blossoming Zach Parise. In front of a defense made up of Brian Rafalski, Paul Martin, Colin White and Martin Brodeur, the Devils had enough talent to win the Atlantic Division before losing to the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round of the playoffs.

2006-07 was incredibly similar. Elias, Parise, Langenbrunner, Gionta and Gomez led the team offensively once again, while Rafalski and Martin led the defense. The team's relative offensive performance dipped slightly, as New Jersey's 216 goals were 24th in the NHL. The Devils won the Atlantic Division again, though, and were bounced from the playoffs in the second round again, this time by the Tampa Bay Lightning. 

Lamoriello could certainly be forgiven for not making too many changes during this period, as the team was being led by its strong defense while still having sound offensive talent. The team's secondary scoring was lacking, but the core of the team was strong.

In 2007-08, cracks began to show. Lamoriello let Gomez leave for a lucrative deal with the New York Rangers, which turned out to be a decent move, given the downward spiral Gomez's career took after leaving the Devils. The problem was that the only player Lamoriello brought in to help replace Gomez was Dainius Zubrus.

Zubrus was a solid all-around hockey player at the time of his signing, coming off two career seasons in Washington. However, his performance had perhaps been artificially inflated by playing with the young Alexander Ovechkin. Predictably, his offensive contributions dropped off once he came to New Jersey, and the team's offense struggled even more.

The team scored only 206 goals in the 2007-08 season, 26th in the NHL. Once again, a strong defense propelled the Devils to the playoffs, but they were eliminated in five games by the New York Rangers in the first round, leaving the team with plenty to evaluate. 

Lamoriello's solution to the team's offensive woes was to sign 35-year-old Brian Rolston to a four-year deal, 39-year-old Brendan Shanahan to a one-year deal and 37-year-old Bobby Holik to a one-year deal. The three players combined for only 25 goals and 30 assists in 2008-09. 

However, the Devils did improve their scoring record that season, largely via the maturation of Parise and Travis Zajac, who each had breakout seasons. The pair picked up 65 goals and 91 assists and led the Devils to finish with the 15th-most goals in the NHL. A solid but aging defensive corps continued to stifle opponents' offenses, and the Devils won their third Atlantic Division title in four years. 

When it mattered most though, the results were the same. The Devils lost in the first round of the playoffs once again, this time to the Carolina Hurricanes. 

After Gionta left via free agency in the offseason before the 2009-10 season, New Jersey was once again in dire need of a goal scorer. Lamoriello could not find one in free agency before the season began but made a midseason trade that ultimately came to define his final years in charge of the Devils.

On February 4, 2010, the Devils traded for Ilya Kovalchuk. Kovalchuk was the sort of player Lamoriello had largely tried to stay away from previously—he was an offense-first player whose ability to play defense or adapt to a team-first mentality was clearly in question after his time with the Atlanta Thrashers. 

He got off to a good start in New Jersey, though, picking up 10 goals and 27 points in 27 regular-season games with the Devils in 2010. Kovalchuk powered the team to another Atlantic Division title but could not prevent yet another first-round playoff exit, this time to the Philadelphia Flyers.

2010-2012

The 2010 offseason marked the beginning of the end for Lamoriello. 

His top priority was re-signing Kovalchuk, which he ultimately managed to do after a battle with the NHL. But he let Paul Martin leave in free agency, added two aging defensemen in Henrik Tallinder and Anton Volchenkov and, crucially, failed to sign Parise to a contract extension before he became an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2010-11 season. 

The team struggled mightily under new coach John MacLean to start the season, and despite an impressive turnaround after Jacques Lemaire took over, the Devils missed the playoffs for the first time since 1995-96. Parise suffered an injury early in the season and played only 13 games, and the offense suffered as a result. 

The Devils scored only 174 goals in 2010-11, 31 of which came from Kovalchuk. That total was the lowest in the NHL by 19 goals.

The 2011 offseason was again marred by Lamoriello's inability to lock up Parise on a long-term contract. Parise, who was an unrestricted free agent coming off a serious knee injury, signed a one-year deal with the Devils, giving him the opportunity to prove his health to the NHL before again becoming a free agent.

Again, with his team struggling to score goals, Lamoriello turned to an aging forward, this time Petr Sykora, to help turn things around. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, it was relatively effective. Sykora picked up 21 goals and 23 assists for the Devils in 2011-12 and was one of multiple forwards to enjoy successful seasons in New Jersey.

Kovalchuk, Parise and David Clarkson all scored 30 goals or more, Elias and Sykora each added at least 20 and rookie Adam Henrique put up 51 points in the absence of the injured Zajac. 

The Devils had a tremendous season, finishing only fourth in the stacked Atlantic Division and sixth in the Eastern Conference, despite accruing 102 points. After nearly getting eliminated in the first round yet again, New Jersey got hot and worked its way to the Stanley Cup Final against the Los Angeles Kings. 

Frank Franklin II/Associated Press

The biggest difference between the 2012 playoffs and the prior five years was the presence of secondary scoring. The fourth line of Stephen Gionta, Ryan Carter and Steve Bernier contributed 10 goals during the postseason. Henrique, whose role diminished somewhat after the return of Zajac, added five goals, including the one that clinched the Eastern Conference Final. Patrik Elias, whose role had started to shrink, also scored five goals. 

But the Devils could not stop the freight train that was the 2012 Los Angeles Kings and lost the series in six games. 

How the Devils are Still Paying for the 2012 Near-Miss

The 2012 run to the Final puts a wrench in the process of assessing Lamoriello's final decade in charge of the Devils. 

Most of Lamoriello's work after the lockout but before the 2011-12 season was underwhelming. He brought in only one impact forward through free-agency (Sykora), who left after the 2012 season. Lamoriello did well to keep the team's defense at the top of the league but did so with aging players, which the team has paid for over the last few seasons.

Of course, the Devils do have multiple young defensemen poised to fill in those gaps, but the lack of talented, experienced defensemen has hurt New Jersey's ability to be competitive in recent years.

Lamoriello also did well to keep Ilya Kovalchuk a Devil, but it came at the cost of locking up Parise before he became an unrestricted free agent. Parise was a key part of the 2012 run but left for Minnesota after the season. Kovalchuk returned to Russia after the team's failed 2013 season, which Lamoriello had no way to predict. But the team continues to pay for that decision, as they are still without a bona fide top scorer.

Lamoriello has tried to paper over the cracks by signing aging forwards, much as he did in the mid-2000s, and has had limited success. Jaromir Jagr's time in New Jersey was relatively successful, and Michael Cammalleri will enter the 2015-16 season as one of the Devils' top forwards. But Martin Havlat, Michael Ryder and Ryane Clowe have all been failures for one reason or another.

Lamoriello and his staff have failed to draft top forwards in the last 10 years, so there is little talent from within the organization to fill those gaps as well. 

What All This Means for the Legacy of Lamoriello's Twilight Years in New Jersey

Lamoriello's reliance on aging forwards and his poor recent drafting record up front have put his former team in a position where they must rebuild. Both of these problems stem directly from Lamoriello, and there is little that can be done to view these factors in a positive light.

But other factors are more complicated. Much of what Lamoriello did in 2012 got his team within two wins of a fourth Stanley Cup but set his team back in the long run. His inability to re-sign Parise was directly related to his desire to keep Kovalchuk around, which obviously was a major factor in 2012. The experienced defensive corps Lamoriello put together in 2012 played a huge role as well, though the usefulness of many of its players decreased significantly soon after. 

Can Lou be blamed for putting part of the team's future at risk for a legitimate shot at a fourth Stanley Cup?

Answers to this question will vary widely but ultimately determine exactly how negatively we ought to look upon Lamoriello's final decade in charge of the New Jersey Devils.