What exactly is Lou's plan?

[Tundra]

Has Lou Lamiorello Turned Into Glen Sather?

I think it's a legitimate question. Building one's resume as one of the legends of the sport with the multiple cups in the most unlikeliest of places and then with the 2004 CBA (reducing the service time for UFA status to 7 years) and the implementation of salary cap, slowly but surely you're drowning & resting on past laurels. See article below.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...ible-drafting-destroyed-the-new-jersey-devils

And in defense of Glen Sather nowadays, he may be considered the more competent executive as of 12.18.2014.

Click to read more...

 

[Shakey Rustie]

That whole Mogilny/Malakhov fiasco was an embarrassment for the team and the league.

 

[Levitate]

There were probably some financial issues in there that made it tough but NJ certainly lost a lot of talent and has done very little to replace it efficiently. It's one thing to complain about ownership pushing for the Kovalchuk contract or not having the money to re-sign Parise, but the severe lack of quality forward prospects drafted and developed recently is a much bigger problem. To some extent Lou had no choice but to try to fill the roster with free agents in any way he could because of the lack of prospects that could contribute, but on the other hand relying heavily on aging and injury prone forwards wasn't a fantastic move either.

Ultimately I think his hands have been somewhat tied but also he has made some poor decisions and hasn't kept the scouting up to snuff. It is good that they have several nice defensemen prospects who are breaking into the league now or possibly on the way but again, their forward group is just plain bad

 

[YEM]

he's a genius again if he's got them sucking so bad this year that they get a top 2 draft pick

 

[Curufinwe]

That Clowe contract was indefensible. He was clearly damaged from his concussions before NJ threw $24 million at him.

 

[Tundra]

he's a genius again if he's got them sucking so bad this year that they get a top 2 draft pick

I agree there.

 

[AHB*]

Sather has actually done a fairly decent job since the cap was instilled. I think it saved his career. That and Jeff Gorton.

That being said, I think both him and Lou are part of that old blood that gets entitlement. Both should be fired/have been fired numerous times already.

 

[Stephen]

The weird thing is Lou Lam's organization used to be a model for player development and building a strong program. But then you slowly wonder if maybe he just lucked into drafting Brodeur and Niedermayer and Scott Stevens fell into his lap.

Nowadays his acquisitions are headscratchers. Is he actually aware of any hockey players in the league under the age of 29?

 

[Burner Account]

Yes he has indeed turned into a losing GM like Glen Sather.

 

[ecemleafs]

lou has not been a good salary cap / 27 year old UFA era GM

 

[Teeder9]

Aside from some dmen and Henrique, it's an old group. What's worse are the contracts for some of the older guys are losing value steadily. Going in to this season, were the Devil's a serious favorite for the playoffs, let alone a cup? I didn't think they were, so why the signings? Of all seasons to make them, and with this draft? Lou could have taken Hanifin 1st overall/

 

[Xirik]

Ill wait to see what he does at the trade deadline if Lou really needs to be replaced. Right now the Devils have lot of trade deadline bait that could get us some 2nd and 3rd round picks or better. Player such as

Jaromir Jagr
Martin Havlat
Patrik Elias
Tuomo Ruutu
Michael Ryder
Dainius Zubrus
Marek Zidlicky

and maybe one of the Younger corps if we get a good deal.

 

[Leafidelity]

I don't think he's been a very good GM for more than a few years now

 

[njdevil26]

Ill wait to see what he does at the trade deadline if Lou really needs to be replaced. Right now the Devils have lot of trade deadline bait that could get us some 2nd and 3rd round picks or better. Player such as

Jaromir Jagr
Martin Havlat
Patrik Elias
Tuomo Ruutu
Michael Ryder
Dainius Zubrus
Marek Zidlicky

and maybe one of the Younger corps if we get a good deal.

Elias and Zubrus will stay but everyone else will be available.

Clowe was definitely a bad move. When he's healthy, he's a better player than Clarkson but he's just not healthy. Everyone knew that going in. I wish Lou just came up with the extra 300k per season for Clarkson.

I don't blame Lou for the Michael Ryder signing. Ryder is a 25-30 goal scorer who is currently the most useless player I can ever remember in a Devils uniform. I plain hate the guy while he's on the ice.

 

[Teeder9]

Elias and Zubrus will stay but everyone else will be available.

Clowe was definitely a bad move. When he's healthy, he's a better player than Clarkson but he's just not healthy. Everyone knew that going in. I wish Lou just came up with the extra 300k per season for Clarkson.

I don't blame Lou for the Michael Ryder signing. Ryder is a 25-30 goal scorer who is currently the most useless player I can ever remember in a Devils uniform. I plain hate the guy while he's on the ice.

I wonder why? I really wonder why a team needed either guy for that money. Clarkson is basically a role player with character, same as Clowe. Some toughness for sure, but is it really worth the kind of money either guy was paid?

 

[Freudian]

He's not been successful in the cap era. Poor drafting is probably the main problem. He has a preference to go after veterans, which has led to todays situation where the team is very old and slow. His insistence on not negotiating in-season (might have changed after Parise walked) has led to a lot of players walking as free agents without him even contemplating trading them at deadline so he doesn't end up empty handed.

But at the core is drafting. If you draft well enough, the steady flow of talent helps compensate for a lot of other things.

 

[HockeyThoughts]

I'm confused didn't the New York Rangers make the Stanley Cup Finals in 2014? New Jersey Devils in 2012?

Or were they managed by different GMs at that time.. ?

 

[Jossipov]

They have been spinning trying to figure out how to damage control the Kovalchuk mess the last two seasons. What I mean is, really, when you lose all these players for nothing (especially your two "superstars" in a year) you wind up building damage control teams. Also, with draft picks, they've had like 1 top 15 draft pick since... 1996.
They've been trying to hold off on accepting that it's full rebuild time, and building stop gap teams the last two seasons, but well...

Also, the new owners also own the 76ers....not much I need to say there.

 

[Xirik]

Elias and Zubrus will stay but everyone else will be available.

Clowe was definitely a bad move. When he's healthy, he's a better player than Clarkson but he's just not healthy. Everyone knew that going in. I wish Lou just came up with the extra 300k per season for Clarkson.

I don't blame Lou for the Michael Ryder signing. Ryder is a 25-30 goal scorer who is currently the most useless player I can ever remember in a Devils uniform. I plain hate the guy while he's on the ice.

I believe that the Devils Organization should ask Elias if he wants to be traded to another organization to try for a cup or be a part of mentoring the youth movement going forward.

Why wouldn't Zubrus be Available? He's not done much for us for the past two years. He's good Defensively and good along the boards keeping the puck. With the Devils sucking at scoring it really doesn't matter that we stay in there zone for a good minute if we can't get a shot on net.

 

[Section32]

Bad thread title.

As much as I dislike Sather, the Rangers have youth at every position and some high end guys on their way up.

The also haven't had the benefit of drafting high either.

At this point, Sather is lightyears ahead of Lou...

 

[Levitate]

Aside from some dmen and Henrique, it's an old group. What's worse are the contracts for some of the older guys are losing value steadily. Going in to this season, were the Devil's a serious favorite for the playoffs, let alone a cup? I didn't think they were, so why the signings? Of all seasons to make them, and with this draft? Lou could have taken Hanifin 1st overall/

A lot of people thought they were a serious bet for the playoffs. Their advanced stats were so good last year and they lost so many times in the shootout most people figured it was a fluke that they didn't get in last year. Not to mention getting below average goaltending from Brodeur and yet playing him so often.

So, it was thought that relying more on Schneider who is a good goalie would help a lot, and there was no way they'd lose that many shootouts again, and their advanced stats must mean they'd score more this year since they had bad puck luck last year.

Turns out that no they just are that bad in the shootout, and the players they lost last year versus the players they brought in have ended up dragging down their performances compared to last year (letting Fayne walk but keeping Salvadore around cmon) and they're running a promising but very inexperienced blueline, while Schneider has struggled to steal games every night.

Aging and fragile forward group that has trouble scoring, young and inexperienced blueline that makes mistakes, and a goalie that can't steal every game, so yeah it's ultimately not surprising that they're struggling. That all said, people looked at their strengths last year and figured if they could just get a bit more scoring (like with bringing Cammalleri onboard) and a bit more luck (not lose so many shootouts) they'd be a solid playoff bet. Unfortunately for them the other changes to their lineup kind of robbed them of their strengths from last year, so I'd say that management thought they could be playoff contenders with some tweaks, but those tweaks ended up shifting them in the wrong direction at least for the time being.

They have been spinning trying to figure out how to damage control the Kovalchuk mess the last two seasons. What I mean is, really, when you lose all these players for nothing (especially your two "superstars" in a year) you wind up building damage control teams. Also, with draft picks, they've had like 1 top 15 draft pick since... 1996.
They've been trying to hold off on accepting that it's full rebuild time, and building stop gap teams the last two seasons, but well...

Also, the new owners also own the 76ers....not much I need to say there.

Not drafting high doesn't help but at the same time they've missed in more than just the first round when it comes to finding impact forwards. During the same time period look at how many quality NHLers the Rangers have gotten out of the 2nd rounds and later...Callahan, Dubinsky, Anisimov, Stepan, Hagelin, even Dale Weise is getting a regular shift these days, and they have at least two good looking high end prospects in Duclair and Buchnevic that they picked up recently in the 3rd round. And I'm not even saying that the Rangers have been really great at drafting, just that they have obviously managed to draft and develop some quality NHL players in later rounds where the Devils have struggled to do so and that has really hurt them as well.

 

[Baemon Severson*]

The weird thing is Lou Lam's organization used to be a model for player development and building a strong program. But then you slowly wonder if maybe he just lucked into drafting Brodeur and Niedermayer and Scott Stevens fell into his lap.

Nowadays his acquisitions are headscratchers. Is he actually aware of any hockey players in the league under the age of 29?

Stevens fell into his lap, but Niedermayer was a shrewd trade and the Devils certainly had their eye on Marty. You're forgetting about draft Elias, Sykora, Gomez, Brylin, Gionta, Martin, Parise and Zajac. Then trades that brought Holik, Langenbrunner and Arnott in. Something that few people talk about is how well Lou and Conte did in getting undrafted free agents. These include: Rafalski, Madden, Greene and Clarkson. Unfortunately for NJ, other teams have caught up in scouting colleges and Europe.

There is equal blame to share for the current state of the Devils

A) All these years of playoffs and contending is catching up with them. They haven't drafted a forward before the 17th pick (Parise) since 1996 and before that, 1989. Aside from Larsson, who is coming into his own now, their last top 5 pick was Scott Niedermayer in 1991! I mean, it's hard to get elite talent when you arent picking in the top 20 ever.

With contending also comes deadline deals like Kovalchuk, Zidlicky, etc, which means trading a lot of those late first rounders. Less picks=less lottery tickets.

B) Taking away 2 top line talents like ZP9 and IK17 killed a team who had no semblance of offensive talent in the pipeline. It's indisputable that the Devils ownership played into losing both, which left Lou in a crappy situation. He has been trying to duct tape the holes, but they keep getting bigger and bigger. Jagr, Ryder, Cammalleri, Havlat and Brunner were good gambles, but only two of them have yielded anything. I will blame LL for Clowe, Salvador and Zubrus' last deals but it seems like NJ has dodged a bullet on Clowe.

It's a hard sell to your fanbase to sell off assets when you are in the cup finals months before. I'm not going to kill Lou for gambling on this team when the underlying numbers (advanced stats) looked good, he got a great young goalie and the team is filled with young, promising defensemen. The problem is that Elias has fallen off a cliff, Ryder, Brunner, Havlat, Zubrus and Clowe have given you nothing and they've been crushed by injuries. The fact that the Devils are in most games with a terrible roster is a testament to Peter DeBoer (whom Devils fans irrationally hate) for getting everything from a talentless lineup.

IMO, the Devils are 2/3 the way back to being a good team. They have a fantastic goalie who doesn't have a lot of miles on him and a good young defense, which will be getting even more reinforcements with Santini soon. The problem is the offense and that can't be understated. They have a bunch of potential middle liners like Matteau, Boucher, Quenneville and some outside shots like Graham Black and Blake Coleman, but it doesn't look great. Shut up, take your lumps for the next few years, draft a couple of forwards in the top ten and I think this team will be back in 2 or 3 years. I get frustrated with some of Lou's tactics but he has been a victim of his own success and got a raw deal from former ownership and stars bolting.

 

[Devils Trap]

I remember the days when he would fire coaches for nothing....

Now, Deboer , the worst coach in the NHL, still has a job after winning 65 out of his last 163 games.

 

[Baemon Severson*]

I remember the days when he would fire coaches for nothing....

Now, Deboer , the worst coach in the NHL, still has a job after winning 65 out of his last 163 games.

What could DeBoer have done better with this terrible roster? The only year he had a decent team they went to the finals and that was with Zajac not playing in the regular season.

 

[GoAwayDanCleary]

He built a team of retreads... NJ is the new Calgary.