Islanders General Manager Lou Lamoriello Isn’t That Bad – The Hockey Writers –

In a recent report from The Athletic, New York Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello was named the least trusted executive in the NHL (according to the report, “NHL Executive Trust Rankings, 2024: How Fans Receive Every Team”) AthleticAug. 6, 2024). While the 81-year-old has had his ups and downs on Long Island, that seems like a pretty egregious ranking, especially considering the Islanders’ success.

Lamoriello’s Islanders Highlights

While Lamoriello has undoubtedly made some bad decisions with the Islanders, he has also made a number of great moves. His first great move was hiring Barry Trotz as head coach in his inaugural season. The Stanley Cup-winning coach turned the franchise around, going 152-102-34 in four seasons with the team, including seven playoff wins.

Lamoriello’s resume also boasts a number of big-time trades, including the acquisitions of Kyle Palmieri, Bo Horvat and Alexander Romanov. Palmieri was dominant in his first season with the Islanders, scoring seven goals in the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals playoffs. Horvat was the answer to unlocking Mat Barzal’s offensive potential, and Romanov fit in perfectly as a defensive partner to Noah Dobson.

Lamoriello also drafted well. In 2018, he selected Dobson, a future All-Star, 12th overall. In 2019, he selected Simon Holmstrom and Samuel Bolduc, two players who have long NHL careers ahead of them. In 2020, he selected Alex Jefferies and William Dufour in the fourth and fifth rounds. In 2021, he selected Aatu Raty, the main asset in the Horvat trade, in the second round.

In 2022, Lamoriello selected Calle Odelius, Quinn Finley, Isaiah George and Matthew Maggio in the second, third, fourth and fifth rounds. In 2023, he selected Danny Nelson, Jesse Nurmi and Zachary Schulz in the second, fourth and sixth rounds. And in 2024, he took projected top-10 pick Cole Eiserman with the 20th overall pick and Jesse Pulkkinen and Kamil Bednarik, two prospects who received first-round grades from multiple draft picks, in the second round.

Related: The Worst New York Islanders Contracts

Of course, many of the aforementioned players haven’t made it to the NHL yet, but Lamoriello still finds value in the choices he’s made. Even with a depleted prospect pool, he’s added talent via trades, most notably acquiring an additional second-round pick in 2024 for the Islanders, moving up a few spots in the first two rounds.

Lamoriello also made the bold decision to let Robin Lehner leave in 2019 in favor of Semyon Varlamov. That decision helped the Islanders secure Ilya Sorokin due to his familiarity with Varlamov. Additionally, Varlamov was brilliant in the team’s deep playoff run in 2020, while Lehner hasn’t played an NHL game since 2022 due to injury.

Lamoriello’s Weakest Moments with the Islanders

While Lamoriello made some great decisions, he also made some heartbreaking ones. His worst trade was sending Devon Toews to the Colorado Avalanche for two second-round picks. Even then, the value was low, and Toews was developing into exactly the type of top-tier defenseman the Islanders needed. But the worst part of the deal was Lamoriello’s decision to move Toews and keep Nick Leddy, who began to decline after Toews left.

Lamoriello’s most disappointing decisions have come in contract negotiations. The Islanders currently have 13 players with no-trade clauses and eight players with contracts for four years or longer. This strategy might make sense if the Islanders were a younger team expected to improve over time, or if they were a contender who secured these deals at favorable prices. Unfortunately, that’s not the case in either case.

The worst of Lamoriello’s deals is with Scott Mayfield, the Islanders’ third-string defenseman, who signed for six more seasons at age 31. His contract includes a full no-trade clause that becomes a 16-team no-trade clause in the 2027 offseason. Paying a bottom-pair defenseman $3.5 million per year, which is a trade restriction, is astonishing, regardless of the caliber of player.

Another mystery contract is that of Pierre Engvall — a bottom-six winger whose game is based solely on speed — who signed for the next six seasons on a 16-team, undeclared roster. While he’s not a bad player and would fit in well with the Islanders, it’s likely a contract that will be bought out before the end.

There are only two reasons to sign a player to a long-term contract. The first reason is to secure a franchise player who won’t leave the team in the prime of his career. For someone like Barzal, signing him to an eight-year contract as a franchise anchor was a no-brainer, even if the price was high.

The second reason to sign a player to a long-term contract is to get a lower average annual salary than a short-term deal would cost. This is a tactic typically used by championship-contending teams to give their players the financial security they seek while also giving the team more cap flexibility in the short term. Unfortunately for the Islanders, Lamoriello has not employed either of these tactics in most of these deals.

No current mid-year player is a bargain, at least not for those signed to long-term contracts. Varlamov’s $2.75 million annual cost could meet the criteria, but even then his market value is likely $1 million or less higher than what he’s getting. By paying at best the entirety of basic fair value on long-term deals, Lamoriello has destroyed the team’s short-term and long-term salary cap flexibility.

Where does Lamoriello rank?

The question of where Lamoriello should ultimately rank comes down to philosophy. Looking at where he’s led the Islanders throughout his tenure, it’s clear he knows how to build a competitive team.

The Islanders have made the playoffs in five of Lamoriello’s six seasons and have had more playoff success than most in the league. But he’s set the team up for a decade of mediocrity with his contracts, so it’s understandable why he doesn’t have the fans’ trust.

If I were to rate Lamoriello, he would probably be somewhere in the 20-25 range on this list. With the team he has built, he has put a product on the ice that has a real chance of beating any team on any given night. The Islanders were a goal away from possibly winning the Stanley Cup in 2021, and the core of the team hasn’t changed much since then. Putting GMs like Rob Blake ahead of Lamoriello is just embarrassing.

While Lamoriello led the Islanders to Some success during his tenure, he did more harm than good. Sure, if he had brought home the Stanley Cup, the narrative would be different, but given the team’s future prospects, there’s a reason fans don’t trust the veteran GM.