Shanahan offers no timetable for hiring new GM

Kristen Shilton

TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

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The Toronto Maple Leafs will have a new general manager for the 2018-19 season. The franchise just isn’t ready to say who it will be.
 
The guessing game began Monday when Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan announced that Lou Lamoriello wouldn’t be returning as the team’s general manager after three seasons on the job. Lamoriello’s contract in that capacity expired after the 2017-18 campaign, and he made mention at his year-end press conference of letting the situation “take its course” without committing to a future with the team.

Shanahan wasn’t willing to offer a timetable for when a new GM will be named and wouldn’t say whether outside candidates will be considered. The most obvious choice for a seamless changing of the guard would be to promote one of their assistant general managers, Kyle Dubas or Mark Hunter, into the role but Shanahan said there’s a procedure that needs to be sorted through in the aftermath of the Leafs’ season ending last Wednesday.
 
“I felt what was best for the organization if I were to make a decision [to change general managers] was to make one early,” Shanahan said. “So I haven’t begun that process yet and that’s why no one has been named. My focus was on Lou and making a decision and taking a little time right after the season to really reflect on that. Just handling one thing at a time.”

The Leafs made no announcement about who will handle the team's day-to-day business in the interim.

In a press release on Monday, Shanahan said Lamoriello was informed the organization would stick to its original plan from when Lamoriello was hired as GM back in July 2015, having him transition after three years into a senior advisor role for the next four. Whether Lamoriello would remain with the Leafs in the advisor capacity wasn’t made clear in the release, but he stated outright on the conference call that there are no immediate plans for him to look for work elsewhere. 

“My responsibility is right here with the Toronto Maple Leafs,” said Lamoriello. “I made an agreement and a decision three years ago. It is my intent to honour that. This morning Brendan and I had a conversation and there are no other thoughts in my mind at this point.”
 
Going without the responsibility attached to the general manager title will be new territory for Lamoriello, although not entirely foreign. Prior to joining the Leafs, Lamoriello had been the general manager of the New Jersey Devils for 28 years, but he relinquished the reigns of that position to Ray Shero in May 2015, just weeks before Shanahan came calling. 
 
On Monday’s conference call, Lamoriello denied a reporter’s insinuation he wasn’t happy in the capacity of Devils’ president, but also wouldn’t say definitively he’ll play out all four seasons with the Leafs in an advisor role. 
 
“I wish I could give you that answer,” Lamoriello said. “I haven’t given it any thought. It would be my intention.”
 
Keeping Lamoriello in the fold with Shanahan and head coach Mike Babcock can only be positive for the Leafs, considering they’ve been the architects of more success than the franchise has seen in decades. After a 30th-place finish in the 2015-16 season earned them the number one overall pick in the 2016 NHL draft, Toronto selected the cornerstone of its franchise in centre Auston Matthews. Lamoriello also traded for the Leafs’ starting goaltender Frederik Andersen days before that draft, solidifying Toronto at the position. 
 
Key signings and the development of Matthews alongside fellow Leafs’ draft picks Mitch Marner, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly, among others, has been a critical part of the Leafs producing back-to-back playoff appearances in 2017 and 2018, the first time Toronto has been in consecutive postseasons since 2003.
 
Last season, the Leafs put together a 105-point effort while also setting franchise records for most wins (49), most home wins (29) and the longest home-winning streak (13 games). 
 
With Nylander, Matthews and Marner all requiring contract extensions in the next 14 months, there’s a tall task ahead for any new general manager to take on. But Shanahan is confident in how Lamoriello’s fingerprints will linger on for the Leafs. 
 
“He worked in an environment where he came here and there was a team of people here already assembled and he fit in as their leader seamlessly,” Shanahan said. “Lou’s mentorship these last three years with the entire management group, coaching staff and even office staff, that’s just how he works. Lou Lamoriello’s influence on everyone here will felt for a long time.”
 
That influence would project to extend onto Dubas as well. Before bringing Lamoriello on board, Shanahan raised eyebrows when he named then-28-year-old Dubas as the Leafs’ assistant general manager in April 2014. Dubas had been the general manager of the Ontario Hockey League’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds for three years, and came to the Leafs as a touted hockey analytics guru who could bring the nearly century-old franchise into the game’s new age of stats and technology.

Dubas has maintained his role as assistant GM with the Leafs while also taking over as general manager of the club’s American Hockey League affiliate. Under his guidance, the Toronto Marlies have made back-to-back postseason runs and last season were the best team in the AHL with a 54-18-4 record (112 points).

Hunter is an assistant general manager for the Leafs as well, in addition to his responsibility as director of player personnel. His breadth of experience in coaching, scouting and management at both the junior and pro levels could make him an attractive pick for Shanahan. 

 
But the appointment of Lamoriello’s successor will wait for another day. Monday was about honouring the past, and bracing for the future. Shanahan and Lamoriello both took time on the conference call to reflect about their relationship, one that began when Shanahan was the second overall pick by the Devils in 1987, and carried on over the five seasons he spent in his career there under Lamoriello. 

While it was “absolutely” difficult for Shanahan to decide a new GM was needed, he was also adamant their evolving relationship is well preserved despite the shift. 
 
“One of the things Lou and I talked about today and I expressed to him was how fortunate I felt,” Shanahan said. “Over the past three years to have the opportunity to travel and have several conversations, you get to know the man on a different level. As proud as I am for the work he did on our team and the strides they made on the ice, my greatest memory is the time we spent away from the rink together and I feel very fortunate to have had that.”