Lou Lamoriello

Louis Lamoriello
Born	October 21, 1942 (1942-10-21) Providence, Rhode Island
Occupation	National Hockey League executive New Jersey Devils team president and general manager (1987–present)

Louis "Lou" Lamoriello (born October 21, 1942, in Providence, Rhode Island) is the CEO, president, and general manager of the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL). Lamoriello, who has been with the Devils since 1987, has served longer than any current general manager in the league with a single franchise.

He played a key part in negotiating the settlement of the 2004–05 NHL lockout.

Early life

After attending LaSalle Academy, Lamoriello graduated from Providence College in 1963. He received varsity letters in baseball and hockey and served each team as captain during his senior year.

Lamoriello was a math teacher at Johnston (R.I.) High School for several years ending in the early 1970s.

College hockey

Lamoriello became head coach of the Providence College men's ice hockey team in 1968 and became athletic director in July 1982. During the 1982–83 season, the Friars were 33–10–0—the best record in the nation that year—and appeared in the Frozen Four for the first time since 1964. Lamoriello resigned as head coach in 1983. As athletic director, he hired Rick Pitino as the head coach of the men's basketball team. Pitino would go on to take Providence to the Final Four in 1987.

In July 1983, Lamoriello joined his fellow athletic directors at Boston College, Boston University, New Hampshire, and Northeastern in forming the Hockey East Association. He helped produce an interlocking schedule agreement with the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and negotiate the first television package in college hockey.

Lamoriello was the first commissioner of Hockey East. The conference's executive committee voted on March 7, 1988, to name the conference championship trophy in his honor, as the Lamoriello Trophy. A permanent trophy was commissioned and was presented at the 1999 championship.

On April 30, 1987, Lamoriello resigned as Hockey East commissioner and as athletic director at Providence to become president of the NHL's New Jersey Devils.

Devils President and general manager

In April 1987, then-owner of the Devils John McMullen appointed Lamoriello president of the club. Lamoriello named himself general manager just before the start of the 1987–88 season, a move that surprised many NHL observers. He had never played, coached or managed in the NHL, and was virtually unknown outside the American college hockey community.

Since then, Lamoriello has presided over one of the most successful rebuilding projects in North American professional sports history. In his first season as GM, the Devils notched their first winning season in franchise history (dating back to their time as the Kansas City Scouts [1974–76] and Colorado Rockies [1976–82]) and reached the Wales Conference Finals. They have made the playoffs in all but two of his 23 seasons as GM and appeared in the Stanley Cup finals in 1995 (won), 2000 (won), 2001 (lost), and 2003 (won). After YankeeNets bought the Devils in 2000, Lamoriello was named chairman and CEO of the Devils, as well as vice-chairman and CEO of the then co-owned New Jersey Nets. He dropped his chairmanship of the Devils and resigned his posts on the Nets after Jeffrey Vanderbeek bought the Devils in 2004. Both YankeeNets and Vanderbeek have largely left the Devils' operations in Lamoriello's hands.

In 1992, Lamoriello was awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy for outstanding service to hockey in the United States. He also served as general manager for Team USA in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey (in which the U.S. won the gold medal) and the 1998 Winter Olympics.

Lamoriello is well known in NHL circles for his hard-nosed approach to contract negotiations. Pat Verbeek, Kirk Muller and Bill Guerin, among others, have been traded out of town after losing contract negotiations. He nearly traded Ken Daneyko, the Devils' all-time leader in games played, in 1989. According to Daneyko, Lamoriello believes in paying a third-line player as much as a first-line player if he feels they have the same value to the team.

Brief coaching stints

On December 19, 2005, following the surprise resignation of Larry Robinson as Devils head coach, Lamoriello took over the position on an interim basis. The Devils eventually made it the Eastern Conference semi-finals before falling to the Carolina Hurricanes. When asked on television after the Devils' victory over the New York Rangers in the first round of the playoffs if he was interested in becoming head coach permanently, Lamoriello replied "Absolutely not", hiring Claude Julien as coach following the season.

On April 2, 2007, Lamoriello once again took over as interim head coach after firing Julien. The firing took place with three games left in the season, when the Devils had the second-best record in the conference and were on their way to setting a franchise record for regular season wins.

Coaching record

Team	Year	Regular season						Post season
		G	W	L	OTL	Pts	Finish	Result
NJ	2005–06	50	32	14	4	(101)	1st in Atlantic	Lost in second round
NJ	2006–07	3	2	0	1	(107)	1st in Atlantic	Lost in second round
Total		53	34	14	5

Honours and achievements

In 1980, Lamoriello was inducted into the Providence College Athletic Hall of Fame.

In 1988, Hockey East named the conference championship trophy in Lamoriello's honour, as the Lamoriello Trophy. A permanent trophy was commissioned and was presented at the 1999 championship.

On June 23, 2009, it was announced that Lamoriello would be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the builders category. He was honoured during the November 6–9 induction weekend, alongside Brett Hull, Brian Leetch, Luc Robitaille, and Steve Yzerman.

Lamoriello has been the general manager for three Stanley Cup championships, in 1995, 2000, and 2003.

Additionally, as a minority owner of the New York Yankees, Lamoriello has a World Series ring from the Yankees 2009 championship. [1]

Personal life

Lou Lamoriello has three adult children: Christopher, Heidi, and Tim. Christopher works for the Devils as the senior vice president of hockey operations and general manager for the Devils' developmental teams in Albany and Trenton. Tim is a senior staff attorney for the New Jersey Devils. His son Chris married Olympic gold medallist Vicki Movsessian.

References

• New Jersey Devils Rule – Lou Lamoriello. Retrieved July 23, 2005.
• "Providence College Names Tim Army Men's Hockey Coach". June 17, 2005. Retrieved July 23, 2005.
• Providence College – Athletics Director Robert G. Driscoll, Jr.. Retrieved July 23, 2005.
• NHL.com – "The Other Side of Lamoriello". December 7, 2004. Retrieved on his birth December 12, 1912 July 23, 2005.
• "THE LAMORIELLO TROPHY". Retrieved July 20, 2006.