For the first time since 1987, Lou Lamoriello is not the general manager of the Devils.
It was announced Monday afternoon the organization has hired former Penguins GM Ray Shero to take over the everyday tasks of general manager, and Shero will report to Lamoriello, who as team president will report to owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer.
“It’s the right thing,” Lamoriello said on a conference call. “I think we have to be realistic in life in different areas, and we have to be honest. I think right now, this is a perfect time.”
It has been speculated Harris and Blitzer forced the 72-year-old Lamoriello to step aside, yet Lamoriello did say it was his decision to hire Shero, who is 52 and was in charge of the Penguins from 2006-14, winning the Stanley Cup in 2009. Shero was fired after the Pens lost to the Rangers in the second round of last season’s playoffs, and Lamoriello said he had to get Pittsburgh’s permission to reach out to Shero and initiate the hire.
“We’ve got a person at a perfect age, with great experience, has been in a couple different organizations,” Lamoriello said. “He had a year off, has been able to take a step back and [see] what went wrong, what went right, what would [he] do different. And I think we’re going to be the beneficiary of it as an organization.”
Lamoriello has been running the Devils organization since April 1987, when he left his post as athletic director at Providence. In the time he was general manager, the team won three Stanley Cups in 1995, 2000 and 2003, and he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009. The Devils made the playoffs in 20 of 26 seasons during his reign, but this season was the third in a row in which the team failed to make the postseason.
“I take full responsibility for that,” Lamoriello said.
He fired coach Peter DeBoer in December, and hired Adam Oates and Scott Stevens to serve as co-head-coaches, while he also presided over the bench. There is no current head coach, and clearly Dan Bylsma is near the top of the list of possible replacements after he was dismissed by the Penguins along with Shero last season.
Lamoriello said the hiring of a coach would ultimately be Shero’s choice.
As for the emotion of the moment, Lamoriello dusted off an old favorite.
“I’ll use a little phrase I use — it’s like a duck on water,” he said. “You see it calm on top and your feet are going like hell on the bottom. There’s always emotion, but I’m not going anywhere. I’m here. The focus is getting back to where we should be, where we belong, and what’s expected.”