New York Islanders 3 Reasons Lou Lamoriello is GM of the Year Candidate

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NEWARK, NJ – JUNE 30: New Jersey Devils GM Lou Lamoriello attends the 2013 NHL Draft at the Prudential Center on June 30, 2013 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

New York Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello wasn’t a finalist for the NHL’s GM of the Year award. With the work he did this season, he absolutely deserved to be one of the league’s top three General Managers.

I doubt New York Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello cares that he wasn’t named as a finalist for GM of the Year. He’s already in the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder. Not winning an award that was created ten years ago isn’t going to phase him. His legacy in the game has already been cemented.

But, Lou Lamoriello deserves to be a finalist for this award. Matt O’Leary talked about how Lou compares to the field of finalists this year. Carolina’s Don Waddell has a strong claim for the award, but St Louis’s Doug Armstrong and Boston’s Don Sweeney have much weaker cases than Lou Lamoriello.

How many times did you have to eat your words over the course of the season? How many times did the New York Islanders make you reconsider your firmly held opinions from the start of the season? I lost count of the number of times that Lou Lamoriello made me eat my words this season.

I was certain the Islanders couldn’t be successful this season. Lou Lamoriello’s plan of working hard followed by a parade of bottom six players had me convinced the New York Islanders weren’t going to be very good in 2018-19. And I was wrong.

Lou deserves this award for putting together a team that did exactly what he wanted them to do.