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Um... so. You remember that Lou guy? You know, the one in whom we trust? Yeah, about that.
In an absolute bombshell of an announcement, Lou Lamoriello is no longer a member of the Devils organization. After nearly 30 years at the helm of the organization as team president, the Lou Lamoriello Era is officially reached its end for New Jersey. On an otherwise nondescript Thursday morning, these two tweets dropped about a minute apart:
BREAKING NEWS: Lou Lamoriello resigns as President of the #NJDevils. http://t.co/8LwWMLqgli pic.twitter.com/LhsTTcvovz
— New Jersey Devils (@NHLDevils) July 23, 2015
The #Leafs have named Lou Lamoriello the 16th General Manager in Club history #TMLtalk READ → http://t.co/gabNyzLRwI pic.twitter.com/huVOhgEYJl
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) July 23, 2015
My first thought is this: "WOEIRHKDFJOSIDYIOSDGJGJLK"
Follow up thoughts, after reattaching my jaw to the rest of my head are as follows:
This is obviously shocking turn of events. The words are hard to piece together right now, but this fact seems clear: Lou Lamoriello was not quite ready to step back and be a behind the scenes guy for the Devils or anyone else, for that matter. After Lou stepped down from the Devils GM position just a couple months ago, it was a huge turn of events for the organization. He stayed on as team president though, and the prevailing thought was that he was ready to head into a more behind the scenes role after naming Ray Shero his successor. That prevailing thought was about as wrong as thoughts can possibly be, though, as he now steps into the GM role for the leagues most scrutinized and in-the-spotlight franchise.
We are in uncharted territory. For those of you, like myself, who quite literally have not existed in a world where Lou was not running the New Jersey Devils, this will take a bit of time to process.
More to come later, obviously.
UPDATE: Minor news in comparison, but the Devils will reportedly receive a 3rd-round pick as compensation for the Lamoriello hire. Seems likely that it is actually the one they gave to Pittsburgh as compensation for John Hynes, as that pick was traded to Toronto in the Phil Kessel deal.