Q: Describe the Devils Way?
A: Unselfish. . .respect of each other. . .and never wanting to let the teammate down.
Q: Describe the traits you look for in a Lou Lamoriello hockey player?
A: Total commitment. . .give up your own identity for the good of the team. . .and, I guess, respect (your) teammate.
Q: The traits you look for in a hockey coach?
A: One who has no ego … has a conviction in what he believes in, but is never afraid to adjust or change if someone gives a better idea … and don’t do it just simply ’cause you want to prove you’re right and somebody else wrong.
Q: Coaches or managers in other sports you admire?
A: (Bill) Belichick is probably somebody I have tremendous respect for. I don’t know him personally but the way I’ve seen him bring players in, and make team players out of players who come from another team that might not have fit in, and they buy into the system. And he wins.
Q: Anyone else?
A: Well certainly Vince Lombardi, what he did with the Green Bay Packers. And I have to go back to the old Canadien teams, and the way they developed players. And probably go to what Red Auerbach did with his team – – totally unseflish. . No stars, and yet they were all stars … they were all superstars but they weren’t stars. They were just … and every player meant something. And, of course, without any sort of hesitation, the Yankees and the commitment that George Steinbrenner had given to winning, and how he wanted their players to be handled and the disciplne that was done there, and I certainly admire Joe Torre. . .there’s just so many people that you draw so many things out of, that what you then put it into your own person.
Q: Athletes in other sports you admire?
A: I can think of any number of them … I watched Larry Bird for years, and what what he did, how he competed. I’m fans of many players. It’s tough, I can go on and on because I look at certain traits and just the way they compete, which is the most important thing. I like players who compete. And if you have talent and you compete, you’re gonna have success.
Q: Why did you give your coach a Vince Lombardi book his first day on the job?
A: Because I thought the book is indicative of what a lot of the philosophies I have here, and it says it through another set of words, another mind, and I believe it. I believe in what he did and how he built teams in Green Bay. I was in college at that time, and I watched what he did with the Paul Hornungs and the Bart Starrs, and how he brought everybody together. To have success in any team, you have to bring everybody together, for one common cause. I thought he did it better than anybody.
Q: What are some of your favorite Lombardi-isms?
A: I think overall, just his total approach towards human beings. He did something which I’m a believer in — he separated the player and the person. And when I was in college, I used to have a player, a person and a student. They were all different people. He separated the person and the player, and that’s philosophically what I believe in. When he’s a hockey player, he’s on the ice, you treat ’em all like hockey players. When they’re off, their hockey abilities have nothing to do with the way you treat ’em. If they had a bad game, you don’t ignore ’em, they have families, they’re people. And I think that’s what he did more than anyone.
Q: One George Steinbrenner anecdote that sums him up?
A: My dealings with him were so extraordinary fantastic. The relation he and I had was just incredible. His commitment to excellence and his commitment to winning. . .and the other thing that stood out to me, he never made a phone call to me without dialing the phone himself. He was old school in different ways, but to me, I saw a side of him that a lot of people maybe didn’t see, because of maybe the relationship that we somehow acquired, I don’t know.
Q: You don’t know why that was?
A: How it first started was that we had a mutual person that we knew. When he was in Columbus High School, there was a priest there named Father Taylor who he had had, and then that priest was at Providence College, was the assistant athletic director, so he knew me through this priest. And it was just amazing when that came up in a conversation when we were talking.
Q: Do you think he saw some of him in you?
A: I have no idea (laugh).
Q: Do you see some of you in him?
A: (Pause) Maybe. . . I don’t know, I never thought about it.
Q: What did you admire about Rick Pitino?
A: Same thing I admire about Pete (DeBoer). Very intelligent … extremely hard worker … student of the game, and very communicative with the players. I never knew Rick. When I became (Providence) Athletic Director, I had to get a basketball coach to replace Joe Mullaney (smile). And naturally I lived through Providence, and basketball was the driving force to support the sports there. And yet, you needed somebody who could recruit. And Hubie Brown called me about Rick, and he was assistant coach at the Knicks at that time, and then John Simpson, the athletic director at BU who Rick was with at BU, spoke to me about him, and I was intrigued about what they had to say. Because I thought that whenever you hire a college coach, you have to have three things: He has to be able to recruit probably more than anything, he has to stay within the philosophy of the school and then, can he coach? I met with Rick in New York city, and we spent some time together, and he impressed me. I felt he could recruit after I met him. I felt that he was somebody that could turn the program around. And to this day, we have the greatest relationship you can imagine.
Q: You’re also frends with Bobby Valentine?
A: I was in baseball too; I coached and played in the Cape League (Yarmouth). The assistant (basketball) coach at Providence College, Billy O’Connor, says we have a great young baseball player in Stamford, he’s a junior in high school, Bobby Valentine. So I had a lot of Connecticut players play for me in the Cape League, so I went to see him play. So I convinced his mother and father to let him come to play in the Cape League. So he played for me when he was 17. And that was the same year that he got drafted from the Cape League by the Mets. And there was another player who played there too that same year that same year, he was a catcher, they went four and five in the draft, Thurman Munson (Chatham).
Q: What was the 17-year-old Bobby V like?
A: He was just as … vivacious as he is right now. But he was a great player. And by the way, great football player.
Q: How do you think he’ll do with the Red Sox?
A: I think he’s gonna do great, I really do. He’s going into a situation certainly that I think quite frankly they needed a Bobby Valentine.
Q: Your memories of Munson?
A: Just fantastic ballplayer, competitor. And his arm stood out to me more than anything, the way he could get rid of the ball and get somebody at second base. He was at Kent State at that time.
Q: The Marty Brodeur draft.
A: We had (pick) 13. And Calgary we knew was interested in Trevor Kidd, and so we traded down (to 20). We had three goalies in mind at that time – – Brodeur, (Mike) Dunham and (Corey) Schwab, and we thought they were all good. Well everybody tells me about drafting, I said, “If we were that smart, we would have never traded down, we would have taken him 13.” But we liked Marty. We thought he’d be there though.
Q: What did you see at that point in him?
A: Athleticsm … loves the game. Just in the interview process. But you don’t know what’s gonna happen. You see that in other kids too. But he’s just something special.
Q: He’s been called arguably the greatest goaltender of all time – what is it that makes him great?
A: Well in my opinion he is. What makes him great is just the type of person he is, the type of respect he has for his teammates, and just the way he prepares and loves the game, and works at it every day. If you watch him in practice, he’s having as much fun in practice as he’s having in the game. And you’ve gotta love the game.
Q: Here’s a quote from you: “I have to have strong people around me.” Why is that so important?
A: Because … they have to be able to handle me too (smile).
Q: The intangible traits that have made Lou Lamoriello successful?
A: You’d have to ask somebody else.
Q: Gary Bettman called you a “visionary” at your Hall of Fame induction.
A: You’re humbled … when you love what you do, you’re just trying … always try and get better, that’s the key. Always try and get better. Always try and make something better.
Q: Do you read books on leadership?
A: Yes. I read a lot of history on generals, and war books, and just their thought process, I was a believer in that.
Q: Books by?
A: John Maxwell, John Wooden, Vince Lombardi.
Q: To be as successful as you are, you have to be a good judge of character?
A: Without character you’ve got nothing.
Q: How would you define character?
A: Unselfish … respectful … confident … secure in your own skin … and always wanting to be the best, and get the best, but you can have a character in you and be quiet. Takes all different personalities.
Q: Did you order Brian Burke to take his law boards?
A: Yes.
Q: Why?
A: ‘Cause he couldn’t play hockey (chuckle). He loved it, but he wasn’t gonna make it.
Q: When Burke was late for (Providence) practice on Christmas Day, why did you make him run for something like 10 days straight?
A: We had an agreement that no one would be late. So if you’re gonna be late, this is what would happen. He was late. Simple as that. All his excuses, he fabricates ’em more, every year they get better and better — he was late, bottom line (smile).
Q: What was it like shooting pucks at Eddie Giacomin?
A: it was great (smile). Those were the days when I was playing in Providence and they (AHL Reds) only took one goalie on the road. And he was the second goalie. So when they left him home, somebody had to shoot at him, and I had my class schedule so that I could go over and shoot at him.
Q: How’d you do?
A: You have to ask him that (laugh).
Q: You were a catcher in baseball?
A: I had a contract to go in to the Giants, and I didn’t take it, actually.
Q: Why?
A: To this day, that’s probably the toughest question I have to answer, they were gonna send me, after my final year in the Cape, to Springfield in Triple-A just for the rest of the year, and then A ball. It was a year when there was so much going on that I had to make choices with hockey, and coaching, and ’64 Olympics was in that time … there was so much going on that I’ll never forget. … and I still have the contract, but never signed it.
Q: Boyhood idol?
A: Probably my parents. They’re from Italy. They just sacrificed everything they could for their children, or just gave ’em direction, and gave ’em qualities that today you look back on that you appreciate. And I said every year that I got older, they got smarter (chuckle).
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: My three kids … I’m one of the most fortunate people in the world to have the kids I have and grandkids. I’ve got three fantastic kids, and they’re all different, two boys and a girl. One is with us, he runs our minor league team and one of our scouts. The other’s a lawyer. And the other’s a mother. She got her Master’s from BU … And my grandchildren – that’s what it’s all about.
Q: How do you feel when people call you arguably the greatest GM in sports?
A: That’s not even in my vocabulary. That’s crazy.
Q: You still have the same passion for this that you always did, right?
A: I think you can tell that.
Q: How did winning the first Stanley Cup compare to the second and the third?
A: Each one was better than the other.
Q: Is that right?
A: Well, because you realize how tough it is to get there, that’s why.
Q: What was it like holding the Cup for the first time?
A: It’s a feeling you can’t even explain.
Q: Did you take it home?
A: We took it home like everybody else did … just watching everybody enjoy it makes you feel good.