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General Manager Lou Lamoriello addressed the media on locker clean out day following the end of the 2016-17 season.


Where is the priority for you to get better if you agree with the idea that you’re set in goal and you have the solid core up front? Is it the blue line that needs the most improvement going forward?

Lamoriello: I think it’s obvious that there are certain areas we need [to improve]. But I think the most important part is, overall, you have to get better. I think that you have to be extremely careful when you have a year like this, coming from the year before, as far as you might think it’s okay. This is a tough league. You look at the teams prior to the season starting that were expecting to be in certain places and what transpires. You look at where Toronto was expected to be. You never know. A lot happens there in the summer as far as preparation. I think that’s the most important thing. Each and every one of our players right now has to do what is necessary for them to be better next year. And then it’s our job to fill into the areas where we feel that we have to add. Getting better within is more important right now.

You were always a big guy in New Jersey on leadership within the locker room. A couple of months before you got the job, Nazem Kadri was suspended by the team for missing a meeting and other things. How has he gone from that to you guys accepting him and pushing him to be the team leader that he is now?

Lamoriello: I think you’d have to ask him that. I think what we did, and I know what I did, was first of all looked at what Naz could bring as a player, and what his capabilities are, and [ask] why isn’t it happening? I think we’ve gotten him to understand and believe that if he wanted to be the player that his parents gave him with the talent and the character that he has, then he had to do certain things. He accepted that challenge. Whatever success he’s had, he deserves. He did this. What we did was basically give him the information he had to have. If you don’t do this, you won’t be in the NHL. He accepted that, and tremendous kudos to him. He earned himself a contract last year because of what he did, and I think he more than kept his bargain right now. And yet he has more room to get better, and he can’t be satisfied. He’s aware of that. You can’t help but feel great for him.

Change is inevitable, but how much change do you think this team will undergo this summer? One or two players? Four or five?

Lamoriello: You do whatever you can to get better, but you do not do things for the sake of doing them. If you can’t, for example, bring in the right type of player like Brian Boyle, then you do not. We don’t know what is going to be available. This is a unique year with expansion. We don’t know what can and can’t be done. It’s a very difficult question to answer. You can always get better. You never get satisfied. Once you get satisfied, complacency sets in. Once complacency sets in, you’re in trouble. You’re going in a different direction. What we did is we took a step forward. We took a step forward this year at the experience end of it, and players believing they can do certain things, but it’s only a step.

When you take into account Edmonton having to trade a player like Taylor Hall to get Adam Larsson, to get their defenceman last year – and if you’ve identified improving their blue line as a big offseason goal – how would you gauge the market in terms of accessing that type of defenceman via trade this summer?

Lamoriello: The best way I can answer that is I don’t know if anybody can gauge the market because, from my experience with expansion, a lot of things are going to take place prior to expansion. Whatever you might think a team has an excess of might not be the case. We’ll just have to do our job and communicate as best as we can with everybody and make whatever decisions we can make at a given time when there is a chance to get better.

Did this year reinvigorate you a little bit? What is your future? How much longer do you want to do this?

Lamoriello: I would say that this group, to all of us, got us all excited. The job that you people did in the covering of them, whether there were expectations or the enthusiasm throughout the city, it invigorated everyone. Yes, to answer your question. How could you not? They love to play the game. These young players want to be good. They’ll pay the price there has to be. We’ve got a coaching staff that each and every day comes with a positive attitude. If we didn’t have that, you could not overcome playing a game like we did in Florida and then the next night turn around and play one of the better games on a most critical night. I think that is what keeps you going.

As far as the future, I’ve got enough problems just getting up in the morning.

Given your excitement and what you saw in March and April and how close the series was with Washington, how close do you think this team is to contending for a Stanley Cup?

Lamoriello: Close is a funny word. Then you get into hypotheticals. I think what I said earlier is exactly what it is. It is a step. Now it is our job to convince the players that it’s only a step. It’s going to get more difficult. Teams are going to look at you a little different in how they approach you. Teams are going to know your tendencies and how they can stop you. There is a lot that has to transpire. That’s why it is just a step.

For the first time in a long time, that draft table is going to be moved back a row or two. Heading into Chicago, how challenging will the next few months be for Mark Hunter and his staff as you guys debate for that draft in Chicago?

Lamoriello: I think we’ve got the best at it, without question, in Mark Hunter and his staff. I’m not going to apologize to him that he’s not sitting in the front row, by any means, but they’re ready. I do know one thing: The best seat at the draft is the last row.

There will be a couple of years before the impact forwards on the roster are going to be up for new deals. Obviously, that presents a financial window to spend. Is that the Maple Leafs intention, to take advantage of that?

Lamoriello: We’ll handle it as it comes. Things have a way of changing. I think right now we are in a good position for that as to how we have our cap set. There is a five-year plan that changes every day, both on the personnel side and also on the cap side as far as knowing what you have to do. It’s our job to be prepared for that.

So much conversation around the young players this season. How would you assess the play of Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk?

Lamoriello: I would’ve not left today without bringing up the job that the older players, who are really young, have done. I think the Tyler Bozaks, the Leo Komarovs, the James van Riemsdyks… I mean, I don’t know what more we could’ve asked of them. They bought into what is being asked of them. They bought into a culture, and they embraced it. Not only that, they embraced the young players, who they had tremendous respect for the talents [of] and worked with them to help them. Enough can’t be said about the Polaks, the Hunwicks… you hate to leave anyone out when you mention names. The veterans are here for a reason. We went through 45 something players last year. The players that were here belong in that locker room and are part of the future.

Did you see enough out of Auston this year to comfortably say he can be the next captain of the team?

Lamoriello: I don’t think that is a discussion for today. What we saw from Auston is we saw a very mature young man both on and off the ice who has tremendous respect for his teammates and wants to be the best that he can be. You saw that with just how hard he worked at playing defence and how he receptive he was to coaching. Whatever the future brings, it brings.