Lou Lamoriello is notorious for his workings as a National Hockey League general manager. The former New Jersey Devils boss made his share of bold trades, found his share of bad draft picks, and has been known to stick to older players. That is especially true for players he was once tied to.
He’s done it with the New York Islanders, signing and trading for the likes of Travis Zajac, Andy Greene, and Matt Martin. He brought Zach Parise to Long Island after Minnesota bought him out. Parise was drafted, played for, and was named captain by Lamoriello. Zajac did not really work out, while Parise has carved out a nice spot for himself in the Islanders bottom six. Before he did it on Long Island, he was doing it for decades in New Jersey.
Some have worked out, while others have not. Things that NHL general managers love to do is bring their guys back into the fold. Kyle Dubas loves his Soo Greyhounds, Stan Bowman loved his glory days Blackhawks players like Brandon Saad, and Lamoriello loved to bring back guys he has worked with in the past.
When looking back at the players Lamoriello has brought into the black and red family, those who buy in seem to become favorites. If they need to move on, Lamoriello would likely bring them back later in their career.
What caused this train of thought? Some might argue Lamoriello “re-acquired” Bo Horvat at the trade deadline. Horvat was notably taken with the ninth overall selection, a pick that Lamoriello traded to the Canucks for goaltender Cory Schneider, a player that has been in the Islanders’ system as a depth goalie. Lamoriello loves his guys.
Trying to come up with names for a list like this was not hard. There were a lot of players Lamoriello brought back. Thinking of “good” ones was much harder than the bad ones. So we will do the worst re-acquisitions for Lou Lamoriello first because there are a lot and are the easiest to think of, which is not a good thing for the late 2000s and early 2010s New Jersey Devils.