Vanderbeek backs Lamoriello

I know you guys are hungry for some new information on the Devils, but there’s nothing going on yet with free agency. I ran into Devils Chairman and Managing Partner Jeff Vanderbeek this afternoon at a USA Wrestling press conference at the Prudential Center, however, and had a couple of minutes to talk to him about the 2007-08 season and the importance of this off-season, so I thought I’d share what he had to say with you.

Here’s the transcript of the interview:

How disappointed were you with the team’s first-round playoff loss?

“Extremely disappointed. There’s no other way to explain it. I don’t mince words. We have a high hurdle. We know that. When you go to four (Stanley Cup) Finals in nine years and you make the playoffs 11 straight years and 18 out of 19 years, it’s not enough to make the playoffs. In some of these other places, if you make the playoffs, you have a parade. Here, unless you win the Cup, it’s considered a failure and a disappointment. I like it that way. It’s a high bar and it is what it is. Obviously, we have to get better.”

How do you get better?

“If you had about an hour and a half I’d go through it with you.”

How about a condensed version?

“I’m very comfortable with our senior management. I’ve very confident they’ll get it right and we’ll be right back where we want to be, which is competing for a championship next year.”

Do you see the team being more aggressive in free agency than it has been in the past?

“It’s too early to tell. There’s too many balls in the air.”

Do you think the team will be able to re-sign important unrestricted free agents such as Jay Pandolfo?

“I can’t discuss that. That’s Lou’s (Lamoriello) issue.”

You mentioned earlier that you are "comfortable with senior management". I assume that means Lou Lamoriello?

“Yes. I don’t even have to expand on it. We’ve been to the playoffs 18 out of 19 years. Between us and Detroit, isn’t that the best? We had 99 points this year, so we’re doing something right. We’ve just got to continue to expound on our strengths and fix our weaknesses, which we’ll always do.”

Comments

[SonicDude]

Thanks TG.

While he said little, I like that he mentioned senior management/Lou without you asking him. To me, this suggests Lou's seat may be a little warmer. I take this to further mean Lou cannot be complacement this summer with the boss clearly bitter over the first round loss.

[TG]

Very perceptive, Sonic. I also thought that it was interesting that he brought up management without me asking about it -- though I was going to if he hadn't brought it up.

[FTC]

"How do you get better?

'If you had about an hour and a half I’d go through it with you.'"

TG, I'm disappointed that your response to this wasn't "I've got two...".

BTW, wrestling press conference?? I guess it's safe to assume that you're not enjoying your off season any more than we are...You should put a counter that counts down to the first day of training camp on here. I can't wait.

[DevilsFan38]

I know there's over a month to go before free agency starts so the lack of news on that front is understandable, but what about some of the Devils prospects? Specifically, Alexander Vasyunov and Vladimir Zharkov? From what I understand the Devils need to sign them by June 1st or lose their rights - have you heard if Lou is trying to get them signed, or if the Devils will end up losing them?

Thanks for all the great work you do!

[SonicDude]

Thanks TG.

I would also like to think that the 1.5 hour reference means they have identified the flaws of the team, and plan to use multiple strategies to eliminate them.

Maybe he did say something after all.

[Al]

The bar maybe "high" but not realistic when you have not one playmaking center and poor drafts in the early 2000's. If not for the signing's of a few un drafted UFA's we'd be really lost.

Reality is this, we can't make some stupid trade involving Gio. We must keep him and see what we can get for Zubrus (this year's version of Vik Kozloz without the one shootout move he has) he does not fit on this team. We don't need a pilon like Jason Smith. There is not one playmaking center in the UFA list (Sakic is not coming). When you draft poorly and you have a list of UFA's like this,it's hard to improve really fast.

We MUST find a way to get Vasyunov and Zharkov over to at least teh AHL (even though Russian heads don't want such a thing).

"If you had 90 mins I would exlpain it." That is the BS Devs management line of the year.

[Jill]

Finally... I've eagerly been checking this blog constantly for any new information. Thanks for this. I have a feeling that we're going to be aggressive this off-season as opposed to the past. I also see Lou making some sort of trade to bring in someone pretty 'big'. I thought that Lou might have already locked up Pando but according to the Post today they haven't even begun talks. I'm thinking he's waiting because I have a feeling we could see some trades being made on Draft day, and then he'll take it from there as far as re-signing Pandolfo.

[jules]

I second DF38's question about our Russian prospects...Tulupov also. For Vasyunov and Zharkov, that would suck hard if Lou couldn't sign them and they re-entered the draft.

[FTC]

Al, Zubrus was great against NYR. He's shown in the past that he's more than capable of scoring, especially when he's surrounded by talent. And even if he doesn't score, he's big and physical as we saw in round 1. Gio has been awful and we should trade him while we still can. 90% of his shots hit the goalie right in the chest or go into the stands. He stinks, and I don't like him.

[TG]

I'm going to check on the draft picks. There's still 11 days to go, so I imagine it will be a thing that goes down to the wire with both sides wanting leverage.

And, unfortunately, I didn't have two hours and neither did Vanderbeek.

[Omar Little]

The "90 minute" comment was more telling than anything else. I don't think its BS at all. At least he's acknowledging that there are more than a few things that need to be addressed. Beats hearing that he thought they had the right pieces last year but things just didn't happen as planned. That would be Lamoriello-speak.

[NJD26]

It just seemed to me Vanderbeek didn't want to reveal state secrets and didn't know how to say nothing so he just brought up Lou as if to say it goes through him anyway.

[Omar Little]

Regarding the Russians Zharkov and Vasyunov, I don't think the 2-year rule applies to them since there is no transfer agreement with Russia right now. Kirill Tulupov is currently playing in the Quebec League, so they may lose him since he is already playing in North America. Its ultimately up to the Russian hockey bosses where Zharkov and Vasyonov play next season.

[Steve Lepore]

What was USA Wrestling doing at the Prudential Center?

[Jon]

I really have the feeling that the devils are going to go after f/a center Daymond Langkow, not as high profile as we would all like but very productive...yes he was playing with ignina so who knows what he will do with out him if he comes here.

[DevilsFan38]

@ Omar:

Check out this article from the Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/sports/hockey/articles/2008/05/18/willing_to_pass_up_a_shot/). In the notes at the bottom it says the Bruins haven't been able to sign one of their Russian picks from the '06 draft, so he'll go back into the draft this year and the Bruins won't get any compensation for that. I can't imagine why the situation would be any different with Vasyunov and Zharkov.

[Prokat]

TG,
You know as well as anyone that Lou isn't going to say anything about any signings etc. to anyone until he's good and ready. Don't be surprised that Lou announces a bunch of signings just after the Cup finals all in one day. The importance of confidentiality in the way the Devils do business goes along with their team first philosophy.This philosophy was one reason out of $5MM Gomez left. The team comes first and no superstar can outshine the team.
Gomez wanted $$ AND recognition.
This is something the Devils won't do even with Marty.
This is why no big ego free agents will ever sign here. This is also why the home attendance at the Rock will continue to suffer because there will not be any superstars signing here.
The Devils are a fine organization and treat their players quite well but unfortunately they're overshadowed by the 'Boring Blueshirts' who market some of their players as superstars and superstars sell tickets no matter how many wins a team has in the regular season.
That's the bottom line.

[ScottE]

Do you get a sense that Vanderbeek is focusing some of his time on the Nets? With the Atlantic Yards debacle, there have been increasing speculation that Pru Center management is trying harder to lure the Nets to Newark. Of course, Ratner denies all of this.

While I'd love to see the Nets stay in New Jersey, I'd really hate to see this become a distraction to the Devils.

[Mike]

The Devils are not a "tough" team to beat anymore. I think letting Jannsen go was a mistake. Yeah, he doesn't really know how t play Ice Hockey but he did beat the crap out opposing players. I don't think we need too much to turn it around.

[Gunther]

An hour and a half? With maybe 3 UFA's worth keeping and just a couple of RFA's, it doesn't seem like it would take that long to run down the organization's focus for next season. This leads me to wildly speculate that:

A: JVB is just keeping things tight to the vest, or

B: The team is about to see some major changes as the transition from the Pre-Lockout style to the Sutter style is begun. It's obvious we need some horses just to hang in, but now Coach might be looking to bring in "his" type of players to work the forecheck/possession game he said he favors when he took over. We didn't seem to have the players to make it work at the start of the season.

[Segundo]

The bigger issue with respect to this team isn't Lou per se, as much as it has been Lou's failings in the draft over the past 3-4 years. This, of course, lays at the hands of Conte. Other than Parise (which was a great pick at the spot), quality Devil picks have been rare in recent memory. And while Lou has been able to augment his drafts with some good UDFA signings (i.e., Madden, Pelley, Greene), he's wasted many top picks on atrocious players (i.e., Lance Ward, Mike Van Ryn, Stan Gron, J.F. Damphousse, Ari Ahonen).
Furthermore, doesn't it seems like more than just a few years ago Lou had a knack of acquiring quality low-key core players at minimal cost like the Bobby Holik's and Neal Broten's of the world? Unfortunately, this team has never re-built its core, instead opting to re-tool unsuccessfully.

[Triumph]

never re-built its core? in the space of 5 seasons this team lost: scott stevens, scott niedermayer, joe nieuwendyk, scott gomez, brian rafalski - getting absolutely no compensation.

and the team was in the playoffs last year.

pointing out Lou's draft mistakes from 10 years ago (lance ward? he was good compared to what was available in 1996) doesn't make much sense. it's really been 01 and 02 that's hurting new jersey now - but 06 and 07 look like very solid drafts so far.

[omar little]

Bobby Holik came at minimal cost? Sean Burke and Eric Weinrich played forever. That was a trade that worked well for both teams (we also drafter Jay Pandolfo with an acquired pick), but hardly a low cost deal.

Anyway, you could take every GM in the league and analyze their draft record and come up with at least a big a bust list as Lou Lamoriello has put together. Bottom line is that he has put out a team that has made the playoff almost every year for most of our lifetimes. We've been spoiled.

I was just reading an article about the San Antonio Spurs and how they are considered boring and a ratings killer for television. This was an interesting line:

"It absolutely boggles the mind that sports fans disparage a San Antonio team that, on and off the court, exemplifies the professionalism that's in such short supply these days.

No bickering. No arrests. No strife. No drama. No trade demands. No name calling. No nothing. Just wins, handshakes and hugs."

Sound like another team we all know and love?

[Segundo]

Triumph, I think you just identified the core that was lost and never replaced. As Vanderbeek correctly stated, no one gets Kudos for making the playoffs--and in fact 99 points isn't big deal considering the extra point with shoot-out wins.

Omar, Holik was a steal. Burke had practically walked out on the Team (he was playing for Team Canada) and Weinrich, was for basically a 4th or 5th defenseman.

[HBK27]

Good stuff TG.

Not very surprising that Vanderbeek is not giving much information, since that's the Devils way. I have a feeling they may be a bit more aggressive in free agency this year though. In the past (when the Devils had more talent), the priority was always to retain the top players on the team vs. looking elsewhere to bring in UFA's. With the Gomez & Rafalski deflections last year, we're really thin on talent & the team as is clearly isn't getting it done, so hopefully Lou will change his offseason approach.

TG - out of curiosity, how much have you been keeping up with the playoffs since covering the 2nd round? I find it a bit tough to get excited for games once the Devils are out, but it should be one hell of a Finals. I think Pittsburgh takes it in 7.