In 2024, this should no longer be the case.
Lamoriello has imposed a number of rules on his players during his various stints in New Jersey, Toronto and now New York and refuses to budge on almost all of them. Facial hair is not allowed during the regular season, hair cannot touch the collar of the jersey and jewelry is not permitted.
He also has a bizarre rule that doesn’t allow players to wear high jersey numbers. This is the only rule where he seems to show some flexibility, as he allowed players like Jaromir Jagr and Alexander Mogilny to keep their high numbers as a sign of respect for what they had accomplished in the NHL.
These rules are almost identical to those that the New York Yankees have imposed on their players since the mid-1970s under their former owner George Steinbrenner: Players are prohibited from wearing beards or having hair that reaches the collar of their jerseys.
The basic attitude is that everyone looks uniform, professional and presentable, a clean image, so to speak. But it’s really about control. It’s a way for power-hungry executives – and Lamoriello has always been – to control every little detail of his team and his squad down to the smallest detail. The individuality of every single player in the squad is thereby hidden.
Yes, Duclair was almost certainly aware of the rules when he decided to sign with the Islanders. He wouldn’t have had to sign there if it was too problematic. But that takes the absurdity out of these arbitrary and archaic restrictions.
Maybe there was a time when something like that worked. But even then it’s questionable. If there was a time, it’s long gone. It’s still a team game, but for today’s players it’s also important that they can be themselves and have their own identity.
This level of micromanagement and power-grabbing does nothing to improve a team’s chances of success, and if anything, it may even deter players from wanting to sign with them.
Lamoriello built a strong team with the Devils in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, but he hasn’t achieved sustained, sustainable success — much less at the championship level — in nearly two decades. Maybe that alone should make him rethink his approach.
It is not the case that the current formula produces results.
