Dean Lombardi
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Dean Lombardi (born 1958 in Holyoke, Massachusetts) is president and general manager of the NHL's Los Angeles Kings. He previously served as GM of the San Jose Sharks, a position he held for seven seasons (1996–2003). He is considered to be one of the NHL's most strategic general managers.
[edit] Early life
Lombardi grew up in Ludlow, Massachusetts, and was an All-Western Massachusetts forward for Ludlow High School for 1974–75 season as a junior. As a senior was member of Wallace Cup champion Springfield Olympics of the New England Junior Hockey League in 1975–76 for top talent developer Gary Dineen. Played two more seasons for Dineen, were he was selected to the All-America Junior hockey team. He played college hockey at Elmira College freshman year, and tranferred to University of New Haven where he was selected the scholar/athlete his senior year, and served as captain his junior and senior years.
Lombardi graduated with honors from Tulane University with a law degree specializing in labor law. He initially became a players agent under the tuteledge of famed agent Art Kaminsky, and crossed over to the management side as an assistant general manager to Jack Ferreira with the Minnesota North Stars, from 1988 – 1990 before moving on to the Sharks as their assistant GM under the same Jack Ferreira in 1990, Eventually became GM with the Sharks, and now the Kings. Son-in-law to Hockey Hall of Fame player Bob Pulford, himself a former NHL general manager.
[edit] As GM
Upon taking over the San Jose Sharks, he was widely criticized for signing veterans. This move proved to be beneficial as Lombardi acquired veterans while stockpiling the team's farm system with homegrown talent. During his tenure as Sharks GM, he drafted Patrick Marleau, Brad Stuart, Scott Hannan, Marco Sturm and Marcel Goc in the first round along with Evgeni Nabokov, Jonathan Cheechoo, Vesa Toskala, Mark Smith, Ryane Clowe and Christian Ehrhoff in the later rounds.
He also traded for established veterans like Owen Nolan, Teemu Selänne, Adam Graves, Vincent Damphousse, Mike Ricci, Kyle McLaren, Mike Vernon, Todd Harvey, Bryan Marchment and Scott Thornton while developing their prospects slowly. All would become vital in the Sharks success in recent seasons. The team would increase their point totals for six straight seasons during his tenure. Only Hockey Hall of Fame GM Bill Torrey accomplished the same feat overseeing the dynasty of the New York Islanders in the early 1980s.
Lombardi was fired along with head coach Darryl Sutter in a housecleaning during the 2002–03 NHL season in which the team struggled with a slow start. This could be attributed to the lengthy contract negotiations with star goalie Nabokov.
Shortly after his firing, he was hired by the Philadelphia Flyers as a Western Conference scout, a position he held until June 2006 when he was appointed as general manager of the Los Angeles Kings where he will attempt to re-establish the team and its farm system with similar building and drafting strategies.
