PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Dean Lombardi has been where Mike Grier is now, trying to go from rebuild to Stanley Cup champion.<\/p>\n
So who better to talk to than Lombardi, about next steps for the current San Jose Sharks GM?<\/p>\n
In Apr. 2006, the Los Angeles Kings hired Lombardi to guide the franchise out of a lifetime of mediocrity. The Kings had just missed the playoffs, and in their 39 years of existence, had only reached the Conference Finals once, a 1993 Stanley Cup Final loss.<\/p>\n
Lombardi blew it up, then put the pieces and culture around the previous regime\u2019s best draft picks \u2014 Dave Taylor had selected Anze Kopitar, Jonathan Quick, and Dustin Brown \u2014 to win the 2012 and 2014 Stanley Cups.<\/p>\n
Over the summer, San Jose Hockey Now caught up with the now-Philadelphia Flyers senior advisor to talk about a wide variety of topics related to the building of a championship organization.<\/p>\n
Some of these steps, of course, have already been undertaken by Grier, who has helmed the San Jose Sharks since the summer of 2022. But San Jose hasn\u2019t made the playoffs since 2019, so obviously, Grier\u2019s work isn\u2019t done either.<\/p>\n
This is part one of a multi-part conversation with Lombardi.<\/p>\n
Here, we talk about the importance of making an organization a family, Lombardi remembers how San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo then Flyers owner Ed Snider and GM Bobby Clarke influenced him, and more.<\/p>\n
Also, Sharks alternate captain Tyler Toffoli, who was drafted by Lombardi and won a Stanley Cup for him in 2014, talks about his former boss.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt starts at the top,\u201d Lombardi told SJHN. \u201cEvery franchise talks family \u2014 fuck off \u2014 there are very few that do family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are three who did, according to Lombardi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Dean Lombardi has been where Mike Grier is now, trying to go from rebuild to Stanley…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":434809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[201458,106650,201459,201460,1322,16870,2081,28400,293,3108,9005,1328,44270,62,44272,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-434808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-bobby-clarke","9":"tag-dean-lombardi","10":"tag-ed-snider","11":"tag-eddie-debartolo","12":"tag-featured","13":"tag-gary-bettman","14":"tag-los-angeles-kings","15":"tag-mike-grier","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","18":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","19":"tag-san-jose-sharks","20":"tag-sjhn","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-tyler-toffoli","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115687745394278891","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}