Lamoriello will have full authority over all hockey matters with the organization.
The Leafs revealed back on April 30 that the 75-year-old was leaving the club after serving as its GM for the last three seasons. Kyle Dubas was promoted to that role less than two weeks later.
Tuesday's move was first reported by The Athletic's Arthur Staple on Monday. Staple also reported that Lamoriello met with Islanders captain and pending unrestricted free agent John Tavares before officially assuming his new position.
The Capitals defenseman picked his performance apart after Tampa Bay prevailed 3-2 to move within a win of the Stanley Cup Final.
“It’s pinballing around in the neutral zone there, I stepped up, didn’t get the man or the puck, they got a 2-on-1 out of it and scored,” Niskanen told reporters, via Sportsnet, in reference to the Lightning’s goal in the opening minute.
“(The) first three goals (were) all my fault," Niskanen added. "I had a tough first 20 minutes and 30 seconds. So I’ve got to be better next game.”
He had a point.
Niskanen failed to prevent Ryan Callahan from chipping the puck into the Capitals' defensive zone before Cedric Paquette opened the scoring 19 seconds in, screened Braden Holtby on Ondrej Palat's marker that gave the Lightning a 2-0 lead later in the opening frame, and then allowed Anton Stralman to blow past him before Callahan banged in the goal that made it 3-0 at the 33-second mark of the second period.
Granted, other Capitals players made mistakes on those goals, and Niskanen kept them in the game with a shot that was deflected in by Evgeny Kuznetsov about four minutes later.
Despite his early miscues, Niskanen actually drove possession at 5-on-5 with a 51.61 Corsi For percentage, but he posted a Scoring Chances For rate of only 28.57 percent in those situations, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Alex Killorn scored the eventual winner in the third period as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Washington Capitals 4-2 in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final to square the series at two games apiece Thursday night.
The Pittsburgh Penguins already boast one Finnish blue-liner, and now it appears they're adding another.
Juuso Riikola has agreed to terms with the club, sources told TSN's Darren Dreger on Thursday.
The 24-year-old posted 24 points in 59 games with KalPa in the Finland-based Liga this season, his sixth with the team.
Riikola also represented his homeland at the ongoing World Championship, chipping in a pair of assists in eight contests before Finland was eliminated in a surprising quarterfinal loss to Switzerland on Thursday.
If he cracks the NHL club, he'll join Olli Maatta, the 23-year-old Finn who's been a fixture on the Penguins' back end - despite several health setbacks - for about the last five years.
Cheveldayoff made arguably the most impactful move at the trade deadline, landing Paul Stastny from the St. Louis Blues, and also inked several core players to contract extensions.
McPhee shaped the expansion Golden Knights into a surprise contender with several instrumental moves at the expansion draft, including selecting goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and breakout star forward William Karlsson, and landing talented forwards Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith from the Florida Panthers on the same night.
Tom Wilson thinks Anton Stralman's hit from behind on him in Tuesday night's game would be scrutinized by the NHL had the Washington Capitals pest been the one initiating the contact.
The Lightning defenseman drove Wilson into the boards about nine minutes into the first period of Game 3, and he was assessed a minor penalty as a result.
Stralman destroys Tom Wilson. Good call for boarding.
"I don't really know (what warrants supplemental discipline) any more," Wilson told reporters, including NBC Sports Washington's Tarik El-Bashir, after the Lightning cut the Capitals' series lead to 2-1 with a 4-2 win in the Eastern Conference Final. "I don't really know, but if anyone wants to feel the goose egg on the side of my head ... He leaves his feet, I'm in a pretty vulnerable spot, and he drives my head through the glass."
After continuing to state his case for why it should be examined by the Department of Player Safety, Wilson essentially said that entity has a responsibility to do so.
"It's their job to take a look at the hit, for sure. I think they're probably reviewing it. I don't know how much goes into it. I can tell you, if it's maybe the other way around, you better believe they're looking at it, and you better believe there might be a little more attention on it."
Wilson understands his reputation as a player who's been suspended for hits like this before - sitting out the final three games in the previous round for a headshot on Pittsburgh Penguins forward Zach Aston-Reese - but he doesn't think his history is relevant when he's on the receiving end.
"It doesn't matter," he said. "It's a vulnerable position, and there's no doubt there was contact with my head. If I'm wearing a helmet from five years ago, I think I'm probably unconscious, so we'll see what they say. We're going to keep driving forward here, (and) we can't let that be an excuse. I'm not here to complain about anything. I'm just talking about it for the better of the game and for the better of player safety."
"Everything I've talked to them about this year, that's it right there," he continued, referring again to his history and Stralman's hit Tuesday night. "That's a lot of don'ts for me. From what they've been telling me, that's a lot of don'ts. If I make that hit, 100 percent (chance) I'm probably sitting out, so we'll see."
Wilson concluded by clarifying that he doesn't think Stralman is a malicious player "at all," but added that he thought it was a "pretty dangerous hit."
The undrafted 22-year-old led all Swedish Hockey League blue-liners with 38 points in 52 games this season for HV71, capturing the Defenseman of the Year award in his fifth season with the club.
Buffalo will pick first overall at the NHL Draft next month, and it's expected the team will select Rasmus Dahlin - an 18-year-old Swedish rearguard who's widely regarded as the league's top incoming prospect.
Canada will be up against a familiar foe in the quarterfinal round at the World Championship in Denmark.
The Canadians play Russia, the United States battles the Czech Republic, Sweden faces Latvia, and Finland is up against Switzerland in the quarters, which will all take place Thursday.
Canada finished third in Group B thanks to a shutout win over Germany on Tuesday. Russia finished second in Group A behind the first-place Swedes, who beat them in their final preliminary-round matchup.
The U.S. squares off against the Czechs after falling to Finland 6-2 in its final game of the opening round.
Latvia squeezed into the quarters with a 1-0 win over Denmark on Tuesday, leapfrogging the hosts and eliminating them in the process.
Finland finished first in Group B, while the Swiss closed the preliminary round with a 5-1 win over France.
"I think we showed the world we earned the right to be here," the forward told reporters after scoring twice in a 3-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets that knotted the series at one game apiece.
Marchessault and his fellow castoffs earned a road split of the first two games, and in doing so, temporarily stole home-ice advantage from the Jets with the series headed to Nevada for the next two.
The 27-year-old emphasized how the players have come together and rallied around the fact that they were all rejected by their former organizations.
"We're just a bunch of hockey players that wanted to find a home, and we did," he said, according to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston. "This has been awesome."
Marchessault tied the NHL record for points in a single postseason by a player on an expansion team Monday night, matching Bill Goldsworthy's mark of 15 set in 1968 with the Minnesota North Stars.