Lou Lamoriello sat comfortably in the conference room chair on the 15th floor of the Toronto Maple Leafs offices, ready to give me his best poker face, just like he has for the 20-plus years we have done this. There are few hockey executives harder to read than the veteran GM, but I enjoy the challenge of trying to get him to share information. Here was our chat from Tuesday afternoon on the eve of training camp, in what is a season fans in these parts are beyond excited about:



LEBRUN: It is your third season here at the helm of the Maple Leafs. A lot of changes since you got here. How would you put into words the transformation from the day you got here in the summer of 2015 to the way the team looks now entering this year?



LAMORIELLO: “Exciting” would be a good word. I think there was an unknown at the beginning. Just watching what Mike (Babcock) and his staff have done with the veterans and how they bought into that first year, and then watching...