[Ring of Fire]

Weisbrod was in charge of the River Rats from 1993-97, a term which included the 1995 Calder Cup championship. The Devils, meanwhile, had been building their way to Stanley Cup crowns in 1995, 2000, 2003 (with a runner-up appearance in 2001).

Only afterward did he appreciate the value of the apprenticeship.

“Lou, particularly back then, had such a disciplined, tight-lipped, team-first mentality, with no regard for how other teams did things,” says Weisbrod. “You always felt like you were in a little bit of a cult in New Jersey — and I mean that in a good way. I parallel it now to the New England Patriots (of the National Football League). The organization always came first and Lou always did everything on principles, never based on who you were and where you fit. In my mind, it’s tough to find anyone better in the business.”

Really, I consider this Year 1 of fielding a new team,” says Weisbrod. “You start doing things the way you believe are the right way — and evaluating players on the right criteria, signing the right guys, acquiring the right guys — and even when you’ve gotten to the top of the mountain, you continue doing it the same way. When they won the Stanley Cup in Boston after climbing that mountain, they continued with the same process . . . instead of being one of these teams that catches lightning in a bottle for a year and then falls off the map.”

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