That's Lou Lamoriello's boss on the right, the majority owner of this franchise, the final word. Scott D. Malkin aka the singular owner Lamoriello refers to.
So you have Doug Weight being directly quoted to Dolan's Newsday beatwriter (when he did a game the previous night, and was rushing to Pittsburgh) that Lamoriello did not fire the coach for communication, it was not about job performance, it was something else down the road bothering Lamoriello.
That's very bad. Weight's been muted since the day he was fired. No way does Weight joining a telecast even rate an article in Newsday much less one from an exhausted beatwriter traveling unless they knew he had something important to say that would make headlines. Andrew Gross is not a headlines generating writer who shows any passion for the NYI like the many cheerleaders covering teams in newspapers.
Lamoriello made clear the coaches all have contracts, that means no outside coach comes here (even Weight wanted his own staff) so Lane Lambert for a year or someone who will take any staff just to have a job. It could also mean all bets are off because down the road is not a long one for Lamoriello, it can only mean issues with Belmont and their tenant agreement or Scott Malkin (like Wang wants first/last year and 50th anniversay) then he's selling once he get's his value retail.
Our fans read all that NYI arena garbage and never noticed we are a tenant with an out clause of only 86.25 million or simple ESD approval to move elsewhere today, they have never been less secure. Even if Hochul's Albany made them pay 86.25 million that's nothing for a new ownership. Malkin's lost a ton of money since 2014, and Belmont is hardly a cash cow regardless of how much event revenue the team was paid to go there so an arena could be built for Dolan & his friends to run/book.
On the ice no coach is coming who can replace Barry Trotz, the roster is old/slow/declining, and Lamoriello said recently Trotz did an excellent job under terrible circumstances. What kind of communication was expected when a team lives on a plane or has to play 35 games in 72 days? It's comical it was considered any voice can change this or how bad this team was on paper.
Even if Scott Malkin fired Lamoriello this is a franchise operating at the cap ceiling/not the floor that has age/speed/scoring issues that likely will take a generation to fix.
Very tough times.