After being snubbed again, where do Lou Lamoriello, Islanders go from here?
This offseason had always shaped up the most important of Lou Lamoriello’s tenure as Islanders president and general manager. The team missed the playoffs for the first time since he took over in 2018 and he jettisoned future Hall of Fame coach Barry Trotz and promoted associate Lane Lambert.
It was the first offseason the organization could sell its state-of-the-art UBS Arena to marquee free agents as the team seems to be teetering between win-now status or a club that has aged out of its prime. A scoring wing is needed. More defense help is needed even after acquiring 22-year-old Alexander Romanov from the Canadiens for the 13th overall pick in last week’s NHL Draft. Which, by the way, made it three straight years without a first-round pick for the Islanders.
So, yes, after firing Trotz, this offseason became a referendum on how Lamoriello was going to pilot the franchise forward.
But Lamoriello and the Islanders remained silent again on Day 2 of free agency, as was the case after the market opened on Wednesday and Johnny Gaudreau wound up signing with the Blue Jackets and every other team in the Metropolitan Division added pieces and seemingly improved.
On Thursday, solid playmaker Ondrej Palat, who won two Stanley Cups with the Lightning, agreed to a five-year, $30 million deal with the Devils, who, like the Islanders, went hard after Gaudreau.
The Islanders were the only one of the NHL’s 32 teams not to announce a new contract either Wednesday or Thursday.
Maybe this will all make more sense in a couple of weeks, or by the time the puck drops for next season. Maybe the wily and always-secretive Lamoriello has a potent Plan B after missing out on Gaudreau because GMs always have to have a Plan B. So maybe the angst in Islanders’ nation – amplified via social media, which always distorts things anyway – will be alleviated.
But, right now, there’s every reason to worry about how the Islanders will get better next season.
And the fact that the Islanders did make a lucrative offer to Gaudreau – believed to be a seven-year, $63 million deal – actually is more concerning than comforting. Gaudreau, who will be 29 next season, agreed to a seven-year, $68.25 million deal with the Blue Jackets after spurning an eight-year, $84 million extension to remain with the Flames.
Gaudreau, originally from Salem, New Jersey, wanted to come closer to his East Coast roots. But the Flyers, his favorite team growing up, couldn’t clear the salary cap space to be a bidder. That left the Islanders and the Devils as the presumed leaders for Gaudreau until he brought the Blue Jackets into the negotiations.
So, consider the options: Either the Islanders wouldn’t – or couldn’t – increase their offer to remain in the free agent chase for Gaudreau or playing for the Islanders and at UBS Arena wasn’t a selling point.
After all, Gaudreau spoke on Thursday of liking the environment at Columbus’ Nationwide Arena as a visitor.
“Every time I play here, it’s a lot of fun to play here,” Gaudreau told the media in Columbus. “The fans are into it. They got a lot of buzz down there in the arena. So I was really excited about that.”
Gaudreau played once at UBS Arena, notching a goal and an assist as the Flames spoiled the COVID-19-depleted Islanders’ first-ever game at their new building, 5-2, on Nov. 20.
"I think there's a lot of potential," Gaudreau said of the Blue Jackets and Columbus. "I thought it was it was a good spot for me personally, I think we can have a lot of success here. It was somewhere that I had circled on my list for a while now. And it's not only from what I've heard about the city and where you live, but they've got good players on this team, too.”
Again, troubling from an Islanders’ perspective because location and the team’s potential – going to back-to-back NHL semifinals in 2020 and 2021 – were supposed advantages that Lamoriello would try to sell.
Lamoriello turns 80 on Oct. 21. He is entering the last season of his contract with the Islanders. Ownership has, so far, shown unyielding faith in him.
But this offseason certainly is a referendum on how he’s doing his job.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
