Islanders players believe in themselves, but what about owners?
Lou Lamoriello of the Islanders attends the NHL Draft at the Bell Centre on July 8, 2022, in Montreal. Credit: Getty Images/Bruce Bennett
The Islanders’ players still believe their group as constituted can do great things.
Time will tell whether Islanders’ ownership is just as convinced.
Tuesday was a silent day for the organization following Friday’s first-round ouster with a 2-1 overtime loss to the Hurricanes in Game 6 at UBS Arena and Monday’s breakup day at Northwell Health Ice Center in East Meadow.
Twenty-two players spoke to the media on Monday but neither president/general manager Lou Lamoriello nor coach Lane Lambert were available. Last season, neither Lamoriello nor then-coach Barry Trotz spoke at breakup day and Trotz was let go a week later.
This year, though, the question isn’t so much the coach’s status as it is Lamoriello’s as it’s strongly believed he’s in the last season of his original five-year deal to run the Islanders. Lambert’s future could very well be tied to whether Lamoriello returns.
If ownership — specifically Scott Malkin — believes this group of players can still contend for a Stanley Cup, there will likely be an extension for Lamoriello, though it would likely never be announced.
If ownership believes otherwise to the point where a rebuild must be considered, then Lamoriello — who has built his Hall of Fame career on always being in a win-now mode — probably isn’t the right fit for the job anymore.
Lamoriello showed he was still in charge on Monday as a two-year, $1.55 million deal was announced with pending unrestricted free agent Hudson Fasching.
The Islanders earned a wild-card berth after finishing 42-31-9 in Lambert’s first season, returning to the playoffs after a one-season absence and — vitally important to ownership — christening UBS Arena as a playoff venue.
“Year one [at UBS], we didn’t give them a whole lot to cheer about,” Matt Martin said. “At times this year, we weren’t giving them a whole lot to cheer about. But down the stretch it felt like [Nassau] Coliseum again. It’s pretty awesome to be a part of the first playoff game in the building.”
The Islanders, with largely the same group of players, reached the NHL semifinals in 2020 and 2021 before losing each time to the eventual Cup-champion Lightning.
“I think the general feeling with all of us is that we’re still there,” defenseman Adam Pelech said. “You look around the league, you’ve just got to get in [to the playoffs] and any team has a chance to win. We’ve just got to reflect, on an individual level, figure out how to be better.”
“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here,” Cal Clutterbuck said when asked whether he shared the belief the Islanders could still contend. “I trust this group. Absolutely, there’s no question. We all want it badly. We want to do it here. We want to do it together. A lot of these guys have been here a long time now. The reason that we’re sticking together and trying to add is we want to reach that goal and we want to do it here.”
Ownership has made the necessary investments to compete in the NHL with a state-of-the-art arena and the equally modern practice facility at Northwell Health Ice Center. But 11 players on the Islanders’ playoff roster were 30 or older. So even if the organization believes the window for this group to contend for the Cup is still open, it may not be for long.
“Our management will make the changes they feel necessary to compete for a Cup because, to them, winning is the goal,” Martin said. “From ownership down, they want to win. We want to win. There’s changes every year but we’re confident as a group we can get the job done.”
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.
