Islanders offseason roster analysis, Part 4: Management
Islanders head coach Pete DeBoer, left, and GM Mathieu Darche. Credit: Jim McIsaac; Howard Schnapp
The final in a four-part series looking at the Islanders' roster heading into the offseason.
The Islanders enter the offseason with a different general manager/coach combination than the previous year for the fifth time since 2021.
That’s a high rate of organizational change, even by the rapid-turnover standards of the NHL. Not surprisingly, the Islanders have missed the playoffs for two straight seasons and have not won a postseason series since 2021.
But there’s both evidence and hope that the current tandem of GM Mathieu Darche, a month away from his one-year anniversary on the job, and veteran coach Pete DeBoer, hired to replace Patrick Roy with four games remaining, can reverse that trend.
Each will impact the Islanders’ offseason in different ways.
DeBoer went 1-3-0 after taking over for Roy on April 5 in what simultaneously was Darche’s Hail Mary attempt to try to make the playoffs (the Islanders wound up losing 10 of their last 14, all in regulation) and a proactive move to hire the coach he wanted for next season before DeBoer could entertain offers from other suitors.
This is DeBoer’s sixth NHL stop, and only once did he not lead his team to the playoffs in his first season behind the bench (the Panthers in 2008-09). He took the Devils (2012) and Sharks (2016) to the Stanley Cup Final in his first season with those teams and had the Stars in the Western Conference finals in all three of his seasons in Dallas from 2022-25.
The detail-oriented DeBoer always gets his team to play with a tight defensive structure yet with an aggressive style up the ice. If there’s a knock on DeBoer beyond the fact that none of his teams has lifted the Cup, it’s that his win-now intensity eventually wears thin. His four-plus seasons with the Sharks from 2015-19 represent his longest NHL tenure.
Though it’s up to Darche to shape the roster in the offseason, DeBoer, like any good coach, will make his objectives and expectations readily clear to the players long before they show up to training camp in September.
And DeBoer’s four-game stint at the end of the season does give him a head start on getting to know his new players, and vice versa.
“I’m still getting to know guys,” DeBoer said after the Islanders’ 2-1 loss to the Hurricanes on April 14 at UBS Arena in the season finale. “I’m interested to hear and sit down with them and get their thoughts on the entire season.
“I’ve had conversations with just about everybody, but they’ve been brief and on the run and condensed. I’ll get a chance to actually sit down and spend some real time with the guys here, not just about the last 10 days, two weeks, but about the entire season and what we can do to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
The reshaping of DeBoer’s staff began on April 24 when assistant coach Benoit Desrosiers — brought in just after Roy was hired — was relieved of his duties. Goalie coach Sergei Naumovs, who worked with Ilya Sorokin in Russia, and Bob Boughner, who worked with DeBoer in San Jose, are likely to stay. Ray Bennett might be in danger after the Islanders ranked 30th in the NHL on the power play in his first season running the unit.
Darche’s offseason impact on the Islanders will, of course, be more readily apparent.
He was hired on May 23 to succeed Lou Lamoriello and was handed the present of being able to draft transformational talent Matthew Schaefer with the first overall pick after the Islanders won the NHL Draft Lottery despite having just a 3.5% chance of doing so.
Darche also traded defenseman Noah Dobson to the Canadiens after a contract impasse, netting two more first-round picks that turned into forward Victor Eklund and defenseman Kashawn Aitcheson. During the season, strongly believing the Islanders were playoff-worthy, he traded for defenseman Carson Soucy and forwards Ondrej Palat and Brayden Schenn, with mixed results. And he made the unorthodox move of firing Roy with four games left and the Islanders still alive in the playoff chase.
Captain Anders Lee is an unrestricted free agent, as are backup goalie David Rittich, Soucy and fellow defenseman Tony DeAngelo. Darche must decide whether getting a healthy Kyle Palmieri and Alexander Romanov back is sufficient enough to address needs for top-six scoring and defense depth, respectively.
Darche did show a willingness to make moves in his first season as a GM after six seasons in an assistant’s role with the Lightning, including Cup wins in 2020 and 2021. At the trade deadline, he showed he did not want to part with prospects.
“I don’t think anything surprised me,” Darche said during the Islanders’ breakup day on April 15 about his first season. “You’ll make decisions as a general manager. Some work out. Some don’t. I’d rather fail trying than fail to try.”
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.
