Biggest question facing Islanders: What's next for Lou Lamoriello?
General Manager Lou Lamoriello of the New York Islanders attends practice during training camp at Northwell Health Ice Center at Eisenhower Park on September 22, 2022 in East Meadow, New York. Credit: Getty Images
The Islanders soon may have a decision to make on president and general manager Lou Lamoriello. Or perhaps the secretive Hall of Fame executive has a decision to make himself about his future.
This season ended on Friday night at UBS Arena with a 2-1 overtime loss to the Hurricanes in Game 6 of their first-round playoff series.
The strong belief in NHL circles is that Lamoriello’s initial five-year contract with the Islanders is set to expire — such contracts typically run through June 30 — and that the franchise has not yet offered an extension. That, of course, is unconfirmed, in keeping with Lamoriello’s fundamental belief that such information should not be made public.
He also pushed back on that narrative during the season.
“First of all, I never talk about myself,” Lamoriello said April 1 in his last public comments with the Islanders’ media. “Common knowledge around the league? Obviously, none of you know what’s going on with it. So when you say ‘common knowledge,’ I’ll just stop there and I wish that sometimes you have facts rather than common knowledge. And when you report, report what you know, not what you guess or you read or you hear.”
The Islanders have made the playoffs in four of Lamoriello’s five seasons, advancing to the NHL semifinals in 2020 and 2021. Lamoriello replaced coach Barry Trotz with his former associate, Lane Lambert, for this season, and the Islanders earned the first wild-card spot with a 42-31-9 mark (93 points). Including the playoffs, that equates to 44 wins and 44 losses, a record denoting a middle-of-the-pack team, not a true Stanley Cup contender.
There certainly were some troubling signs this season that this core group of players (with 11 players on the playoff roster 30 or older) may have gone as far as possible. At different times, offense was hard to come by and the defensive structure slipped. Almost all season and certainly in the playoffs, the power play (1-for-18 against Carolina) added little.
Exacerbating the Islanders’ age problem is a dearth of high-end prospects. Lamoriello has not kept a first-round pick since selecting Simon Holmstrom in 2019.
So Islanders ownership — specifically Scott Malkin — may be facing the decision of whether Lamoriello, 80, is the right person to continue guiding the franchise.
Malkin keeps an almost non-existent public profile, and it’s quite possible that there would be no announcement on a new contract for Lamoriello.
So that said, it’s also entirely plausible that ownership will continue to show loyalty to Lamoriello, who instantly brought a stronger sense of structure and culture when he was hired to revamp the organization before the 2018-19 season.
The Islanders have yet to conduct their breakup day, so the offseason questions are just starting to form. Lambert, whose long-term employment with the Islanders may be tied into whether Lamoriello stays, was not quite ready to address them after Friday’s elimination loss.
“We’ll take a look at the season here as we go forward,” Lambert said. “Summarize the season in a few days. Right now, the loss is our focus at the moment. It stings. I will say that our guys showed a lot of commitment, a lot of determination all year long. We battled right down to the end.”
Before looking ahead, here’s a look back at some of Lamoriello’s key moments running the Islanders, not including re-signing core players Adam Pelech, Ryan Pulock, Noah Dobson, Brock Nelson and Mathew Barzal to lucrative long-term extensions:
June 21, 2018: Barry Trotz hired. The second-best coach in team history behind Al Arbour.
July 1, 2018: John Tavares bolts to hometown Maple Leafs via free agency.
July 3, 2018: Reacquires Matt Martin from the Maple Leafs. The fourth line is back together.
July 1, 2019: Anders Lee re-signed to a seven-year, $49 million deal. Lamoriello also pursued Artemi Panarin, who ended up with the Rangers.
Feb. 24, 2020: Jean-Gabriel Pageau acquired from the Senators and signed to a six-year, $30 million deal. A scrappy third-liner who has topped 40 points in a season only three times.
Oct. 12, 2020: Slick-skating defenseman Devon Toews dealt to Avalanche because of salary-cap concerns for two second-round picks.
April 7, 2021: Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac acquired from Devils for playoff push. Palmieri eventually signs a four-year, $20 million extension. He has yet to top 20 goals with the Islanders, though he was one of their most consistent players this season after returning from a lengthy injury absence.
July 16, 2021: Slick-skating defenseman Nick Leddy sent to Red Wings in a salary-cap dump. Transporting the puck out of the defensive zone was a huge problem in ensuing playoff miss.
Sept. 1, 2021: Goalie Ilya Sorokin agrees to a three-year, $12 million deal. He became the clear-cut No. 1 netminder this season and should be a Vezina Trophy candidate.
May 9, 2022: Trotz fired as Lamoriello seeks a “new voice.” Lambert promoted a week later.
July 7, 2022: Physical defenseman Alexander Romanov acquired from Canadiens for a first-round pick. He’s still developing at 23.
Jan. 30, 2023: Bo Horvat acquired from Canucks for top forward prospect Aatu Raty, Anthony Beauvillier and a first-round pick. Horvat agrees to an eight-year, $68 million extension. His offense fizzled soon after coming to the Islanders with Barzal injured, but his game is well regarded around the league.
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.
