New York Islanders Pull Off Mid-Season Surprise by Hiring Patrick Roy
The New York Islanders named Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick Roy as their new coach, firing Lane Lambert. Adam Proteau reacts to the news.
The New York Islanders have been laboring for weeks now, and on Saturday afternoon, Isles GM Lou Lamoriello finally had enough, dismissing coach Lane Lambert.
When your team has gone 5-8-4 in its last 17 games, you knew something had to change. But nobody saw Lamoriello hiring the man he did as Lambert’s replacement – hockey icon Patrick Roy.
Roy, 58, spent the last five seasons as coach-GM of the QMJHL's Quebec Remparts, winning the Memorial Cup in 2023. He last coached in the NHL between 2013 and 2016 with the Colorado Avalanche as head coach and vice-president of hockey operations. Roy had a 130-92-24 record with the Avalanche, which included one playoff appearance in 2013-14, a seven-game loss to the Minnesota Wild. Roy won the Jack Adams Award that season as NHL coach of the year.
There had been rumors in recent weeks that Roy had been offered coaching jobs in the Western Conference. Maybe the Quebec native looked at the Montreal Canadiens’ coaching job as his dream gig, but that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. So Roy took the best opportunity available – a chance to steer a veteran-laden team to Stanley Cup playoff success right away.
It seems curious in some regards that Lamoriello wanted Roy to be the Isles’ next coach. Roy and Lamoriello have healthy egos, and the power dynamic here may change over the months and years ahead. Indeed, if the 81-year-old GM decides to step down a year or two down the line, perhaps there’s a scenario in which Roy moves up the corporate ladder and eventually replaces Lamoriello in his current role.
That scenario is a while down the road, though. For now, the Islanders are by no means out of the playoff race, but as many (including this writer) believed in pre-season predictions, the Islanders simply don’t have an offense capable of competing with the rest of the NHL.
Indeed, in eight of their past 12 losses, the Islanders have scored two goals or fewer. It doesn’t matter how much of an impact Roy has or how great star goalie Ilya Sorokin can be – when you can’t generate at least three goals a game, you’re asking for trouble, and trouble is what ended Lambert’s year-and-a-half helm running the team. To that end, Lamoriello is famous for his in-season trades, and we suspect another deal or two will be coming from him by the NHL’s March 8 trade deadline. A veteran forward such as Anaheim’s Adam Henrique would be a nice fit with the Isles, but it will cost them a significant amount of assets.
This is an Islanders team built for now, but despite Roy’s potential influence, they just don’t have the high-quality horses to deliver more positive results than negative ones. Sacrificing some of their draft picks – they’ve got all three of their next three first-round picks, as well as two of three second-rounders – for immediate scoring help seems like something that easily could take place on Long Island. Until that happens, though, Roy is tasked with a culture change on the fly. It’s a challenge he no doubt welcomes, but that doesn’t guarantee any success.
Roy has shown in his recent junior hockey coaching career that he still has passion for the game. That passion will be stress-tested by this Isles squad. He needs to hit the ground running and produce positive results right away because if he doesn’t, it’s entirely possible the Islanders miss out on the post-season altogether. Roy now has all the pressure on him the hockey world can offer, and time will tell if Lamoriello’s decision to cashier Lambert was the appropriate move or simply grasping at straws.
For more reaction and coverage of the Roy hiring and Lambert firing, check out THN's New York Islanders site.
Jonathan Tovell contributed to the breaking news portion of this column.