EAST MEADOW, NY -- New York Islanders head coach Pete DeBoer stated on Thursday that recently promoted assistant coach Rocky Thompson will run the team's power play. 

"Rocky is going to be the point guy on our power play," DeBoer said. "I mean, our staff is going to work in collaboration on everything, so it won't be just one guy. We'll discuss everything. That's kind of how I work, but he'll be the point guy on it, and he's got experience.

"He ran Bob Boughner's power play in San Jose. He ran Philadelphia's power play. Despite his playing career and stats, he really thinks the game from an offensive point of view and has some brilliant ideas offensively, which is great. And more important than that, he's a teacher. He really connects with the players, and so, we've already started that process, planting some seeds on what we want to do in those areas. Mat Barzal was around the facilities this week -- so was Kyle Palmieri -- so we're planning, starting to plant those seeds wherever we can."

Ray Bennett, the former power-play coach, mutually parted ways with the organization after one year to take a job on Spencer Carbery's staff in Washington D.C. 

Soon after Bennett left -- assistant coac Benoit Desrosiers was let go soon after the seaeson ended -- DeBoer made the decision to elevate Rocky from Bridgeport head coach to his staff. 

"Rocky's all energy. He's a great teacher," DeBoer said. "He's a great example of a guy who was a late-round pick that had to scrape and claw and scratch his way to the NHL in an era where you had to do a lot of fighting to do that, so he has immediate respect because of his playing career.

"But then when you sit down and talk to him, his passion for hockey, his passion for the X's and O's of hockey, he's a really brilliant guy, and he's constantly digging in and learning and trying to be up to date on trends. I think he's a great teacher. I think he's a guy that when you sit across from him, guys are going to want to play for and execute for."

The Islanders' power play has been the Achilles heel for this organization for far too long.

This season, the Islanders came through on the man advantage 16.5% of the time, which was third-worst in the league. It was a slight improvement from the 2024-25 season, where Long Island sat second-to-last, at 12.6%. 

The last time the Islanders had a power-play percentage of 20% or higher was back in 2021-22, when they finished at 22.1%.