2 weeks Ago
It’s been a few days since the New York Islanders and Lou Lamoriello went their separate ways, and there’s plenty of chatter about what the team’s front office could soon look like. Yet it’s hard to know where this is headed as co-owner John Collins leads the search for a new president and general manager, with the backing of majority owner Scott Malkin and co-owner Jon Ledecky. Advertisement The Islanders are in a decent spot when it comes to conducting a major search.
They have some time, since none of the other 31 teams are currently looking for a new GM — but not unlimited time. The offseason requires full attention, especially this year. The first order of business for a new executive or executives will be deciding Patrick Roy’s future.
If the team moves on from Roy, then a new coach has to be found quickly, since there are already other teams in the market for one. Players like Kyle Palmieri, who a league source said was pretty close to signing an extension with Lamoriello before Tuesday’s news, will want to know their futures. Same for pending restricted free agents Noah Dobson, Simon Holmstrom and Alex Romanov, who could be three important pieces going forward.
There’s also the opening of the buyout window just after the Stanley Cup playoffs end in June, during which a decision will have to be made if Pierre Engvall and/or Scott Mayfield should go. And then there’s the draft in just over two months, with the Isles holding the 10th pick. The draft also brings trade talk, and the Islanders will need to see if anyone’s interested in taking a 30-something veteran with term off their hands.
And after that, there’s free agency, where the Islanders could have a bit of cap space with which to operate. It all comes on fast, especially as playoff teams are bounced. So how is this search unfolding so far? After talking to multiple team and league sources, here’s what I’m hearing.
• The chatter the past few days is split into two camps: The president-and-a-GM camp, where the Islanders go with two people for those two roles; or the experienced-GM camp, where the Islanders find someone who’s done the job before to settle things as the sole hire. If it’s the former, it’s looking more and more like a possibility for team president is Ken Holland, who left the Edmonton Oilers after last season and is currently working for the league. George McPhee, the Golden Knights president, is not going anywhere; and Pat Brisson, who helps lead the hockey division of super-agency CAA, is in regular contact with Malkin but may only be advising the Islanders on their search.
Advertisement Canadiens executive Jeff Gorton would be in that mix too, though he’d be more likely to hold both titles. But Montreal owner Geoff Molson is not keen on letting Gorton go just as the Canadiens are starting to turn a corner. Holland may seem like a “Lamoriello but a few years younger” situation, but they’re not all that similar.
Holland made plenty of changes in his five years running the Oilers and he was always tinkering with the Detroit Red Wings roster, even in their Stanley Cup heyday from 1997 to 2008. If it’s experienced but active leadership Islanders ownership wants, no one fits better than Holland. That would allow the Islanders to spend big on Holland while spending far less on a GM — or possibly foregoing one if Holland, 69, would hold both titles.
Current Rangers assistant GM Ryan Martin, who worked for Holland in Detroit for a decade, and Holland’s son Brad, who worked for his father in Edmonton, would be the likeliest candidates if Holland picks the GM. I’m not sure Isles ownership would be looking to go from the father-and-son Lamoriello tandem to another father-and-son duo running the show. • If it’s the other route, the names getting the most play by now are Marc Bergevin, Jarmo Kekäläinen, Peter Chiarelli.
If the Islanders go with one of these former GMs and no one else, that means Malkin, via Ledecky and Collins, may want to maintain a more active role in hockey operations than he did when Lamoriello was there. Malkin does not seem interested in being fully hands-on when it comes to hockey decisions, but ownership definitely wants to make sure the hockey and business sides are far more integrated. So hiring a GM and leaving the integration parts to the operating partners may be the way the Isles go.
Bergevin and Kekäläinen have flaws on their resumes, but they are experienced hands who have worked with a wide variety of people. When it comes to making front-office changes, they both have a deep bench to look to. Advertisement That’s something the Islanders haven’t had .
.. well, maybe ever.
Lamoriello kept his circle tight. Garth Snow had never worked in a front office before. And Mike Milbury was operating under, shall we say, restrictive budgets.
Just as the Islanders were in new territory when Lamoriello brought Barry Trotz in as coach, one of these three former GMs coming in brings the Islanders up to the same level as most of the rest of the NHL when it comes to staffing. That counts as progress. Chiarelli may raise some eyebrows, given he’s best known around here as one of the GMs who helped the Islanders get Mat Barzal at the 2015 draft.
Chiarelli, then the Oilers GM, traded the 16th pick to Snow for the 33rd pick and Griffin Reinhart. Bruins GM Don Sweeney had already passed on Barzal with picks 13, 14 and 15, and Chiarelli made that horrific deal right after. But Chiarelli has the backing of many influential people Malkin talks to in the league office, and Chiarelli is a Harvard alum.
Malkin holds three degrees from Harvard and holds the school and his fellow alumni in high regard. And Chiarelli has worked for good teams for over 20 years now without a break. • A few more names to add to the lengthy list we had Wednesday after talking to people around the league: Dan MacKinnon, the Devils assistant GM who’s been in front offices for two decades with New Jersey, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Nashville Predators and has been a finalist for recent GM jobs; and Jeff Kealty, who’s spent 20-plus years in Nashville and is the U.
S. GM for the upcoming World Championships. MacKinnon is one to watch.
As far as experience without being a GM, he might have the most of anyone in the league. That would help jumping into the Isles situation. Newsday’s Andrew Gross has also reported that Kate Madigan, another Devils assistant GM, will have a chance to interview with the Islanders.
Advertisement • I wonder if Angela Ruggiero, another Harvard alum who was an adviser to Rangers GM Chris Drury in 2023-24, will get a look. Malkin and Co. aren’t afraid to think differently about this search, even though someone with major NHL front-office experience is pretty crucial, either as president or GM.
But if they decide to go the experienced team president route, a first-time GM — even one from outside the traditional front-office development routes — could work. Ruggiero is one of the most decorated women’s players of all time and has been involved with the Islanders before on the community side. • I don’t get the sense that Roy is in line for a front-office job, but I also don’t think it’s a slam dunk that a new GM dusts him immediately.
Roy and Lamoriello were on different wavelengths when it came to playing style and roster construction, with Roy wanting a more attacking, active style — and players who can play that way. If Roy can make his case to ownership as this executive search goes on, having him as a holdover while a new GM gets up to speed could help the summer process. • Finally, a few words on the news Wednesday that the Islanders cut Chris King and Greg Picker, their two longtime radio voices, in a small wave of budget reductions on the business side.
King had been with the Islanders since 1998, Picker since 2013. The reaction to that news on social media was intense and overwhelmingly negative toward the team, which will be simulcasting its television broadcasts for radio next season. Having a radio broadcast today’s sports media market is a guaranteed money-loser for small-market teams in the NHL.
What the Islanders did Wednesday is not new. The team loses money, and business operations has been ordered to tighten the belt, so cutting King and Picker — who stopped traveling for road games in 2023-24 — was an easy call when counting costs. The problem, of course, is that not all parts of the Islanders can be counted that way.
The team is trying to build its brand, get more fans and put more people in UBS Arena. Goodwill is needed, especially in a time of transition, as the Isles are in now after the Lamoriello move. King and Picker may not draw numbers, but they are Isles institutions — part of the fabric of the Island and this team that’s long had a Mom-and-Pop feel, for better or worse.
If you run the Islanders, you have to embrace that, even as you move forward. (Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images).
