It was time for the Islanders to pivot from Lou Lamoriello
Lou Lamoriello at the Islanders' training facility at Northwell Health Ice Center in 2022. Credit: Getty Images/Bruce Bennett
The Islanders’ decision to move on from Lou Lamoriello on Tuesday was a no-brainer. It was beyond a no-brainer, actually. It was mandatory.
Had Scott Malkin and Jon Ledecky run it back one more time with Lamoriello and his aging mediocrity of a roster, they would have been guilty of gross ownership malpractice, and the team’s fans would have had every right to rebel.
There was no way for the organization to move forward into a new era with the famously set-in-his-ways Lamoriello, who turns 83 in October, in charge.
The Islanders need fresh faces, fresh leadership, fresh ideas and a general breath of fresh air, none of which Lamoriello was in a position to provide.
He is notoriously controlling, and his rigid ways even extend to how the team is marketed, promoted and covered, a sensitive topic for an organization that needs to sell tickets to thrive.
Of course, the best marketing is winning, and the Islanders did not do enough of that in 2024-25, losing 47 of 82 games, with no clear path to quick improvement.
Their AHL affiliate in Bridgeport, Connecticut, had the worst record in its league this season — by 19 points! It also had the worst record in the AHL last season.
Year after year since the team’s two runs to the NHL semifinals in 2020 and ’21, Lamoriello has kept his core together rather than flip the switch on a rebuild.
He did dismiss one key part of the core when coach Barry Trotz was let go after the 2021-22 season, a decision that seemed odd then and has seemed even more ill-advised with the passage of time.
The final straw might have come at this season’s trade deadline, when Lamoriello dealt Brock Nelson to Colorado because the veteran center forced his hand by declining a contract extension but other than that Lou did . . . well, nothing.
Lamoriello said at the time there were not favorable deals to be made and that “there will be change this summer.”
Ownership decided to make a change of its own in mid-spring.
The future of coach Patrick Roy presumably will await the judgment of a new GM, who will be hired in a search led by operating partner John Collins — himself an old hand at the marketing and business end of the sports world.
The Islanders have enough talent in its prime and under contract, such as Mathew Barzal, Bo Horvat and Ilya Sorokin, to remain competitive while retooling.
But Lamoriello has not set up his successor for near-term success. So be it. Smart fans will understand that and have some patience.
That would have been impossible to ask of them had Lamoriello stayed.
Now that he is gone, no one should forget what he did here.
It can be difficult to tell how much a team means it when it tacks an obligatory thank you onto the news that a GM or coach has been fired.
Often, it is done mostly to be polite. But when the Islanders said it about Lamoriello, they surely meant it — and should have.
It went like this: “The Islanders extend a heartfelt thank you to Lou Lamoriello for his extraordinary commitment over the past seven years. His dedication to the team is in line with his Hall of Fame career.”
All true.
Lamoriello ranks second among general managers in the Islanders’ 53-year history behind only Bill Torrey, helming an era that saw the team make the playoffs in five of seven seasons.
They were one victory away from a Stanley Cup Final in 2021, when they fell in seven games to the Lightning, losing Game 7, 1-0, on a shorthanded goal by Yanni Gourde.
As the statement from ownership said, all he did here was enhance a resume that already is among the most impressive for an executive in NHL history, highlighted by his three Stanley Cups on the far side of the Hudson with the Devils.
He even helped usher in a badly needed new rink, whatever its parking and traffic challenges.
Lamoriello should and will be remembered as a key figure in Islanders history.
But the key for fans is they now have a place to pin their hopes for a brighter future: on something, and someone, new.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
