Former Islanders coach Barry Trotz makes his return to UBS Arena as GM of Predators

Barry Trotz hoped his first return to UBS Arena since being fired in 2022 after a highlight-filled, four-season run as Islanders coach could be low key. The Predators first-year general manager hadn’t given much thought to how the fans would receive him.

“Not really,” said Trotz before his team faced the Islanders on Saturday night. “I was hoping I wouldn’t get any reception, quite frankly. I don’t mind being sort of anonymous.”

Fat chance.

Islanders fans took to Trotz immediately after he was hired in 2018, fresh off leading the Capitals to that franchise’s only Stanley Cup.

Hearing his name chanted after victories at Nassau Coliseum before the COVID-19 pandemic was common.

“That was fun,” Mathew Barzal said. “That first year, we were pegged as being one of the bottom teams in the league and we end up going to the [playoffs’] second round. I think Barry does a great job of bringing everybody together. I think he’s going to be a great GM because he understands culture.”

Trotz led the Islanders to the NHL final four in 2020 and 2021, losing both times to the eventual Cup-champion Lightning. Multiple COVID absences wrecked the Islanders’ first season at UBS Arena as they missed the playoffs and president/general manager Lou Lamoriello, seeking a “new voice,” opted to fire Trotz in favor of his associate coach Lane Lambert.

Famously, in his first season with the Islanders before receiving his Cup ring from the Capitals during their first visit that season to Barclays Center, Trotz went into the visitor’s dressing room and told his ex-players they would have to go through “Long Island” in the playoffs.

“He did a lot for this group in terms of showing us what we’re capable of. He instilled a sense of confidence and belief in ourselves,” said Cal Clutterbuck, before being asked about Trotz’s comment to the Capitals. “That was a public thing. He had been talking to us that way for a long time.

“You’re like, ‘The guy who won the Cup last year feels like the capability is in this room.’ So much so that he’s willing to go to his team to accept his ring and tell them that they’re going to have to take down the juggernaut Islanders. It was good. It was funny.”

Trotz, who coached the Predators from 1998-2014, was named the successor to Predators’ GM David Poile last February, officially taking over after the season. Lambert was fired in favor of Patrick Roy on Feb. 20.

“He’s my friend,” Trotz said. “He’s doing fine. For every coach, and Lane is a very, very good coach, there’s a period of mourning. Because no one wants to get fired and, unfortunately, as coaches, we’re in a public setting. I can read about it. Your kids are reading about it. It’s not great. He went through the natural progression of every coach who has ever been fired.

“Then, you take a step back and you understand and you move on. And he has. I don’t expect him to be out of work for very long.”

Trotz also has a relationship with Roy.

“Very few Hall of Fame players that become coaches work so diligently on the next thing,” Trotz said. “He worked at the game. I always admired that.”

“I spoke to him last year in the playoffs because we decided to go 1-1-3,” said Roy, who led the Quebec Remparts to Canadian junior hockey’s Memorial Cup last season. “Even when I was coaching in Colorado, he came down to Quebec with his family. We had breakfast together. I have tons of respect for him.”

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

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.