Lou Lamoriello's contract as Islanders' president and GM will not be renewed

It’s no longer “In Lou We Trust” for the Islanders.

The team announced on Tuesday that Lou Lamoriello’s contract as president and general manager would not be renewed.

Operating partner John Collins will lead the search for the next GM, the team said, as it parts ways with the Hall of Fame executive who was named president on May 22, 2018, and then named himself GM the next month.

The Islanders made the playoffs in five of seven seasons under Lamoriello, who turns 83 in October and has been an NHL GM continuously since 1987. But the Islanders went 35-35-12 this season to finish sixth in the Metropolitan Division, nine points behind the Canadiens for the Eastern Conference’s second wild-card spot.

“The Islanders extend a heartfelt thank you to Lou Lamoriello for his extraordinary commitment over the past seven years,” the team said in a news release. “His dedication to the team is in line with his Hall of Fame career.”

The organization added that, for now, coach Patrick Roy and his staff as well as Lamoriello’s hockey operations staff — including his son, AHL Bridgeport GM/Islanders assistant GM Chris Lamoriello and fellow assistant GM Steve Pellegrini — remain with the organization. That is pending meetings with whoever is hired as the team’s new boss.

Lamoriello hired Roy on Jan. 20, 2024, to replace the fired Lane Lambert. Lamoriello, in a move still considered curious around the league, had fired Barry Trotz after the Islanders missed the playoffs in 2022 and said the team needed a “new voice” before elevating Trotz’s top lieutenant to his first NHL head coaching gig, the only candidate he considered.

Lamoriello, inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 2009, ran the Devils from 1987-2015. He then spent three seasons as the Maple Leafs’ GM before getting a chance to run the Islanders.

“The passion he has for the game [is what stands out],” said Smithtown’s Kyle Palmieri, a pending unrestricted free agent whose future with the Islanders may be in doubt with Lamoriello departing.

“It’s pretty incredible the vigor and the passion he brings day in and day out. In general, the way he approaches every day. He travels with us. I work out here in the summers, he’s there pretty much every day in the summer, too.”

Lamoriello and Trotz engineered a 23-point improvement in their first season together with the Islanders and Lamoriello was named the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year in both 2018 and 2019.

The Islanders reached the NHL final four in both 2020 and 2021, losing to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Lightning in the semifinals both seasons.

Lamoriello’s record in seven seasons with the Islanders was 268-195-71. He won three Cups with the Devils, in 1995, 2000 and 2003.

Lamoriello also played an integral role in the design of UBS Arena, which opened in 2021.

“The best thing about Lou is you know exactly what you’re getting with him,” said Matt Martin, who Lamoriello signed as a free agent for the Maple Leafs before reacquiring him for the Islanders in 2018. “He’s honest. He’s open and he expects things done a certain way and he’ll give you a reason as to why he wants those things done. The consistency with which he operates is something I think guys really appreciate.”

Yet while “Lou’s Rules” are well-known throughout the NHL — particularly the ban on facial hair — those not playing for Lamoriello can question them.

“I think his reputation is pretty stern and a lot of rules,” said the Predators’ Steven Stamkos, a member of the Lightning’s Cup-winning teams. “Probably that old-school mentality where it’s just about hockey and trying to eliminate a lot of distractions. Obviously, he’s had success in this league and a mind for the game that probably not a lot of people can rival.

“Some people enjoy the honesty and some people can’t handle it.”

Loyalty, along with honesty, is a Lamoriello trademark and it likely hurt him with the Islanders as he kept showing unwavering faith in the core of the team that reached the NHL semifinals.

The Islanders needed an 8-0-1 finish at the end of last season to qualify for the playoffs, losing to the Hurricanes in the first round for the second straight year.

He signed defenseman Scott Mayfield and Pierre Engvall to seven-year contracts in 2023 — the length of the deals keeping the annual average value more salary-cap friendly — when word around the NHL was nobody else was offering that many seasons. Both Mayfield and Engvall spent stretches this season as healthy scratches.

Even with the team being four points out of a playoff spot heading into the March 7 trade deadline, the only deal Lamoriello made was to send Brock Nelson, the Islanders’ leading goal scorer the past five seasons, to the Avalanche after he could not re-sign Nelson to a contract extension.

Lamoriello then promised further changes were coming this offseason.

That task will now fall to the Islanders’ next boss.

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.