Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello, head coach Patrick Roy returning for 2024-25 season
Islanders President and General Manager Lou Lamoriello announced on Friday afternoon that he and head coach Patrick Roy will return to the team next season.
The 81-year-old Lamoriello is heading into his seventh season leading the orange and blue.
Lamoriello’s squads have cracked postseason play five different times over that span, but they haven't quite been able to achieve the ultimate goal of lifting the Stanley Cup, only advancing as far as the Eastern Conference Finals once.
Their team has been stuck in hockey purgatory of sorts over the past few seasons, where they simply are too good to go into a complete rebuild, but also aren’t good enough to compete with the league’s top talent.
But it looks like ownership is prepared to give Lamoriello another shot at getting them over the hump, and his man will still be behind the bench.
Roy was hired midseason after New York decided to part ways with second-year head coach Lane Lambert, who had the team seemingly unprepared and greatly underachieving.
The Hall of Fame netminder slotted in perfectly in his return behind an NHL bench, proving energy and a spark for New York when they needed it the most.
With Roy at the helm, the Islanders got scorching hot down the stretch to propel themselves ahead of the crowded Wild Card competition and into the third seed in the Metropolitan Division.
The Isles defeated by the Carolina Hurricanes in five games in the first round, but they certainly seem to have found their man behind the bench.
Roy had a 20-12-5 record over his first 37 games as New York's head coach, and now he'll now get a full offseason to prepare and work with the team in his system.
