The New York Islanders are shocking the world, or shocking the system, as they have announced they are moving on from Team President and General Manager Lou Lamoriello.
#Isles News: The New York Islanders organization announced today that Lou Lamoriello’s contract as President and General Manager will not be renewed. Effective immediately, Operating Partner John Collins will lead a search to find the next General Manager.
— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) April 22, 2025
As part of the press release, the New York Islanders organization announced that Operating Partner John Collins will lead a search to find the next General Manager.
?Night Cap Recap ?
Islanders Make a GM Change as Lou Lamoriello Will Not He Brought Back #isles pic.twitter.com/NSQWGBC6fZ
— Jim Biringer (@JimBiringer) April 22, 2025
Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello Should Have Done More at the Deadline
It was just a matter of time before the Islanders made this decision on Lamoriello. According to sources close to RG Media, back in December, the Islanders were considering a change at the GM position last off-season. But the only thing that saved his job was the playoff appearance.
“There were people inside the organization that wanted Lamoriello out before the start of last season but were outvoted,” a source told RG. “He saved his job with the playoff appearance.”
However, that was not the case this season. The New York Islanders failed to make the playoffs. Though they were in contention, they fell out with a couple of weeks left in the season. According to Dave Pagnotta of the Fourth Period, Lamoriello was informed of this decision towards the end of the year. During that stretch, the Islanders fell out of contention.
The writing was on the wall when it came to Lamoriello and the Islanders. He did not improve the team offensively. Not to mention, there was friction between head coach Patrick Roy and Lamoriello. Roy made subtle and open comments about the roster that he had to coach. Pierre Engvall is one of them. Not to mention, there was an aging bottom-six.
There have been three coaching changes since 2018, and two in the last couple of seasons. While the team made it to the back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals in 2020 and 2021, it was during the bubble era. The season was shorter, and the Islanders, who are older, got to rest, and the season was not as gruelling as it is now.
Lou Lamoriello did a lot of great work during his time as an NHL GM. But most of it was during the pre-salary cap. He has not shown he can operate in a post-salary cap world. And it showed by some of the players he brought in following the trips to the Eastern Conference Final.
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Lamoriello’s hope was just to get in and see what happens. However, that can’t work all the time. While he did get a nice haul for Brock Nelson at the NHL Trade Deadline, there were other players he needed to move and did not. Like Kyle Palmieri and Jean-Gabriel Pageau.
It will be interesting to see how they navigate the contracts for Palmieri, Adam Boqvist, Noah Dobson, and Alexander Romanov moving forward.
There will be a length GM search that will commence, led by Collins. It will be interesting to see what direction they go in when it comes to their GM. More on that at another time. However, the Islanders will look a lot different next season as the Lou Lamoriello era is over on the Island.
While people are in shock, the time was right as the organization felt they needed a new voice moving forward.
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