The New York Islanders have been playing their best hockey of the season lately and are closing in on a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. They entered the trade deadline as a team ready to add at least one more depth player to signal that they are ready to compete and make a push for the Stanley Cup. Their general manager (GM) Lou Lamoriello didn’t make any moves at the deadline.
Related: Islanders’ Missed Opportunities at the 2024 Trade Deadline
For those who have followed Lamoriello’s tenure with the Islanders and his career as a GM as a whole, this wasn’t a shock. He tends to remain quiet in the offseason and at the trade deadline, only making the occasional splash when the right offer is on the table. This deadline was surprising since he wasn’t willing to send the message to his roster that he was confident in this group. The Islanders are playing well and adding one depth player would show that he trusts the core but wants to make a minor addition to put this team over the top. He chose not to do that and instead, he’s running it back with a team that has a low ceiling.
The decision to avoid making a trade is just another one of the head-scratching moves that looks poised to hurt the Islanders. Lamoriello’s made a handful of decisions that have left this team in the middle of the Eastern Conference without a path to the Cup or a path to rebuild. His silence at the deadline just adds to the list of poor decisions he’s made as the team’s GM and it could be his lasting impression in his tenure with the Islanders.
Firing Trotz
It’s unclear whether Barry Trotz wanted to remain the head coach of the Islanders for the long run. By the time his fourth season ended, he was already searching for his next opportunity and a season after he was fired, he found it. As the GM of the Nashville Predators, he’s helping turn the team into a contender and that role wouldn’t have been a possibility without parting ways with the Islanders. Likewise, the team looked different in his last season behind the bench as they were slower, lethargic, and in need of a change.
That said, Trotz is the type of coach that doesn’t get fired. A lot of fans claimed he was the greatest coach in the team’s history since the legendary Al Arbour, who led the team to four consecutive titles in the 1980s. That isn’t an exaggeration. Since Arbour left the team in 1994, the Islanders have only won a playoff series five times, and all five times have been under Trotz. He turned a team that was non-competitive for a while and made them not only good but a Cup contender every season.
Trotz also gave the Islanders an identity and a style of play that gave them an edge. In a league where the offense was starting to take over and the game was becoming faster and more skilled, he had the team win with defense, forechecking, and slowing games down. The Islanders were suddenly a tough team to play against as they slowly churned out victories.
The firing was a warning sign that Lamoriello was starting to grab too much of a grip on the Islanders. He made Trotz the scapegoat for a disappointing 2021-22 season and stated that the team needed a new voice. His next hiring wasn’t much of an upgrade as Lane Lambert lost control of the roster by his second season behind the bench, forcing him to hire Patrick Roy midseason. Letting go of Trotz ended up being a costly move, yet not the first, for the Islanders GM.
Unprotecting Jordan Eberle in the 2021 Expansion Draft
A few roster decisions could be questioned by Lamoriello over the years. Trading Devon Toews to the Colorado Avalanche and Nick Leddy to the Detroit Red Wings come to mind as they slowed down and weakened the defense. The same can be said about the Zdeno Chara signing, which backfired as it set the defense back. However, the move that immediately became regrettable and changed the Islanders for years to come was the decision to leave Jordan Eberle unprotected in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft.
This decision at the time made sense since the Islanders were looking to make room from a salary cap standpoint to extend Adam Pelech and Ryan Pulock. The problem is that it allowed the Seattle Kraken the option to select the team’s top-line winger and that’s exactly what they did. To make matters worse, one of the forwards Lamoriello protected instead was Josh Bailey, which at the time also made sense, but history proved it was the wrong decision.
Eberle left a void on the wing and his absence particularly limited Mathew Barzal, the playmaker on the top line who loved having a sharpshooter to pass the puck to. The Islanders never replaced Eberle, who became a perennial 20-goal scorer on the Kraken and a key part of their top six, and the offense had a significant drop in the 2021-22 season as well as 2022-23. While Lamoriello found a shooter for Barzal with the Bo Horvat acquisition, he could have kept the scoring presence in the lineup without having to make a blockbuster deal.
Bailey meanwhile dropped off significantly. He regressed from a reliable top-six passer into a third-line role player to eventually not only become a liability but a healthy scratch at the end of his tenure with the Islanders. In the 2023 offseason, he was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks along with a second-round selection in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, but he would’ve been bought out otherwise. Lamoriello chose to protect him and not Eberle, a move that saved roughly $2 million in cap space yet came at the cost of dismantling the forward unit.
Running it Back
After the deep playoff runs in 2020 and 2021, it made sense to keep the roster together. After that, it became questionable as the team started to age. For Lamoriello to repeatedly keep the Islanders together and state confidence in the group, it started to turn into insanity. He had plenty of opportunities to add or move players around in the offseason and most notably, make a splash acquisition. He didn’t and eventually, it came back to haunt him. Sure, the Islanders are playing great at the moment, yet every season removed from that Game 7 in the 2021 Semifinal series against the Tampa Bay Lightning has them looking less like a Cup contender.
The Nazem Kadri sweepstakes were a prime opportunity for Lamoriello to change the look of the Islanders. While Kadri would have been a mixed bag with the Islanders and he hasn’t turned the Calgary Flames into a contender since signing there, he would have been a significant improvement. Likewise, Alex DeBrincat would have been a difference-maker in the top six this season as a dynamic forward who could both create scoring chances and find the back of the net himself. Yet every offseason, Lamoriello’s stayed silent.
Lamoriello instead trusted the roster in place, one that gets a year older every season. Suddenly, the Islanders have an old group with a lot of unmovable players. Anders Lee is 33 years old and starting to become a one-trick pony in terms of his offensive production. Jean-Gabriel Pageau is 31 and not the same scorer he used to be. Pelech and Pulock, the top pair that anchored the defense, has started to deteriorate with age.
The Islanders at best can sneak into the playoffs as a wild card team, something they did last season, only to lose to the Carolina Hurricanes in a series that wasn’t that close. At worst, this team is near the bottom of the Metropolitan Division but not bad enough to draft a transcendent talent in the first five selections. The middle is a tough place to be and it’s where this team is with Lamoriello refusing to make a risky move in the offseason.
The Long-Term Contracts Given to Engvall, Mayfield & Varlamov
The run-it-back mentality was epitomized this offseason. Lamoriello not only doubled down on the roster, he tripled down by handing out long-term contracts to veterans well past their prime. Semyon Varlamov is 35 and was given a four-year contract. Scott Mayfield is 31 and was signed to a seven-year deal. Pierre Engvall is 27 and still in his prime but after playing only 18 games with the team following the trade from the Toronto Maple Leafs, was given a seven-year contract.
All three contracts are aging poorly. Varlamov is a backup goaltender who is only capable of filling in for a few games. He’s putting together a respectable season, making the current contract look good but it’s doubtful he’ll play at this level in two seasons or even by the start of next season. Engvall has struggled to find a role in the forward unit as he only has seven goals and 13 assists while trying to make an impact on both the second and the third line. However, Engvall still has time to improve and make the long-term contract age well.
Then there’s the Mayfield contract, one that already looks like a disaster. The veteran defenseman has battled injuries this season but notably has looked like a slower skater who is more prone to making mistakes with the puck. It’s turned him into a liability and forced Roy to leave him out of the lineup as a healthy scratch before Lamoriello placed him on the long-term injured reserve. The Islanders are barely one season into the contract and a buyout is already something they have to consider. It would in some ways be a fitting way to cap off Lamoriello’s tenure and start the next era of Islanders hockey.
The Trade Deadline Might Be the Last Straw
At some point, a fanbase and more importantly, an ownership group loses trust in the front office. Lamoriello bet on himself when he fired Trotz and once again bet on his reputation and history in his roster decisions. This season, he threw Lambert under the bus and made him the person to blame for the team’s struggles. Eventually, the fingers start to point at the GM and the people who put their confidence in Lamoriello will lose it.
We may look back at the trade deadline as something that saved Lamoriello’s job. By not doing anything, the Islanders didn’t make any costly moves and the team will rally to not only make the playoffs but win the first Cup in franchise history since 1983. It’s also possible, in fact likely, that we look back at this trade deadline as the lasting impression of Lamoriello’s tenure. Last season, the Philadelphia Flyers stayed silent despite the need for the front office to make some moves. It was the last straw for their GM Chuck Fletcher who was fired shortly after the deadline.
Lamoriello will remain the GM for the rest of the season, one where the Islanders have a strong chance of reaching the playoffs. However, the trade deadline didn’t help his cause to remain in the long term. The ownership group might look for a new GM and someone willing to take risks at the trade deadline or free agency. Sure, some moves will backfire but they will at the very least, give the Islanders a chance at winning the Cup.
