Who could Islanders hire to replace Lamoriello?
The New York Islanders have officially become an interesting off-season player. While coaching hunts are underway in a handful of NHL burghs, the Islanders — as far as we know, anyway — are the only club actively in search of a new general manager. After deciding not to extend the contract of 82-year-old Lou Lamoriello, the Islanders are officially accepting résumés. And according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the organization is not dead-set on how the hire — or hires — will happen. The Isles could go the route of hiring a president of hockey operations to oversee an entire department and make more moves from there. Or New York could just hand the reins to somebody who would handle the day-to-day duties of a general manager right out of the chute. “If you’re doing a president of hockey operations, (former Red Wings and Oilers executive) Ken Holland is an obvious name to build an organization,” Friedman said on the latest podcast episode of 32 Thoughts. “I had some people say Ed Olczyk’s name to me, but those people are not going to be day-to-day GMs; they’re going to be president of hockey operations and they’re going to hire somebody to be the GM.” In terms of potential GMs, Friedman floated the names of two men who used to run teams that outstripped expectations this year. Marc Bergevin might be three years removed from guiding the Montreal Canadiens, but players like Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Kaiden Guhle — all of whom made big contributions to Montreal’s surprising playoff appearance this season — were acquired on Bergevin’s watch. Then there’s Jarmo Kekalainen, who ran the Columbus Blue Jackets as GM for over 10 years until he was axed 14 months ago. While the Jackets struggled at the end of his tenure, Kekalainen set many of the pieces in place that laid the groundwork for Columbus to rise up this year and nearly snatch the playoff spot the Canadiens wound up taking. In both cases, that body of work could bode well for their chances. Regardless, Friedman believes people will be coming out of the woodwork to put their hand up for this opportunity. “I was on the NHL Network with Brian Boyle and he said, ‘Do you think people are going to want this job?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely people are going to want this job.’ “It’s a good organization, you can with this ownership group, they have good resources, Lamoriello was allowed to run the (hockey operations) the way he wanted to do it. Now, will there be more talk about intertwining hockey and business? Yes, but they’re going to let you run your organization. I think they’re going to have a ton of people who are going to want this job and a ton of qualified people.” As for Lamoriello, Friedman praised the legendary executive for the work he did on Long Island. Recall, when Lamoriello joined the Isles, the team was on the precipice of losing captain John Tavares as a free agent in the summer of 2018. Despite that loss, New York made the playoffs’ final four in both 2020 and ’21, losing in each case to the eventual Cup-winning club in Tampa Bay. Even at the end of his run, Lamoriello did the team a favour by adding a 2026 first-round pick and enticing prospect in Calum Ritchie in the trade-deadline swap that sent Brock Nelson to Colorado. While the Isles may be looking for a new hockey ops suit to run the show there, Friedman thinks it’s possible the tireless Lamoriello could still be hired to try and steady a ship somewhere else. “(People I’ve spoken to) wonder if there’s any chance a team like Buffalo reaches out to him,” he said. Meanwhile, Friedman also thinks an offensive defenceman who was involved in a huge swap two summers ago might be on the move again. One of Kyle Dubas’ first big moves when he was hired by the Pittsburgh Penguins was to acquire Erik Karlsson — who was coming off a 101-point season — from the San Jose Sharks. Now, with two disappointing years in the books in Steeltown, Friedman thinks it’s increasingly likely that Karlsson will be on the move again in 2025. “Karlsson has a bonus and once he gets paid that bonus — I believe it’s on July 1 — his actual cash I think is $11 million for the next two years,” Friedman said. “He’s tradable and there’s going to be interest. I think people are going to try to leverage Pittsburgh on that, get it to either eat money or throw a sweetener in there, but he’s not untradeable.”
The New York Islanders have officially become an interesting off-season player.
While coaching hunts are underway in a handful of NHL burghs, the Islanders — as far as we know, anyway — are the only club actively in search of a new general manager.
After deciding not to extend the contract of 82-year-old Lou Lamoriello, the Islanders are officially accepting résumés. And according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the organization is not dead-set on how the hire — or hires — will happen.
The Isles could go the route of hiring a president of hockey operations to oversee an entire department and make more moves from there. Or New York could just hand the reins to somebody who would handle the day-to-day duties of a general manager right out of the chute.
“If you’re doing a president of hockey operations, (former Red Wings and Oilers executive) Ken Holland is an obvious name to build an organization,” Friedman said on the latest podcast episode of 32 Thoughts. “I had some people say Ed Olczyk’s name to me, but those people are not going to be day-to-day GMs; they’re going to be president of hockey operations and they’re going to hire somebody to be the GM.”
In terms of potential GMs, Friedman floated the names of two men who used to run teams that outstripped expectations this year. Marc Bergevin might be three years removed from guiding the Montreal Canadiens, but players like Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Kaiden Guhle — all of whom made big contributions to Montreal’s surprising playoff appearance this season — were acquired on Bergevin’s watch. Then there’s Jarmo Kekalainen, who ran the Columbus Blue Jackets as GM for over 10 years until he was axed 14 months ago. While the Jackets struggled at the end of his tenure, Kekalainen set many of the pieces in place that laid the groundwork for Columbus to rise up this year and nearly snatch the playoff spot the Canadiens wound up taking.
In both cases, that body of work could bode well for their chances.
Regardless, Friedman believes people will be coming out of the woodwork to put their hand up for this opportunity.
“I was on the NHL Network with Brian Boyle and he said, ‘Do you think people are going to want this job?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely people are going to want this job.’
“It’s a good organization, you can with this ownership group, they have good resources, Lamoriello was allowed to run the (hockey operations) the way he wanted to do it. Now, will there be more talk about intertwining hockey and business? Yes, but they’re going to let you run your organization. I think they’re going to have a ton of people who are going to want this job and a ton of qualified people.”
As for Lamoriello, Friedman praised the legendary executive for the work he did on Long Island. Recall, when Lamoriello joined the Isles, the team was on the precipice of losing captain John Tavares as a free agent in the summer of 2018. Despite that loss, New York made the playoffs’ final four in both 2020 and ’21, losing in each case to the eventual Cup-winning club in Tampa Bay.
Even at the end of his run, Lamoriello did the team a favour by adding a 2026 first-round pick and enticing prospect in Calum Ritchie in the trade-deadline swap that sent Brock Nelson to Colorado.
While the Isles may be looking for a new hockey ops suit to run the show there, Friedman thinks it’s possible the tireless Lamoriello could still be hired to try and steady a ship somewhere else.
“(People I’ve spoken to) wonder if there’s any chance a team like Buffalo reaches out to him,” he said.
Meanwhile, Friedman also thinks an offensive defenceman who was involved in a huge swap two summers ago might be on the move again. One of Kyle Dubas’ first big moves when he was hired by the Pittsburgh Penguins was to acquire Erik Karlsson — who was coming off a 101-point season — from the San Jose Sharks. Now, with two disappointing years in the books in Steeltown, Friedman thinks it’s increasingly likely that Karlsson will be on the move again in 2025.
“Karlsson has a bonus and once he gets paid that bonus — I believe it’s on July 1 — his actual cash I think is $11 million for the next two years,” Friedman said. “He’s tradable and there’s going to be interest. I think people are going to try to leverage Pittsburgh on that, get it to either eat money or throw a sweetener in there, but he’s not untradeable.”
