Lane Lambert is the new head coach of the New York Islanders, the team announced Monday. The news comes one week after the team fired Barry Trotz.
Lambert had served as the associate coach of the Islanders for the past four seasons. Before joining the Islanders, Lambert spent four seasons as an assistant coach with the Washington Capitals, including for the franchise's first Stanley Cup title in 2018. He was also previously an assistant coach with the Nashville Predators and head coach of the AHL's Milwaukee Admirals.
New York missed the playoffs this season, finishing with a 37-35-10 record, ninth in the Eastern Conference but 16 points behind the second and final wild-card spot.
(Photo: Joe Sargent / NHLI via Getty Images)
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Why Lane Lambert was Lou Lamoriello's pick to succeed Barry Trotz as Islanders head coach
Why did the Islanders pick Lambert?
Kevin Kurz, Islanders beat writer: It seems evident that general manager Lou Lamoriello knew when he announced the Trotz firing last Monday that this was going to be the ultimate outcome, as there’s no way the team could have conducted a thorough head coaching search in just a week’s time.
Still, it seems odd to go to Trotz’s longtime assistant when Lamoriello said the team needed a “new voice” that was different from that of the third-winningest coach in NHL history and who helped the team overachieve in the 2020 and 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Lambert was going to have options this offseason to become a head coach somewhere else, including potentially Detroit (he is a former teammate of Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman). That he’s ready for a head coaching job has been theorized for several years, even if the circumstances on Long Island make the events of the past week a bit puzzling.
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What to expect from the Islanders with Lambert behind the bench
Kurz: It’s hard to imagine there will be much different system-wise, as Lambert was one of the architects of Trotz’s style of play. The Islanders went 2-1 under Lambert in January, too, when Trotz missed time due to his mother’s funeral.
In fact, Lamoriello mentioned in a team press release that “spending time with (Lambert) on a one-on-one basis” during that stretch was one of the reasons he made the decision.
Top offseason priorities for Islanders
Kurz: The Islanders still need to get more mobile on their back end, and will be searching for someone to play on the left side of the emerging Noah Dobson. They’ll also need to make some changes among their forward group, something Lamoriello has already indicated he will attempt to do via the trade market.
The Islanders desperately need to find an effective winger for Mathew Barzal, who had trouble finding chemistry with anyone other than Anders Lee this past season.
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