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Winnipeg Jets Interviewing Barry Trotz

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From the moment that Barry Trotz was relieved of his duties as head coach of the New York Islanders, speculation began about where he would head next. The Winnipeg Jets seemed like an obvious possibility because of their current vacancy, and Trotz’s connection to the area. The Winnipeg-born Trotz not only played junior and college hockey in Manitoba, but also started his coaching career there, first with the University of Manitoba and then with the Dauphin Kings of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League.

The connection now is more than just speculation, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports that the Jets will interview Trotz for their head coaching position today.

Of course, in this scenario, a meeting may be just as much Trotz interviewing management as them interviewing him. The veteran coach is expected to have his pick of several spots, after being a surprise addition to the pool of candidates this summer. After 1,812 games as a head coach in the NHL, a 2018 Stanley Cup championship, and two Conference Finals appearances in the last three years, it’s difficult to find a more well-respected name in the league. Trotz won the Jack Adams Award as the best head coach in the NHL in both 2016 and 2019, and has an overall record of 914-670-60-168, despite starting his career with the expansion Nashville Predators that struggled for several years before becoming a consistent playoff contender.

In Winnipeg, the Jets are looking for a replacement following Paul Maurice’s stunning resignation earlier this year. Dave Lowry stepped into the head coaching role on an interim basis, but the club wasn’t able to take a step forward and get back into the playoff race. For a club that had huge expectations before the season began and isn’t likely to face a rebuild, a coach like Trotz seems like a perfect match to get them back to contender quickly.

Vegas Golden Knights Fire Peter DeBoer

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6:07 pm: Per the Golden Knights, assistant coaches Ryan Craig and Misha Donskov will remain on the team’s staff for next season. Goaltending Coach Mike Rosati has not been let go, but will interview with the new coaching staff once they are hired (link).

2:33 PM: As reported by TSN’s Darren Dreger, two Golden Knights assistant coaches, Steve Spott and Ryan McGill, have also been let go by the team.

11:02 AM: The Vegas Golden Knights announced Monday morning that the team has fired head coach Peter DeBoer.

General manager Kelly McCrimmon will meet with the media at 3:00 p.m. CT to address the firing. He said the following in a statement today:

After lengthy discussions over the last two weeks, we believe that a new coach will put us in the best position to succeed next season.

DeBoer was appointed as the Golden Knights’ head coach midway through 2019-20 after the team fired Gerard Gallant due to a sluggish start. Through his two-and-a-half seasons in Vegas, DeBoer guided the team to a 98-50-12 record in 160 games (.650 points percentage). DeBoer had one year remaining on his contract, paying him $3.25MM.

His firing comes after the Golden Knights missed the playoffs this season for the first time in franchise history, dropping a series of key games down the stretch with a 4-2-4 record in their final 10 games. Some will be quick to defend DeBoer as the team suffered a laundry list of injuries to star players throughout the season, including captain Mark Stone, sniper Max Pacioretty, defenseman Alec Martinez, and starting netminder Robin Lehner.

However, while the Golden Knights still managed to generate chances offensively despite the injuries to key scorers, defense and special teams were where the team struggled the most this season. The team finished below league average on both the power play and penalty kill, and stellar play at the end of the season from youngster Logan Thompson in goal helped cover up some of the defensive shortcomings the team had developed throughout the year.

Vegas will need to do more than to just find a new bench boss for next season, though. The team is already in the red in terms of salary cap space, boasting a projected cap hit of $83.1MM for 2022-3. The team won’t be able to re-sign any pending UFAs to NHL deals (which include Reilly Smith and Mattias Janmark) and will likely need to shed another contract in order to become cap-compliant and reallocate a small amount of money in free agency. Moving forward, the team will need to count on a healthy and productive trio of Jack Eichel, Pacioretty, and Stone to avoid another disappointing season.

TSN’s Darren Dreger was the first to report.

New York Islanders Name Lane Lambert Head Coach

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The New York Islanders announced today that the team named Lane Lambert as their head coach, succeeding the previously fired Barry Trotz.

Lambert is an internal promotion, having served as an associate coach with the team since the 2018-19 season. Lambert’s led a long career as both a player and coach, also serving as an assistant coach under Trotz for both the Nashville Predators (2011-2014) and Washington Capitals (2014-2018). Lambert’s last experience as a head coach came with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals from 2007-2011.

Lambert actually took over as the team’s head coach for a few games midseason while Trotz was away from the team on a personal leave of absence. He’s the uncle of top 2022 draft prospect Brad Lambert. He becomes the 18th person to coach the Islanders and the fourth in the past 10 years.

Under Lambert, the Islanders look to return to their winning ways after missing the playoffs by 16 points this season. The team had advanced to the Eastern Conference Final in the previous two seasons. Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello said the following today regarding his hiring:

I had the opportunity to work with Lane over the past four years, which includes spending time with him on a one-on-one basis when he served as the interim Head Coach this past season. In my opinion, he is the right person to coach this team.

Lambert was a candidate of interest for many teams around the league for head coaching roles. PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan reported today that Lambert was a candidate for the Arizona Coyotes’ coaching vacancy last season before the team decided to opt for Andre Tourigny.

It’s a large cloud moved off the Islanders’ offseason, as they’re able to move forward into the draft and free agency with their situation settled behind the bench.

Capitals Notes: Goaltending, Wilson, Laviolette

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Today was exit day for the Washington Capitals, and as part of that, Capitals GM Brian MacLellan spoke with the media. The biggest revelation coming from his media appearance regards the team’s goaltending situation, as he shed some light on how the team views their current tandem of goaltenders and what strategy they will take towards the position in the offseason. MacLellan said, as relayed by Samantha Pell of The Washington Post, that the team’s “top priority” regarding their goaltending is to acquire a veteran netminder. MacLellan also added that it’s “possible” that both of the team’s current goalies, Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek, (who are each eligible to become restricted free agents with arbitration rights) return next season, but that the priority is to add a veteran to the team.

Both Samsonov and Vanecek, who are 25 and 26 years old, respectively, had seasons to forget. For Vanecek, his regular season was solid (42 games played at a .908 save percentage) but he unraveled in the playoffs, not even making it to the end of game two before being pulled for Samsonov. Samsonov, on the flip side, had a poor regular season, posting only an .896 save percentage in 44 games. Although he did better in the playoffs (.912 in five games) he still failed to make the saves required for the Capitals to defeat the Florida Panthers. By virtue of both goalies needing a new contract, this offseason the Capitals are afforded the financial flexibility to choose a new direction in net. The Capitals intend on remaining competitive during the remaining years of Alex Ovechkin’s career, and MacLellan’s statements make it clear that the organization deems a veteran goaltender necessary to give their captain a chance at winning a second Stanley Cup. If their prior courtship of Marc-Andre Fleury is any indication, it seems MacLellan and the Capitals will be going fishing for a major addition to their crease this offseason.

Now, for some other notes regarding the Capitals:

  • Tom Wilson, one of the Capitals’ most important forwards, did not play very much in their short playoff run. He scored a goal but suffered a knee injury that MacLellan today said would have cost him the entirety of the Capitals’ playoff run, should they have made it into the next few rounds. Per Tom Gulitti of NHL.com, the team will make a decision in the next few days on whether Wilson needs surgery. Even with a potential surgery in mind, MacLellan did express optimism that Wilson would be ready to play by the start of next season. The Capitals rely on Wilson’s goal-scoring and physicality to win games, so if they want to hit the ground running for next season’s campaign getting Wilson back to full health will be a major priority for the team.
  • This season marks coach Peter Laviolette’s second behind the bench in Washington, and his combined 80-41-17 record over those two seasons is reflective of how well he has done in getting the most out of the Capitals’ players.  But despite that regular-season success, the Capitals have bowed out in the first round in both years of his tenure, and as a result, with Laviolette set to enter the final season of his contract, MacLellan was asked about Laviolette’s future in Washington. Per Gulitti, MacLellan made the point that he wanted to keep conversations regarding Laviolette’s contract situation private, but was complimentary about his coach’s work during this regular season and playoffs. While some more frustrated Capitals fans may want to see a change behind the bench after two straight early playoff exits, it seems that the organization has full faith in Laviolette being the right coach to bring the Capitals their second Stanley Cup.

Snapshots: Wild, Babcock, Trouba

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Questions are sure to arise this offseason in the State of Hockey. The Minnesota Wild, although they forced the series to six games, were dealt with pretty handily in the final days of their season by the St. Louis Blues, capped off by a 5-1 rout in Game 6.

Now, with the full effect of the controversial Zach Parise/Ryan Suter buyouts kicking in next season, many wonder how the Wild will be able to manage their cap space moving forward. NBC Sports’ James O’Brien looks at a few routes the Wild could go down to manage their salary cap situation next season. The buyouts take up a combined $12.74MM next season, and although the team’s cap situation is fuzzy due to the amount of playoff Black Aces still on the active roster, they’ll surely have less than $10MM to work with this offseason. That includes signing Kevin Fiala, who’s a restricted free agent with arbitration rights (again), to a new deal, and finding a goalie to replace (or to-resign) Marc-Andre Fleury. While Fiala could be dealt, especially after an underwhelming playoff performance, they could also look to clear out some depth names. O’Brien names Dmitry Kulikov, who carries a $2.25MM cap hit next season, as another trade piece, although he does have an eight-team no-trade list (somehow).

  • While there hasn’t been any official link, and there likely won’t be knowing the tight-lipped Lou Lamoriello, The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz names former NHL bench boss Mike Babcock as a potential fit for the New York Islanders’ coaching vacancy. Kurz references Lamoriello’s history with Babcock in Toronto, and Lamoriello’s history of opting for tougher, more aggressive voices in the room as a solution to unsatisfactory team performance. Since then, he’s served as a senior adviser at the University of Vermont and the head coach of the University of Saskatchewan.
  • After Jacob Trouba’s controversial hit that gave Sidney Crosby a reported concussion, The Athletic’s Eric Duhatscheck looked at whether the NHL could examine a potential rule change to penalize similar hits in the future. Duhatschek notes that penalizing all hits to the head is extremely unlikely, as evidenced by current NHL leadership’s hesitation against cracking down on body contact. While illegal head contact exists in the NHL, by its definition, the league viewed Trouba’s hit as legal.

Bruce Boudreau Will Return As Canucks Head Coach

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The Vancouver Canucks have made it official, announcing that Bruce Boudreau will return as head coach for the 2022-23 season. While that doesn’t come with a long-term commitment, it will at least put some of the chatter to rest about who will be behind the bench. In a statement, general manager Patrick Allvin explained the decision:

We are pleased to see Bruce’s commitment to return to the Canucks next season. He has done a great job since arriving in Vancouver and we are eager to see the team continue to perform under his leadership as they did during the second half of the season.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Boudreau is back, especially given the reports that he was in the meeting with prized Russian free agent Andrei Kuzmenko recently. The question was is about whether the Canucks will be willing to commit past the 2022-23 season, something that is still very unclear. In his end-of-year availability, president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford explained that he needed to see more than half a season before handing out an extension like that, something that at least made some wonder if Boudreau would take his talents elsewhere.

For now, he will stay put and build off that half-season, which was exceptional even if the Canucks didn’t end up qualifying for the playoffs.

After starting 8-15-2 under Travis Green, the organization decided to clean house, firing almost the entire management group and coaching staff. Boudreau took over behind the bench, while Allvin and Rutherford moved into the front office to start cleaning up the mess left behind by Jim Benning. The team had only made the playoffs once in the last six years and yet had some of the most exciting young talent in the league. Under Boudreau, they went 32-15-10 down the stretch, coming oh-so-close to climbing all the way back into the playoff picture.

That trio of Quinn Hughes, Thatcher Demko, and Elias Pettersson will obviously be the building blocks for the Canucks moving forward, though there are plenty of other decisions to be made about who will surround them. Brock Boeser, Bo Horvat, and J.T. Miller have all heard their names bandied about in trade speculation, and now with the Boudreau situation finalized, the front office can get to work on either extending them, or making a move to maximize their return.

A regular season turnaround wasn’t anything new for Boudreau, who has never had a losing season as an NHL head coach. In fact, his .635 winning percentage is right up with the best of all time. It’s the playoffs that have been a different story so far, likely one of the reasons why Rutherford was so hesitant to jump in after 57 games. Boudreau has a 43-47 record in the postseason and hasn’t moved past the first round since 2015.

Snapshots: Kuemper, Marchment, Boudreau

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It appears as though the Colorado Avalanche will have goaltender Darcy Kuemper back between the pipes when they host either the St. Louis Blues or Minnesota Wild to start the second round next week (link). Kuemper was back at practice today, and while it’s unclear if he would have been able to play had Colorado’s series against the Nashville Predators continued, he will have a few more days to get ready and continue to recover. St. Louis hosts Minnesota tonight in Game 6 of the first round, the Blues holding a 3-2 series lead.

Kuemper was injured late in the first period of Game 3 of round one when Predators forward Ryan Johansen appeared to get his stick blade caught inside of Kuemper’s mask. The goaltender would leave the game, replaced by Pavel Francouz, who started in net for the Avalanche in their series-clinching win in Game 4. An impending UFA, the Avalanche acquired Kuemper this past offseason in a win-now move to give them a star goaltender for this season, perhaps their best chance at a Stanley Cup. Kuemper compiled another strong season in 2021-22, his first with Colorado, posting a .921 save-percentage and 2.54 goals-against average.

  • The Florida Panthers announced, per head coach Andrew Brunette, that forward Mason Marchment will not be available when Florida takes on the Washington Capitals in Game 6 tomorrow night (link). The forward had been dealing with a previous injury and was considered a game-time decision for Game 5, a game that he ultimately did not play in. Seeing Marchment move from a game-time decision for Game 5 to being ruled out a day ahead of Game 6 is surely a concern for Florida, as the 26-year-old has provided excellent secondary scoring with a physical game to go along with it, putting up 18 goals and 29 assists in 54 games this season.
  • From Rob Simpson of Vancouver Hockey Now, who spoke with Bruce Boudreau, the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, Boudreau said he hopes to return to the organization next week. Currently, Boudreau is still under contract with Vancouver with whom he has an option to return, and said he plans on confirming his option with Canucks’ President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford and General Manager Patrik Allvin sometime early next week. Boudreau has until June 1st to accept the option. The veteran head coach had also made clear to Simpson that he has spent the last couple of weeks simply taking time off, visiting with friends and family and making other arrangements, and the delay was not tactical in nature. There had been recent rumors about a possible extension with Boudreau, however Rutherford made it clear he would not be interested in extending Boudreau just yet, but was open to the idea of it at some point. What exactly Boudreau thought of that situation was unclear, but it appears now that his primary focus is on returning to the Canucks for the 2022-23 season.

Latest On Canucks’ Offseason Plans

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The Vancouver Canucks have lots of questions to answer this offseason. The most pressing one is whether they can get a deal done with head coach Bruce Boudreau, who has a negotiating window until June 1 but no contract extension in place just yet. The two sides have said all the right things when it comes to working together and will have to iron out a deal if the veteran coach is to stay put. It certainly seems like he’s going to be sticking around though, as Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported yesterday on CHEK TV that Boudreau was present (virtually) in the meeting with Russian free agent Andrei Kuzmenko.

Beyond the coaching situation though, more decisions are coming on players like Brock Boeser, Bo Horvat, and J.T. Miller. Currently, none of the three are signed past the 2022-23 season, with Boeser not even signed for next season yet. If the new management group wanted to shake up the core, those three are certainly avenues to consider.

Still, there is another name that earns big money in Vancouver and could potentially be part of a retooling effort. Friedman went on to tell Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV that the team is trying to find a trade market for Oliver Ekman-Larsson, just a year after acquiring him from the Arizona Coyotes.

Now 30, Ekman-Larsson is signed to a massive eight-year, $66MM contract that won’t expire until the summer of 2027. As part of it, he also owns a full no-movement clause that gives him total control of his situation. When the Coyotes made it clear that they wanted to move him, Ekman-Larsson gave just two teams that he would be willing to go to–the Canucks and the Boston Bruins. If Vancouver has now soured, it seems he would have to provide someone else if a trade is to occur. The Bruins, of course, found their own Swedish defenseman at the deadline, acquiring and extending Hampus Lindholm to a long-term deal.

It’s not that Ekman-Larsson had a terrible year, as he put up 29 points in 79 games while averaging more than 22 minutes a night. But the contract that was so happily acquired by the previous management group is a difficult one to deal with, even despite the Coyotes retaining a small portion. Vancouver already has nearly $70MM in cap hits committed to next season with just 13 players, making it tough to really add to the group if they wanted to.

Again, the veteran defenseman has full control in this situation. A buyout would be untenable at this point and even if the Canucks wanted to retain additional salary to facilitate trade, Ekman-Larsson would have to first accept the destination.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Looking At The New York Islanders Decision To Fire Barry Trotz

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After the surprising news this morning that the New York Islanders had decided to part ways with legendary Head Coach Barry Trotz, speculation began circulating of why the Islanders and GM Lou Lamoriello arrived at such a decision, and what could be next for both the team and the coach. The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz had an opportunity to listen in on a conference call with Lamoriello to gain some clarity on the situation, providing insight on what Lamoriello had to say.

In sum, Lamoriello, who famously has held his cards close, noted that this decision was his alone, it did not have anything to do with the fact that Trotz has just one year at $4MM left on his contract with the Islanders, and that the team’s performance this year was not the only factor in his decision. It’s no secret that the Islanders disappointed this season, finishing at 37-35-10, good enough for fifth place in the Metropolitan Division after three straight playoff appearances, including two consecutive trips to the conference finals in each of the last two seasons.

When asked for a reason why he made this decision, Lamoriello did not offer much, simply sharing that the team needed a new voice. Speculation did grow as to what he could have meant with that statement. On the 32 Thoughts Podcast, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman opined that perhaps during his exit interviews, Lamoriello had heard enough of the players say that they needed a new voice, which ultimately could have convinced the veteran executive that a change needed to be made. Trotz has long been known to employ a strict system for his teams, one which could have worn on the team both mentally and physically. As Trotz himself wondered after this season, perhaps there were things he could have done better, such as utilizing a January stretch of 13 days where the team played just one game for rest, not practice, and considering that this style maybe held up better in shorter spurts, like the playoffs or the COVID-shortened 56-game season.

Naturally, speculation about who could replace Trotz behind the bench on Long Island has persisted throughout the day. One seemingly obvious candidate would be current Associate Coach Lane Lambert, who is still under contract with the Islanders. Lambert has been rumored to be a candidate for a head coaching job for some years, but has remained with Trotz on the bench as far back as their time with the Nashville Predators. As Kurz mentions in another piece, if the organization does truly want a new voice, then promoting the long-time Trotz assistant might not be the move to make.

As for Trotz, who ranks third all-time in wins among NHL coaches, Friedman believes he will have no shortage of suitors for his services, including teams currently without a head coach, and perhaps even some who do have one, at least for the time being. One team without a coach, who Friedman speculates as a fit, is the Winnipeg Jets. Friedman cites Trotz’s Manitoba roots as a reason he could be convinced to take the job with Winnipeg, though interest on either end of course is unknown.

With the news not even a day old yet, how the situation plays out for both the Islanders and Trotz is yet to be decided, and though Lamoriello did not share much, there was enough to speculate on one of the game’s great coaches and one of the league’s more intriguing head coaching positions. As Lamoriello told the media, including Kurz, he does not have a timetable for finding a new head coach, and at least for now, the rest of the Islanders coaching staff does remain intact.

New York Islanders Fire Barry Trotz

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In a shocking move, the New York Islanders have relieved head coach Barry Trotz of his duties this morning, opening another vacancy behind the bench. Trotz had one year remaining on his contract and is owed $4MM next season.

It’s a surprising decision, given Trotz’ nearly universal praise as one of the league’s top head coaches, and the fact that the Islanders had made it to the Eastern Conference Finals in two of his four years behind the bench in New York. When speaking with the assembled media, general manager Lou Lamoriello indicated that he believes the group needed a new voice, and that it was his responsibility to make that change.

Trotz meanwhile will likely be receiving calls from basically every team in the league that has a coaching vacancy, though there perhaps are bigger goals on his agenda. Darren Dreger of TSN tweets that some in the industry believe the veteran coach has an interest in taking on a management role at this point in his career.

What a career it has been for the 59-year-old bench boss. The first head coach in Nashville Predators history, he spent 15 years with the expansion club, taking them to the playoffs on seven different occasions and finishing with a 557-479-60-100 record. It was when he moved to the Washington Capitals in 2014 that things really heated up though, with Trotz winning at least a round in each of his four seasons with the team, and the Stanley Cup in 2018.

The summer following his championship, however, the Capitals and Trotz parted ways, leading him to their Metropolitan Division rivals in New York. Over four seasons with the Islanders, he posted a 152-102-34 record in the regular season and a 28-21 mark in the postseason.

Unfortunately, that success didn’t continue this year. The Islanders finished slightly above .500 but missed the playoffs by 16 points, after dealing with countless on and off-ice issues throughout the season. The team started on a long trip because their arena wasn’t ready, had a long COVID-19 shutdown because of a player outbreak, and dealt with injuries and inconsistency from many of their top players.

Now, as they move forward, it will be with a different voice behind the bench, despite bringing back many of the same voices on it. There’s an offseason for change, but the Islanders already signed names like Cal Clutterbuck, Ross Johnston, and Zach Parise to extensions during the season, and have basically their entire team locked up long-term. Whoever does take over will have the daunting task of getting better results from a similar group, unless Lamoriello makes some significant roster changes in the offseason.

If a team wanted to hire Trotz, they would have to cover part or all of his salary for next season, and likely sign him to another lengthy, expensive deal. That could rule out some markets, though the speculation over places like Winnipeg (his hometown), Detroit, or Chicago has already begun.

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