Mathieu Darche, the New York Islanders’ new general manager, is already working at a feverish pace to improve pro hockey on Long Island.
National Hockey League leadership for its 32 teams knows no rest.
Wednesday, it’s the Stanley Cup Finals getting underway in Alberta, Canada, with the Western Conference Champion Edmonton Oilers hosting the defending champion Florida Panthers.
Game 1 and 2 will be played in Canada’s “Great White North” before the Finals head south to Sunrise, Florida, for Games 3 and 4 next week. By no later than June 20, either the Panthers repeat as Cup champions, or Edmonton celebrates an NHL championship for the first time since 1990.
Then on June 27 at The Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles, the NHL will continue to have a grip on the sporting world in North America when the 2025 draft is held. Perhaps an omen for what the Islanders can expect this fall, after finishing their 2024–2025 season dismally at 35–35–12 and shut out of postseason play, is their draft position. The Islanders will pick first overall after winning the draft lottery on May 5.
Navigating draft business, and for that matter, everyone and everything concerning the Islanders, is Darche. A new hockey regime is in order in New York’s Nassau County, and the sheriff at UBS Arena, the Islanders’ home rink in Elmont, N.Y., sports a resume that was too good for the team to take a bye on. Darche, 48, has the energy that Islanders’ ownership, led by Scott Malkin, Jon Ledecky, and Operating Partner John Collins, is hoping can lead to years of shared success for the last franchise to win four consecutive Stanley Cups (1980–1983).
A native of Montreal, Darche comes to Long Island well-armed in hockey shrewdness after working for the Tampa Bay Lightning for the last six seasons as a top lieutenant to general manager Julien BriseBois, a tenure that saw Darche collect two Stanley Cup rings (2020 and 2021). As an NHL player, Darche logged 250 games and even more at the American Hockey League level.
Darche has relaunched the Islanders from top to bottom, dismissing assistant coaches and hiring replacements, retaining coach Patrick Roy for a second full season, and revamping the coaching staff at the team’s developmental AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport (Connecticut) Islanders.
Gone are most of the reminders of the previous Islanders’ administration built by Lou Lamoriello, who was hired in May 2018 to bring the Islanders back to hockey prominence. It was hoped that Lamoriello could duplicate the nearly three-decade winning atmosphere that he built from scratch with the New Jersey Devils. But the Islanders’ rosters that Lamoriello built managed just a couple of “near misses” in the Eastern Conference Finals.
In April, the Islanders announced that they will not be renewing the contract of Lamoriello, who served as the team’s president and general manager.
With assistant coaches Tommy Albelin and John MacLean being released by the Islanders, no decision has been announced on the status of assistant GMs Chris Lamoriello, Lou Lamoriello’s son, and Steve Pellegrini. Given that they, like Albelin and MacLean, have deep Devils ties with Lou Lamoriello, odds are they too will get severance packages shortly.
Darche’s ringing endorsement of Roy as the coach shows he’s putting the team ahead of hockey politics. Roy was brought aboard by Lamoriello in January 2020. With a successful resume of coaching at the amateur level with the Quebec Remparts, as well as winning the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top coach (2013–2014), Roy has demonstrated the chops to make decisions on the fly, game by game or shift by shift. How long of a leash Roy will have once the regular season begins is a question only Darche could answer.
Fixing a broken AHL affiliate is also high on Darche’s agenda. Last AHL season, Bridgeport finished in last place in the Atlantic Division. A dismal record of 15–50–4–3, not-so-good for 37 points, was an embarrassing effort by all.
At his introductory press conference, Darche laid out an ambitious plan. With free agency starting July 1, his hockey prowess is in hyperdrive. Can he check off all the boxes prior to the puck drops on Opening Night this October?
Darche has a way of making believers out of those unfamiliar with his work. Don’t bet against him.
