Anders Lee Once Led the Islanders Through Change — Now Darche Is Counting On Him Again
Islanders captain Anders Lee once guided the team through a regime change. Now he faces that challenge yet again in the Mathieu Darche era.
When Lou Lamoriello took over in the summer of 2018, Anders Lee had just wrapped up his fourth NHL season. It was a dominant campaign for the then 27-year-old winger, potting a career-high 40 goals with 22 assists for 62 points in 82 games.
While Lee was excited to build off a promising season, he’d have more weight on his shoulders than ever before at the NHL level.
That’s when his new head coach, Barry Trotz, named him captain to lead the Islanders through the post-John-Tavares era, now referred to as the Lou Lamoriello era.
Trotz told us that he called everyone on the team and asked who they thought was the right guy to lead a team back to the playoffs. All the answers were the same.
Anders Lee.
And now, eight years later, Lee is tasked with captaining the Islanders into the Mathieu Darche era.