The Duality Of DeBoer’s Alignment With Islanders
What Pete DeBoer could mean for the Islanders as they balance a rising prospect pipeline with a veteran core.
As a first-time general manager, Mathieu Darche had the power to make changes he felt were necessary after the New York Islanders failed to qualify for the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
During Darche’s introductory press conference, he made it clear that the team, as constructed back in May, should have been good enough to make the playoffs, citing long-term injuries to Mathew Barzal and others as a key reason for missing.
That’s a major reason why Darche elected to keep Patrick Roy, relieving his staff outside of Benoit Desrosiers.
Yes, Roy had three more seasons left on his deal. But had Darche fired Roy immediately upon his arrival, and his newly brought-in head coach didn’t get the job done, that would have reflected very poorly on a first-time general manager just one season into his tenure.
Your clock as a GM doesn’t start until you hire your first head coach.
And at that point in time, the Islanders’ room was still behind Roy.
Darche always had the “well, I didn’t hire this coach” card. He chose to play it with four games left in the season, bringing in Pete DeBoer for the remainder of the season and reportedly for another four years.
Now, why DeBoer?
The answer, to me, is his track record in player development.
DeBoer spent 13 seasons as an OHL head coach, winning two championships — the latter in 2007 with Windsor — which opened the door for his first NHL coaching job with the Florida Panthers in 2008.
Developing 16-20-year-olds at the junior level is very different from doing it at the NHL level. DeBoer has done it at both levels.
With Dallas, DeBoer helped develop Thomas Harley into a top-10 NHL defenseman.
Miro Heiskanen was already great, but DeBoer allowed him to flourish.
That leads us to rookie phenom Matthew Schaefer, who on Saturday passed Phil Housley for the most points by an 18-year-old defenseman in NHL history with 58 (22 goals, 36 assists).