A draining, miserable and at times dysfunctional season for the Islanders is finally over, and a 35-35-12 record — the franchise’s worst in seven seasons with Lou Lamoriello as general manager — demands answers.
Locker cleanout day Saturday, when reporters will hear from players for the last time before they go home for the summer, will start to make the club’s direction clear for the coming months.
It’s also expected that general manager Lou Lamoriello and head coach Patrick Roy will hold availability at some point, if not Saturday with the players then over the next week.
Here are five of the biggest questions for the Islanders heading into breakup day:
Will Lou Lamoriello and Patrick Roy stay in charge?
The first, and biggest, question is one for ownership.
Lamoriello has been in charge of hockey operations since 2018; Roy is the team’s third head coach under his tutelage.
The fan base has grown listless with the general manager and the roster badly underachieved this year, with the Islanders missing the playoffs for just the second time since Lamoriello took over.
As for Roy, firing the head coach after a year when the team suffered so many injuries would be harsh.
Still, there’s a question about whether he’s the right person going forward, especially given the way the Islanders finished the season, the way their special teams (in particular the power play) performed throughout the year and Roy’s public derision of some players, including Anthony Duclair.
Though Roy and Lamoriello have presented a united front in public, there’s been speculation throughout the league all season that the two aren’t getting along as well in private, adding another element to the mix.
How far along are Mat Barzal and Semyon Varlamov in their rehab processes?
Barzal underwent surgery on what’s believed to be a broken left kneecap in February; the nature of Varlamov’s lower-body injury is unknown, but he last played a day after Thanksgiving and suffered a setback in January.
First and foremost, it’s unanswered whether they’ll both be ready for next season, and in Varlamov’s case especially, it appears there’s a chance he may not be.
That would have a major impact on the Islanders’ offseason, as they would need to find a backup netminder if Varlamov is a question mark.
For Barzal, it’s also unclear whether a kneecap injury could affect his skating, the biggest weapon in his game.
If the Islanders can’t trust he’ll be the same, it adds yet another problem to this offseason.
Where is Anthony Duclair’s mindset?
Put another way: Does Anthony Duclair want to finish the last three years of his contract with the Islanders?
And do the Islanders want Duclair to finish the last three years of his contract with them?
Duclair spent the last eight games of the season on a personal absence after Roy called his play “god awful” and questioned his effort after a loss to Tampa on April 1.
It was a miserable first year on Long Island for Duclair, who suffered a groin injury five games in, rushed back before Christmas and never looked like himself.
Given the nature of his absence, it’s not even clear that he’ll talk with reporters on breakup day, since it’s unknown whether he’s still on Long Island.
If so, there is a lot for him to answer.
Where do things stand with Noah Dobson?
If there’s one negotiation this summer that looks straightforward but could go haywire, it’s Dobson.
The defenseman’s production dropped by 31 points between 2023-24 and 2024-25, but the salary cap rise means he could still ask for north of $8 million annually.
Dobson also changed his agent in February and is arbitration eligible.
He’s a restricted free agent, but with the cap rising this summer, the environment could be conducive to offer sheets.
And, though Lamoriello downplayed this when asked last summer, it’s interesting that the Islanders didn’t push to get an extension done before the season when put in comparison to how they handled long-term deals for Barzal and Ilya Sorokin.
On the ice from Long Island
Sign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.
Thank you
Smart money says everyone here recognizes that Dobson is an $8-8.5 million defenseman, he gets a medium-to-long term extension and there’s no drama.
But that’s not a stone-cold guarantee.
Will Pierre Engvall or Scott Mayfield be offseason casualties?
Since the NHL buyout window doesn’t open for another couple of months, maybe it’s technically incorrect to have this as a breakup day question.
Still, after Lamoriello committed to change this summer in his post-trade deadline press conference, potential buyouts for Engvall and Mayfield will help determine the scope of that change.
Engvall finished the year strong, but failed to make the team out of training camp and spent much of the season in Roy’s doghouse, vacillating between a healthy scratch and the bottom six.
Mayfield, after returning from injury in late February, was a frequent healthy scratch, too, with Tony DeAngelo taking an everyday role.
Both have five years left on their deals, Mayfield at an annual hit of $3.5 million, Engvall at $3 million.
If bought out, those cap hits would shrink to $1.66 million for Mayfield through 2035 and $1 million for Engvall, also through 2035.
With the cap set to rise massively over the next three seasons, that suddenly looks doable for the Islanders.
