The New York Islanders won’t renew the contract of the second-winningest GM in NHL history, Lou Lamoriello.
The search for a new GM is underway, the Islandersannounced Tuesday. Operating partner John Collins will lead the search.
Lamoriello’s Islanders missed the playoffs by nine points this season. Their .500 points percentage was their lowest since 2017-18.
Lamoriello, 82, joined the Islanders organization ahead of the 2018-19 season as GM and president of hockey operations. In the past seven seasons, he’s had a 268-195-71 record with the Islanders.
He was named the NHL’s GM of the year in 2019-20 and 2020-21, when the team made back-to-back Stanley Cup playoff semifinal appearances. Under Lamoriello, the Islanders ultimately won five playoff rounds, six including the qualifying round in the 2020 bubble playoffs.
Lamoriello brought on key players over the years, such as Semyon Varlamov, Bo Horvat, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Kyle Palmieri, Alexander Romanov and Anthony Duclair. He also re-signed important Islanders to long-term contracts, such as captain Anders Lee, Horvat, Ilya Sorokin, Ryan Pulock and Adam Pelech, as well as depth players Pierre Engvall and Scott Mayfield.
The Islanders have had three coaches in the past seven seasons. Barry Trotz coached for four campaigns after winning the Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitals in 2018. Lane Lambert then took over for parts of two seasons and had a 61-46-20 record before Lamoriello replaced him with Patrick Roy on Jan. 20, 2024.
Whoever replaces Lamoriello has seven pending RFAs and five pending UFAs to handle, including RFAs Noah Dobson, Adam Boqvist, Romanov and Maxim Tsyplakov and UFAs Palmieri, Mike Reilly and Tony DeAngelo.
Lamoriello’s resume includes the second-most regular-season games, wins and losses in NHL history, trailing only David Poile in each category. The biggest difference between Lamoriello and Poile is the former’s three Stanley Cup wins, all with the New Jersey Devils in 1995, 2000 and 2003.
The Johnston, R.I., native also has the most playoff games managed and ninth-most post-season wins in NHL history. He also won a World Cup gold medal on Team USA in 1996.
Lamoriello was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 2009 and the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 2012.
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