Islanders have something other NHL fan bases desire

Surveying thousands of fans across the NHL, the Athletic found something the New York Islanders have that other teams want: Barry Trotz.

Immediately after winning the Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitals, Barry Trotz was hired by the New York Islanders to becomes their 17th head coach in franchise history.

In his first year behind the Islanders bench, he turned a team that was projected to finish in the basement of the league into a 103 point team that swept the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round. He was justly rewarded with this second career Jack Adams award.

In a recently league-wide survey, the

Athletic asked thousands of fans (subscription required)

, amongst other questions, what opposing coach they’d like to ‘steal’ for their team and the majority voted for Barry Trotz.

Wary of Thieves

With 19.6 percent of the vote, Barry Trotz was the clear favorite coach to ‘steal’ from fans across the NHL. Other notable names were Joel Quenneville, Jon Cooper, and Rod Brind’Amour.

I don’t blame them. I’d want to steal Barry too if he wasn’t already coaching the Islanders.

With 1674 NHL games behind the bench, Trotz holds an 845-618-60-151 record. Those 845 wins rank him as the fourth winningest coach in NHL history. He’s four wins behind Ken Hitchcock for third, and 80 behind Joel Quenneville with 925. (Scotty Bowman is untouchable with 1,244 wins.)

There are very few coaches in the league I’d trust to get a room of hockey players to buy into a plan and system year-over-year. While coaches like John Tortorella have just as many Jack Adams awards as Barry Trotz, Torts’s shelf life is considerably shorter than it is for Barry Trotz.

I’d want Barry Trotz to coach my team too. Thankfully, I don’t have to worry about that because he’s already coaching my team. Sorry every other NHL team.