Islanders: 3 Reasons Isles will make 2021 Stanley Cup Finals

2. Barry Trotz and the Coaching Staff

Not many teams have a head coach with a proven track record like Barry Trotz. In his 19 years and 1674 games coached, Trotz has an 845-618-60-151 (W-L-T-OTL) record and has one Stanley Cup and two Jack Adams Awards to his name.

Trotz is currently fourth overall in the record book for most wins by a head coach in the NHL. He is only four wins behind Ken Hitchcock who has 849 and is in third place. Next to Trotz, the Islanders have Lane Lambert, John Gruden, and Jim Hiller as his assistant coaches and Mitch Korn as the director of goaltending.

There is a great case to make that the Islanders have one of the best coaching staffs in the NHL and that has been proven in the past couple of years. Trotz and Co came to Long Island and gave the Isles an identity and made them one of the toughest teams to play against.

In a shortened season where there are not many games to give up, coaches are going to have pressure-filled decisions every night. There are going to be interesting matchups each night, especially when only playing divisional opponents this year and facing off against them seven or eight times each.

There is no doubt in my mind that Barry Trotz and the rest of the Islanders coaching staff will have a great gameplan in place to set the Islanders up for success in 2021. This staff is one of the reasons the Isles will make the SCF in July.