Islanders: Barry Trotz taking time off from coaching

We found out where former New York Islanders head coach would coach next season: from home. Trotz decided he would not return to coaching in 2022-23.

This isn't a permanent break from coaching, but a temporary one for Trotz. As he told NHL.com, he has some personal things to take care of before he can get back to coaching:

""I've got some things personally that I've got to take care of, family-wise that I've got to take care of," Trotz said Friday. "I didn't feel… if I'd said I'll take the job, I think I would have done any team a little bit of a disservice and myself a disservice because to be a coach in the NHL, it is demanding and it requires your all. It just does, emotionally it just does, mentally it just does. So I couldn't go down that path. "It doesn't mean I'm not going to coach. Just not going to coach right now."

Barry Trotz

And look, Trotz has been behind the bench for a long time. He's been a head coach at the pro level since 1992 when he took over at the AHL level for the Baltimore Skipjacks. That's nearly 30 years of coaching.

That streak was broken up by a single season when Trotz went from coaching the Portland Pirates to scouting with the Nashville Predators in 1997-98, the year before Nashville started playing. Not to mention serving as an assistant or associate coach for just about every Canadian World Cup team he could coach on. What I'm trying to say is that Trotz has been going non-stop for a long time.

At 59 years old it's probably a good time to take a little bit of a break. You have to give him credit for doing what's right for him, for his family, and for any prospective employer. If he can't give it his all then there's no reason to do it.

Was that a factor in why he's no longer the head coach of the Islanders? Who knows. but we know that Trotz and Lou are still tight.

" I totally understand everything and I have so much respect for Lou [Lamoriello, Islanders GM]. I talked to him today. We've got a great relationship."

Trotz to NHL.com