The NY Islanders General Manager Search Has Come to an End

Mathieu Darche, 57, is set to take Lamoriello's old role as the General Manager of the Islanders for the next season. Darche will be the team's seventh GM, and we are excited to see what he has in store for us. Darche has some great success coming in, with six seasons as Director of Hockey Operations for the Tampa Bay Lightning, in which the Lightning had made the playoffs every season and won back-to-back cups for the 2020 and 2021 seasons, not to mention knocking the Islanders out in 2021.

Pierre LeBrun, TSN insider, reports that this has been in the works for Darche for a while, noting that he was heavily considered for the Pittsburgh Penguins GM position, which ultimately went to Kyle Dubas in 2023.

Darche in charge

With Darche coming in this off-season, there is a lot at stake here for the Islanders with a ton of important decisions to be made, such as free agency, draft picks, and trades. It will set the tone for his time here. As we've seen recently, there is a ton of fixing the team needs before they can confidently start the next season, and with the amount of big-name free agents we see in this year's crop, the first things Darche will be doing for the team will be incredibly shaping for this season.

Something else to keep in mind - as of now, there are no set plans to hire a president of hockey operations to sit above Darche, so he will have a lot on his plate to deal with before this 25-26 season starts. It will be a good test to see how his kind of game works and what he thinks the Islanders need to change immediately. There is also the draft coming up, which will tell us a bit about how Darche thinks in terms of what he is looking to bring to the team in the near future.

This is exciting news! Unfortunately, the Islanders have not been a real contender and threat since the 2020-21 season, when they reached the conference finals and lost in game seven to the Tampa Bay Lightning. They have had multiple chances in the playoffs since, but they've been way too inconsistent of a team, which is why new management is a huge step up.