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Lou Lamoriello

Evening Notes: Lamoriello, Marchenko, Garland, Lightning

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Although longtime General Manager Lou Lamoriello was spotted at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, it’s unrelated to any rumors of him joining the Buffalo Sabres organization. However, TSN’s Darren Dreger reported that the Sabres would be interested in adding the veteran front office magnate in some capacity.

Lamoriello has spent his entire professional career in the New York/Niagara area, starting as the New Jersey Devils’ President and General Manager in the 1987-88 NHL season. He spent the next 27 years in that role before becoming the Toronto Maple Leafs’ General Manager in 2014-15. Lamoriello only spent three years in Toronto before joining the New York Islanders organization in 2018-19 as the team’s President of Hockey Operations and General Manager.

It’s improbable that the Sabres will dismiss Kevyn Adams as General Manager, particularly with the 2025 NHL Draft and free agency approaching. Still, the team doesn’t have a President of Hockey Operations, meaning Lamoriello could be interested in that role.

Other evening notes:

  • In a long-ranging interview with Sergey Demidov of Responsible Gambling, Columbus Blue Jackets’ winger Kirill Marchenko reaffirmed his commitment to the organization. Now, Marchenko is a few years away from contemplating a move, as he just completed the first season of a three-year, $11.55MM contract. Still, given his responses in the interview, which our readers are encouraged to read, Marchenko makes clear that he has no intentions of leaving Columbus even when his current contract expires after the 2026-27 season.
  • Vancouver Canucks winger Conor Garland believes this year was a fluke, and thinks the Canucks will compete for a playoff spot next season (Article Link). Garland tied for first with Brock Boeser in scoring among Vancouver forwards with 19 goals and 50 points in 81 games. In his view, the Canucks should add a few forwards this offseason, saying, “We need some additions up front; we were thin. We had a hard time scoring down the stretch.“
  • The Tampa Bay Lightning are leaving the FanDuel Sports Network after only one season. In an article from Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times, he explains that the Lightning have signed a new broadcast agreement with E. W. Scripps Company through Scripps Sports. The broadcast firm allows Lightning games to be broadcast directly to any consumer with an antenna, with other viewing options available via the Scripps app.

Islanders’ Semyon Varlamov Likely Out For Season, Offseason Priorities Forming

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New York Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello sat down with media for an in-depth look at the team’s current state after the Trade Deadline and where he plans to head this summer. Among the biggest news was that top backup goaltender Semyon Varlamov will likely miss the remainder of the 2024-25 season with his lower-body injury, captured by Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News.

Varlamov has been out of the lineup since late November, but the root of his injury wasn’t entirely clear. He played through a full 61 minutes of action in what could be his last game of the season – an 5-4 overtime loss to the Washington Capitals on November 29th. He’s been on the shelf ever since, while the Islanders have turned towards Marcus Hogberg and Jakub Skarek to fill backup minutes behind star starter Ilya Sorokin.

Lamoriello went on to speak in depth about the team’s plans for veterans Brock Nelson and Kyle Palmieri, sharing that their goal was to sign both to extensions beyond this season. That plan went awry with Nelson, who was ultimately flipped to the Colorado Avalanche for top prospect Calum Ritchie and draft capital – but Lamoriello emphasized that the team still hopes to bring Palmieri back into the fold, per Newsday’s Andrew Gross. In the same breath, Lamoriello also pointed out that the Islanders need to get younger. They currently carry the 10th-oldest lineup in the NHL, with an average age of 28.96. Of the nine teams older than them, the Pittsburgh Penguins are the only team in shakier playoff standing than the Wild Card-bound Islanders.

The effort to get younger will mean plenty of change this summer, Lamoriello added. He told Gross that the term “retool” is a relatively new juxtaposition to the long-term idea of a “rebuild”. The Islanders will attempt to stick in the former camp this summer, refreshing the lineup with top prospects and new faces while trimming down on their veteran presence. That could be a challenge if keeping players like Palmieri – a 34-year-old with 20 goals and 41 points in 62 games this season – is at the top of the docket. New York likely won’t want to part with franchise cornerstone Anders Lee, or productive veterans like Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal – which could make top defenders like Noah Dobson, Ryan Pulock, and Adam Pelech the focus of any large-scale moves.

The Boston Bruins received top prospect Fraser Minten and a first-round draft pick, among other assets, for top-pair defensive defenseman Brandon Carlo at the Deadline. That price was likely hiked up in a seller’s market, but finding a comparable deal could be the start of New York’s efforts to retool. The Islanders will also have to make sure they’re elevating newly-acquired top prospects to important roles as soon as they can with the youth-movement in mind – an effort they’re already headed towards by clearing Nelson’s role for Ritchie in their recent swap.

New York finds themselves three points behind the Eastern Conference’s second Wild Card spot with 20 games left in their season. It’s a hotly contested race, with at least six teams within striking distance of a playoff spot. Moving out Nelson, who was previously tied for the team lead in scoring with 43 points, will make achieving that postseason berth a tough feat. So will losing Varlamov, who had a career-low .889 save percentage this season but posted a far more impressive .917 in his last four seasons with the Islanders. Those absences will require improved performances from the likes of Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Hogberg to keep New York competitive.

The Islanders will have six unrestricted free agents and seven restricted free agents to re-sign when their season ends. Among the pending free agents is top-performing rookie Maxim Tsyplakov, top defenders Dobson and Alexander Romanov, and recent acquisitions Tony DeAngelo, Scott Perunovich, and Adam Boqvist. With only three contracts north of $7MM on their books, the Islanders should have plenty of money to work with this summer – a technical $28.9MM per PuckPedia. With his recent comments, it seems veteran GM Lamoriello is set to use that money to its fullest this summer – in an attempt to rejuvenate an Islanders lineup that’s fallen behind the playoff wave this season.

Islanders Notes: Lamoriello, Roy, Mayfield, Bortuzzo, Martin, Clutterbuck

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The Islanders held their end-of-season press availability today after being eliminated in the first round in five games at the hands of the Hurricanes. Most notably, general manager Lou Lamoriello confirmed that he and Patrick Roy will be back in their respective roles with the team for 2024-25 (via NHL.com’s Stefen Rosner).

However, Lamoriello said (via Rosner) that no decision has been made other than retaining Roy on next year’s coaching staff. That leaves Benoit Desrosiers’s future, who was appointed by the Isles midseason after Roy was hired to replace the fired Lane Lambert and had worked with Roy on the bench for the QMJHL’s Québec Remparts for the past few years, up in the air. It’s also now unclear if assistants Doug Houda and John MacLean, as well as goaltending coach Piero Greco, will return to the club for 2024-25.

There will be immense pressure on the 81-year-old Lamoriello this offseason to add talent to a solid-structured existing core. The Isles are dangerously approaching permanent mediocrity territory, making the postseason in back-to-back seasons but never coming close to winning a round since their third-round appearance in 2021. He’s been at the helm of the Islanders since 2018, during which time the team has only missed the playoffs once (2022).

Other notable tidbits from the Isles today:

  • After undergoing season-ending surgery in late March, defenseman Scott Mayfield expects to be ready to go for training camp in the fall, he said today (via The Athletic’s Arthur Staple). The 31-year-old revealed he played through a broken ankle that he sustained in the season opener for most of the year, finally getting shut down and placed on LTIR with around six weeks left in the campaign. Playing in 41 games this season, he was limited to five assists and a -7 rating while averaging 18:46 per game, his lowest usage in five years. After inking him to a seven-year, $24.5MM extension last summer, the Islanders are hoping theirs and Mayfield’s decision to put off surgery doesn’t inhibit his skating ability long-term.
  • Pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Robert Bortuzzo would like to stay on Long Island this summer but doesn’t yet have an indication of where extension talks will go, he said today (via Newsday’s Andrew Gross). Lamoriello acquired the veteran shutdown blue liner from the Blues in early December for a 2024 seventh-round pick. After finishing the regular season with no points and a -2 rating in 23 games while averaging 14:19 per night, the 35-year-old isn’t in a position to earn a raise on his previous $950K AAV.
  • The Isles have a pair of much longer-tenured pending UFAs in fourth-line fixtures Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck. There had been existing speculation that the aging grinders would consider retirement, but they each said today that won’t be the case (Twitter/X links). Martin’s spent 13 of his 15 NHL seasons in an Islanders uniform, totaling 73 goals and 155 points in 823 games. The 34-year-old played only 9:19 per game this season, his lowest average as an Islander, and registered four goals and eight points in 57 games. Clutterbuck, 36, has appeared in 718 games with the team since 2013 but played in all 82 games this season for the first time, posting seven goals and 19 points while averaging 11:53 per game.

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