The Athletic Hockey Show - Lou Lamoriello out as Isles GM | Instant Reaction

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

Sean Gentille and Arthur Staple give their instant reaction to the New York Islanders announcing that Lou Lamoriello's contract as President and General Manager will not be renewed and discuss what comes next for the franchise.Host: Sean GentilleWith: Arthur StapleExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Chris Flannery Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic hockey show. Welcome, welcome to the athletic hockey show. Emergency Edition, Lula Amorello. Out on Long Island, fired today by the New York Islanders. Legend, he'd been there since 2018. I'm joined by another legend. Arthur Staple, hello, my friend. How surprised are you this afternoon that we're having this discussion?

I'm surprised at the timing of it now. I guess there seemed to be some hints around that maybe there was a possibility this could happen at some point this off-season, things that just cropped up maybe in the last week or so that maybe they weren't going to proceed business as usual with Lamarillo and Patrick Waugh after such a bad season the Allender's had. But it happening today, I think, was a little bit of a surprise. And I think it took a lot of other people around the league by surprise, too, talking to a couple of agents who have clients on the Islanders. I don't think anybody had any idea. He was doing, Lou was doing exit meetings yesterday with the players. So I think a lot of people were caught off guard by this one.

But, you know, I think a cold-blooded look at it. If the Islanders were going to do something now is the time to do it to get ahead of an executive search. And they've got a lot of things to fix this summer. So you've got to get your new guy in place. So surprise, but maybe not. totally shocked that this has happened. Yeah, I think it's more just that it's Lou, right? You always just assume that he's going to, the idea of him being absent for any amount

of time from the NHL is just kind of wild. But yeah, the Islanders are 35, 35 and 12 this past season, missed a playoffs for the second consecutive year. Man, those were some good teams, 2018 to 21. Like, they had the misfortune of running into the Tampa Bay Lightning, I think, at the exact wrong time, but it's a long time ago now, man. All right, right? This is, this has been a, it's been a long, a long two years.

And I feel like a lot of questionable decisions and stuff that has backfired and just kind of compounded onto, on each other, right? Yeah, I mean, you know, the kind of the, the slide came at the worst possible time, first year in a new building, UBS Arena, which is, you know, you were just there for the first time. Yeah. It's a great place to see it. I loved it.

I loved it. I'm all about that place. It's a great. It's a great place to work. It's a great place to watch a hockey game for sure. It's a good spot. And, you know, I think with a team like the Islanders fan base being kind of decimated as it's been over the years with all the nonsense that's been going on with that franchise since the 90s, you need to be in a good spot on the ice to open a new building and get people interested in it. And it really, you know, they kind of tripped over their skate guards coming out on the ice the first time there. They were in the midst of, you know, they had a ridiculously long road trip to start that season because the building wasn't quite ready. They got hit by some COVID cases. It was never really a chance to kind of get going. Barry Trots gets fired after that year, moves on.

They bring in his assistant. Lane Lambert is the head guy, that less, whatever, a year plus. They bring in Patrick Hua. That's going on for a year plus. They trade for Beau Horvett. Two years ago, they trade Brock Nelson at this trade deadline. And it's all kind of ended up in the same. 10 point range.

You know, they're 500 team. They're a little bit above. They have to make these two furious runs the last two years to get in. They get smoked by Carolina both times. Yeah. It's not where you want to be. And I think it's probably a good sign for Islander fans that majority owner Scott Malkin, who's a guy who's not always been so visible and hands-on and is whatever nine years,

I think running the team, the guy who picked Lou to run the team. And when Lou runs your team, he does everything. So I think him maybe getting a little bit more involved and this being kind of the first sign that he's more involved is a good sign I think for Islander fans that there's an owner who's engaged and interested knows that the team on the ice needs to be better and needs to be marketed a little bit better.

The building needs to be a little bit more of a destination place. So given the fortunes of the other New York team that I cover currently in their own disastrous space. Yeah, wait, why, why? What's happening? What's happening? That'll be the longest emergency podcast of all time. But for the Islanders, this is an opportunity. And I think they saw the opportunity there and they needed to move on and make some changes. So, you know, I think for Islander fans, this is, you know, it's bittersweet. Everybody has a ton of respect for Lou. You know, he's one of one in this league, a guy who can still be as sharp as he's been and doing what he's done, doing what he's doing at age 82. But, you know, those jobs have a shelf life. It's not because he's 82. It's because. You got to win. And they had. What's task one from a hockey standpoint for whoever takes over? I know we can talk about the marketing of the team and all this stuff.

That's certainly important. But from an on-ice perspective, what's the one glaring thing that needs to be taken care of ASAP? You know, I think they need to make some calls on some of their, you know, kind of gray beard type guys. They've got a bunch of defensemen because they've had a ton of injuries. They've had this core of defensemen for a long time, Ryan Pollock, Adam Pellick, Scott Mayfield, who you were talking about the good days of 2020 and 2021. Those guys were instrumental in building the identity of this team, especially on defense, because that was kind of their calling card. And they're getting older and they're breaking down. Neither, you know, none of those three guys played, I think, more than 65 games this year.

It's been a long time since any of them has played 82. And they've all got multiple years left on their deals and very. levels of trade protection, but I think the new GM has to kind of figure out where they're going with that group. They've got some similar guys up front, guys like Anders Lee, who had a kind of a bounce back year leading the team in this year. Jay G. Pajo, both those guys have a year left on their deal. Lamarillo didn't want to entertain trading either than the deadline. He didn't end up moving Kyle Palmeri, who still doesn't have a contract. And now I think we know why he doesn't have a contract. Yeah, that makes sense. He doesn't have a GM right now. But,

But he, you know, the Lamerillo set up price for him at the deadline, didn't, wasn't met, decided not to trade him. And now, you know, you're wondering, all right, a guy who's going to be 34th, start a next season, is that someone that you still need to be extending? You know, he made a good deal for Brock Nelson getting Callum Ritchie and a first round pick from Colorado at the deadline. Yeah. But now, especially seeing where they are with no, with Lou out, in hindsight, you would have wondered if if ownership would have wanted to kind of push it a little bit more and, and turn over the roster a little bit more at the deadline when you have an opportunity. opportunity to. But now the new GM gets to do that in a very short window in the in the summertime. Noah Dobson and Alex Romano need new contracts. They're going to have some cap space to deal with. It's a lot to do. So again, doing it now, moving on from Lamarillo, starting that process to find a new GM is smart to do it.

And, you know, while everyone else is in the playoffs. And then when everybody else is free to kind of do all their stuff and, you know, from mid-May to on and through free agency, I think, I think depending on who they bring in, that got someone who's up to speed. What are your personal reflections on the Lou experience? Because I always love talking to people who've covered his teams over the years. It's always, it's always, it's always, it's always funny to hear. I'm sure you're very sad to see this end. You're going to miss him signing contracts and putting him in a drawer and not telling, not, not telling anybody about him for, you know, a few months, I'm sure. I'll tell one story that I've told a couple of people that, you know, say, it was probably saving until he retired. But I guess this is probably simply something. This is like, this is the reason to do this, to do this podcast, by the way.

This is all I was really looking for. So the first year he was, he was GM. I was doing a story about Steve Aliquette has a, has a data site called ClearSight Hockey that I know Steve. I've known Steve a long time and he was trying to get it off the ground and get some clients in the NHL. And, you know, I talked to him and said, I'd love to do a story on it. So, you know, he was talking me through all the site and showing me all the bells and whistles. And I think at the time he had maybe two clients and one. One of them was the Islanders because Lou had signed him up when Lou was in Toronto.

And Steve said, I'll do the story, but you have to clear it with Lou because he's one of my clients. You know, we're a client of, he's a client of ours. You know, it's Lou. Just make sure he's okay with it. Like, I was not going to mention that the Islanders used, used his site. So I go to Lou. We're out in L.A. And I corner Lou at the arena and I say, you know, I don't, I've talked to Lou plenty over the years, but not in any sort of means.

meaningful way. And I say, you know, I'm doing a story about Steve Valquette and data site and that's great. It's a really useful site. I said, I just want to make sure you're okay with it. And I'm sure not going to mention you guys. And he said, oh, yeah, that's fine. Just as long as you keep us out of it. He gives me that, you know, that kind of like tight-lipped look. It's like staring into your soul. And he said, just paused. And I was, you know, feeling nervous for some reason. And he said, do you know why I don't want anyone to know that we use that site? I said, no. He said, because I don't want anyone to know that I know anything about analytics. And he walked away. And I'm like, you know, he was 70, whatever, five or 76 at the time. Like, yeah, that's why he's the guy.

Like, he's the guy. You know, I think people view him as such a dinosaur because of his age, because of his rules. And, you know, he gets, he used to get routinely ripped online for all of these things. you know, Anthony Duclair posting a picture of his locks being cut after he signed. And people would just say, like, get this guy out of the game. And I don't think people ever knew that he was one of the first adopters of what we know is analytics. The guy was a math teacher by trade before he got into hockey. So he was as close as we've got in hockey to the world's most interesting man to me. Just like every time I talk to him, I'd find out something new and different and exciting.

And it was hilarious every time. So that's got to be the hope that now that Lou, it seems, isn't going to work as an executive next year. We need to just get him on TV and find someone to cut the check and do whatever they have to do to just have him talk and show that side of his personality. I'm down, I'm down for that. I'm sure it'll happen to famously. Just loves attention and talking about himself. He'll just sit there in front of his screen and stare at you until used to. start babbling uncontrollably.

That's usually what happens with him. I'll take it. Well, this has been, I guess, an emergency edition of the Athletic Hockey Show. Thank you for listening. Arthur, thank you for being here. Again, Lou Lamarillo out in Long Island. We're going to have plenty more coverage of that. I'm sure from Arthur and plenty of other people.

So thanks for listening. And we'll be back with a full version of the show tomorrow.