The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: David Pagnotta on the Islanders Firing Patrick Roy & Hiring Pete DeBoer With 4 Games Left

Episode Date: April 6, 2026

Jeff Marek is joined by NHL insider David Pagnotta to break down one of the biggest stories in the NHL right now — the New York Islanders firing head coach Patrick Roy and hiring Peter DeBoer with just four games remaining in the regular season. After dropping four straight and slipping out of a playoff position, Islanders management made the dramatic decision to move on from Roy despite multiple years remaining on his contract. Marek and Pagnotta dive into what led to the decision, why the Islanders wanted to move quickly to secure DeBoer, and what the veteran coach brings to the team as they push for a playoff spot.The conversation also looks deeper at the Islanders’ direction under new GM Mathieu Darche, the organization’s willingness to make aggressive moves, and how DeBoer’s system — built around pressure, net-front play, and playoff-style offense — could reshape the team moving forward. Pagnotta also weighs in on coaching turnover across the NHL, the short leash coaches face in today’s salary-cap era, and why teams continue to prioritize experienced bench bosses with deep playoff resumes.From the Islanders’ surprising coaching change to bigger trends shaping the NHL’s coaching carousel, The Sheet brings the insight and analysis behind one of the league’s biggest headlines.Subscribe to the Daily Faceoff YouTube channel for more NHL analysis, insider news, and interviews with the biggest voices in hockey.Leave a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/TheSheetEmail us: [e-mail] TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-pro-6-in-1-countertop-glass-air-fryer-rose-quartz/AS101CRS.html?utm_source=Meta&utm_medium=Paid+Social&utm_campaign=H1NinjaCrispi&utm_content=NinjaEN&dwvar_AS101CRS_color=cdb9b8Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let's get more into the new bench boss for the New York Islanders with Dave Panyoda, DFO Insider from the fourth period. He joins me now. Dave, first of all, thanks so much for hopping on early this week as opposed to towards the end of the week when we look backwards. We are going to look backwards, but look forward a little bit as well with Cato Rourke. But the news coming yesterday. Patrick Waugh dismissed as head coach of the Islanders, even though there's only four games left.

Who cares in this NHL right now, as Vegas showed us last week? Your thoughts on this one, just like a surprise, a shock. I mean, we all thought eventually something would have to give here. This has been a flat Islanders team, but I'd be a fool if I said like, oh, yeah, I knew this was going to happen. And Patrick Wall was going to walk the plank. What did you think yesterday? Yeah, I didn't anticipate it happening at this point of the season, certainly. But, you know, taking into account how the Islanders have played the last, you know, couple of weeks at least, coupled with some teams likely making additional coaching changes towards the offseason.

season, the Islanders wanted to get ahead of this. And they wanted to nip this little stretch that they're on in the butt, but at the same time get ahead of the possibility that they may have additional competition for Pete DeBoer elsewhere. And we've seen from this organization not afraid to make changes recently in season last year. You know, they made the GM change by letting Lou Lamarillo go towards the end of the season, similar fashion here by making a coaching change, albeit with, you know, Matthew Darsh now at the helm. but I think a combination again of just trying to get this team on track and getting a candidate that they felt was number one on their list.

And Matthew Darsh spoke earlier today and said, look, this kind of moved relatively quickly. And D'Bor is well admitting this morning that once, you know, he knew that there was legitimate offer from the Islanders, they quickly became priority number one and they were able to get this done in fairly short order. You know, and in Pete D'Bore, you know, even going back to his day's coaching and junior. One of the things that I find is so impressive, he's never been on the sidelines.

This is 31 consecutive seasons. He's been a head coach either in the NHL or in the Ontario League as well. Like the gravity of that one is stunning when you consider that, you know, every coach will spend, I don't care who you are, a few years on the sidelines. This hasn't happened to Peter DeBore. He's taken teams to the conference final. He's taken teams to the Stanley Cup final. Still hasn't won the big one. which I don't necessarily think is a bad thing because you still have history on your side. But what do you think the Islanders are getting here?

Like I look at the makeup of the team and I say there's some big bodies up front. There's some aggressive bodies that even though they might not be big are still really hungry around the net. And the thing we've seen from Pete DeBore going back to his days with Kitchener, like he loves point shots that make rebounds. Like so much of his offense,

is predicated on rebounds, rebounds, greasy goals, playoff goals, call them whatever you want. Like, yeah, get to the net stuff. Like, it really does look like this is a coach that coaches for playoff goals. But your thoughts on what the Islanders are getting with Pete DeBore here. Yeah, I mean, you hit it right there. I mean, he's not afraid to make sure his teams get a little bit aggressive near the crease, that they're not going to be afraid to go after those greasy goals.

you said, go after the rebounds, push, add pressure, apply pressure on a consistent basis. And I think for the Islanders, just wanting to have a bit of a different approach with some of the assets that they have, veering away from Patrick Guil, who has two years left on his contract, by the way, and we don't know that I don't have confirmation on the full term of Pete DeBore's deal, three, four years, something along those lines after this season. But it is multi-year. So you're getting a guy that is going to be able to implement that system in that style for the foreseeable future with this group, believing that you've got guys that can do that,

that can get greasy, that can get dirty, that aren't afraid to get dirty, to go after those types of goals and to create offense and a little bit of havoc, not just necessarily directly in the crease, but just kind of in that offensive zone and maintain that pace of play throughout a full 60. And with what he's done, with where he's been,

by getting to two Stanley Cup finals, by getting to four conference finals, he's 9 and in game sevens as well. He knows how to play. in pressure cooker situations. And yeah, not winning the cup yet for him. I mean, just added motivation from his side of things. But at the same time, with all of that experience and all of that overall success that he's had,

you take kind of, you look at some of the key pieces on this team, whether it's the Barzelles or the Shen that was brought in and others, and then couple it with a guy like Matthew Schaefer on that back end to learn from. you know, you've got a good correlation of different assets that you can use that he can use and implement in order to create more high offensive type of opportunities while still relying on the defensive style and he's got a hell of a goalie to work with in Sorokin. You know, you mentioned something really important there. Let me just, let me just back up to it. And that is Patrick Wah has term left on his deal. Now, there are some organizations who would say, like, look, we're not interested in paying people not to work. You know, there's always been this of recent note, all this talk. about the Vancouver Canucks, for example. And I know they're in a different situation than the Islanders, but the idea of, well, you know what, you're not going to, you know, gong everyone in the front office and gong

the coaching staff because the owner doesn't want to pay people not to work. I always look at that and I say, if you're not willing to eat that for the betterment of your team, fold the tent. Like just fold the tank because that's like, that's like should be baked. Like job number one should be improve your team. And if you have to eat a contract here and there, as much as it may be a pill that goes down sideways and hurts your throat on the way,

you take it. Like that's how you improve your team. I think this is as much a comment on Scott Malkin. I really, really do. Like ownership saying, got to do this. We've got to do this right now. This is our chance to get DeBore?

Go for it. We'll eat Ross contract. Well, yeah, and what we've seen from Malkin and Ladeki has been their willingness to get to a point where this team is going to be competitive now and year after year. Build a team that's going to work now

and for the future. And what they did at the draft last summer was certainly keeping the future in Monday. They had a hell of a draft, obviously, Schaefer aside. But that was a tremendous piece of work by the staff, scouting staff and Darshan, everybody, in order to kind of just come out of that one with a huge home run. But also just maintaining this pace of play,

maintaining the ability to remain competitive. And to not, you know, if they got to spend the money, the message has been clear that they're not afraid to do that. And that ownership is fully behind it. You add that to the fact that they're hosting All-Star game next year, all-star weekend. You want to have a competitive team and they want to be relevant in that regard as well. So all of these different elements kind of coming into play.

But the bottom line is that the Islanders Ownership Group definitely wants to win. They want to give Darsh and the organization the resources to do it. And if they felt that Darsh felt that this was the bottom. best way forward. So be it. And if they got to eat a couple extra years on Waz's deal, well, same deal. So be it. We're starting to learn about Matthew Darsh here a little bit, hey? Like the first, always the first year is that, I mean, seldom does a general manager come right in and say, I'm putting my stamp on this right away. Generally, what a manager will do. And I'll say this

cynically is like, oh, I got to get to know the organization and I got to have a look under the hood and having all these relationships. And really, I mean, you're, you're, buying yourself a year. As we've seen before. When a coach takes over a team and says, I can't believe how out of shape this team is. I got to get these guys in shape. Translation,

don't judge me for a while. I need some time here. Yeah, here's my bill. He's going to, oh, these guys are out of shape. I can't be judged on my results yet because they're so far. They're horribly out of shape.

But what do you think we're starting to learn here about Matthew Darsh? For me, the takeaway is, like, he's aggressive. Like, where Lou was patient. and, you know, Lou was loyal, and I don't think that loyalty is a pejorative, but Lou was very loyal to his foot soldiers for a long time. Matthew Darsh is aggressive. I don't think reckless, but I think that he's, you know, cut from the cloth of, you know, his superiors in Tampa. You see something, you believe in it, you identify it, you go and get it.

What's your takeaway from this move? And if the price is, if it's worth it, if the juries, if the juries, if the juries, if the juries, juice is worth the squeeze, so to speak, go for it. And, you know, with what he did in bringing in, like, keep in mind, and I guess some people forget as well, like, Palmieri was done for the season. Like, he was a big part of their offense for a bit before he got injured. And they felt like, okay, that was a bit of a setback for them, but they still haven't had enough horses in the stables to be able to be a competitive playoff-bound team.

And even with the additions of Susie and Palat, adding those veteran pieces, Palat specifically, whom he's familiar with, to add to this group to go towards the playoffs. And then by bringing in Shen, like they tried doing other things. It wasn't just Shen ahead of the trade deadline. The Islanders were pretty active in trying to add other pieces, different pieces to this group. But they ended up with a veteran piece,

a Stanley Cup winner in Braden, Shen, that felt like this was going to take a little bit of time to adjust, but he was going to be able to fit in to this group. I think you hit it right there. He's not afraid to be aggressive, but he's also calculated. These have to be the right moves that he feels are going to fit for this group. And if, you know, something doesn't work, well, okay, let's try to clean it up. And if a certain piece isn't working, he's not afraid to move him out as part of the Shen deal, you know, moving out Drouin.

They tried with Duclair as well to move him out this season. He's got a full no trade. He wasn't able to do that and see what they do in the offseason with him. But he's not afraid to tinker in the right spots. And if you're a fan of really any team, you want your general manager to be that actively. engaged in trying to build this team. And if there's a little bit of a setback, he's not afraid to make those moves to kind of smooth that patch out.

What does it say about coaches? You know, Shana Goldman from the Athletic put out the staff. The average coaching tenure after the Patrick Waugh firing across all 32 teams, the average 2.45 years for coaches. And I can, I can, I'll tell you what, let me, let me frame it this way. I remember talking to Pat Quinn after the lockout of 204, 205. and the salary cap and he said, like his first thought was,

this is bad for coaches. So what do you mean? He said, well, when you're an organization and you can't spend your way out of a problem because of your salary cap, guess who's going to take the raw end of it? He said, you watch coaches. And Pat Quinn was 100% right.

Yep. What have you done for me lately? 2.45, man, this is. Yeah. And look, there's so many teams, there are so many teams that feel they're there, that they're, you know, a piece or two away. And if they make these changes, that they are legitimate Stanley Cup contenders, that they can chase, you know, the holy grail. And if it doesn't work in year one, okay, let's try again year two. It doesn't work in year two.

All right. The leash is getting tighter here. It's getting shorter. And if things fall off the rails, then, all right, we're going to make that type of change because you can't trade everybody. And you can't exactly sign everybody. you know, and work your way out of it that way. So, you know, these other elements come into play. And it's the what have you done for me lately mentality

with respect to coaches in the National Hockey League. We're going to see more changes, I'd imagine, once the season wraps next week. You know, it's interesting. When you make the list of tenure, like Shane have put out there, three coaches have only three coaches have been in their position for more than five seasons.

So that's John Cooper, Jared Bednar, and Rod, Brindamore. And then if you go down the list of tenure, it's fascinating for one specific stat. So you got Cooper Bedner, Rod, Brindamore. Those are your top three. And you go, Andre Tourney, Martine St. Louis, Paul Maurice, Spencer Carberry. Now, outside of Paul Maurice...

What are they in common? All first-time coaches. There you go. They're all first-time coaches. And you look at some of the time. Something in there. Is there something in there? Can we clean anything, Dave?

You know, and you look at the success of a couple first year coaches this season. Marco Stern in Boston, Amuse in Pittsburgh. You find the right pieces. Those guys work out. And it's growing with your core on the ice and also growing with the guys that you have on the bench and kind of growing everything together.

And if you can have success, longevity, within that success and extend that, then look, you've got a full core here, there's full pieces, everything here is working. Can we add a few extra ingredients to this as we go along? And you're seeing that. And then you have certain clubs like Vegas that we saw, you know, a week and a day ago,

that feel their legitimate cup contenders and theirs is beyond the, what have you done for me lately type scenario. There's is, what have you done for me yesterday? Nothing? Cool. We're going to change it up today. And because they believe that they are legit Stanley Cup contenders year after year. And that philosophy for them is a little bit different. But you look at some of those other teams, the Tampa's, the Colorado's,

and those clubs that are consistently good, they've got those, the pieces on the bench and the core guys on the ice that are more or less the same. And you'll see some other teams kind of moving in that regard. That's why, you know, last week or on Friday on the show, I mentioned Manny Malhotra as a potential target for a few teams this season. He'd be a first year head coach in the National Hockey League next year. That's going to be a guy that, you know, a few teams, not just Toronto if they make the change or L.A., when they make their change.

You're probably going to see a couple other teams kind of looking at that as a potential option as well. Anything else on DeBore? So I want to move into Kate here for a second. Anything more on DeBore that do you think we're leaving on the table? No, I mean, the only other thing is I think that like from the player side of things, having that type, like I, and Darsh mentioned this as well earlier today because there was a lot of speculation. And I threw a little bit about out that of that out there as well when I started to see the demeanor of some of the guys on the bench. And it was more of a, like the narrative was, well, did they, are they starting to tune him out?

Darsh denied that said that wasn't the case, but just felt like they needed a bit of a change. A couple of text exchange with some of the guys kind of validated that this morning. But at the same time, there's a little bit of excitement there having a guy of his caliber in Pete DeBoer with the experience that he has on this club. So you're already seeing a little bit of an upbeat type mentality and confidence in the change that they've made.

So Islanders to the conference final. That's the DeBore effect. Take that one to the bank and put it in a long-term deposit. The result is guaranteed, yes. Cato Rourke. I mean, unless you fall, unless they're really hardcore. And you're following, you know, U-16 hockey in the GTHL or the OHL draft. You might not know the name, but he's a Texas-born moved to Toronto with three, maybe four years ago.

Right shot defenseman plays with the junior Canadians. Now, OHL Cup final, they had a tough one. Lost three to one to Honeybeak, the first U.S. team to ever win the OHL Cup. Discuss amongst yourselves what happens in the future. I thought Little Caesars look great this year too, but nonetheless they were beaten by a very good London squad. So he's applied for exceptional status. And this is different from the other ones

because he was born in the United States. And there are some that say, oh, yeah, lay up, he's applied, he's going to get it, even though players like Jack Hughes applied before and didn't get exceptional status. As a matter of fact, as a side note, I can recall talking to one OHL official who said to me, you know what, that was a mistake. Not only did it cost us Jack Hughes, but it probably also cost the Ontario Hockey League Owen Power. But nonetheless.

So caterer work has applied for exceptional status, which means he gets into junior hockey one season early. Some say it's a slam dunk going to happen. Others say, hang on, pump the brakes. This thing isn't close to done yet. where do you fall on on this one? And can we move the saga forward here on this Monday? Because going back to last week, every day that I checked in, the saga continued with a different shoe to drop.

Right. Yeah. I think it's going to continue a little bit here for a bit of a stretch. There are, I know the OHL definitely wants this to happen. They're on board for this. You know, a number of GMs. 100%. Yeah, a number of team GMs would pick him first overall.

He seems to be the consensus first overall. for the OHL draft. Although Oshua's kind of licking their chops at the possibility of getting him at number one. And they're pretty adamant about that as well. I think a number of teams view him as, again, clear cut, hands down, number one overall picking the O. There seems to be and seems to have been some pushback

from hockey Canada with respect to this particular player because of exactly as you mentioned, U.S. born Thai player. But for the OHL and the CHL, with how things have changed with obviously the NCAA and everything along those lines and now the potential of, or the expectation, rather, that there's going to be a new agreement with the National Hockey League and the NHL Players Association to have first round picks, you know, 19 and to be able to play in the A. There's a lot of push to make this happen. And I think it's going to go in this direction. there's still, you know, some hurdles and a little bit of pushback, as I mentioned, but it certainly looks like it's going in this direction.

But, you know, talk to a number of different clubs and GMs in the O, and they've said, yeah, this kid's available, number one. I mean, he's clear-cut number one guy. So we would love to the opportunity to get him. So it looks like it's going in that direction, but still a few hurdles that need to be kind of either jumped over, leaped over, or smoothed out for this to happen. You know, one of my initial thoughts to all of this was he's born in Texas. The Ontario League doesn't have jurisdiction over Texas.

That's the Western League. So could the Western, even though he's lived in Toronto, could the Western Hockey League block this? I looked into it. And even though some managers grumbled about, oh, it's Texas, that's Western. The answer was no. Like there's no blocking from the Western Hockey League on this one.

The thing that I wonder about, again, like you play all the scenarios, if Hockey Canada says yes, Decato work, then, you know, great. You know, Roger Hunt, General Manager, Jeroshua generals, congratulations. You got a wonderful right-shot defenseman that's going to be with you for however many number of years. Right.

But if the answer is no, like I'm with you, Dave. Like, I fully agree that the OHL wants this to happen. They want Kate O'Rourke in their league right now. If it doesn't happen, what I wonder about, like, what could the O'HL do? like and again, I don't know, I don't know the answer. Could they, like I can't see them pulling out of the hockey Canada system? I guess it could be an option. Is Cato Work a big enough hill to do that on?

Could it be, could it, could it get legal? Like, I don't know. I'm just thinking like, all three CHL leagues are losing players to NCAA. A, if anything, they need to allow more high-end players into the leagues earlier, as you mentioned, and this ruling could stand in the way of that. I just wondering, like, what could the O HL do here? Well, I mean, like, you know, part of the argument overall in this with respect to him being born in Texas, I mean, there's been plenty of talk of expansion around the CHL, specifically

the OHL. Can expand Austin? additional U.S. markets. No, not going that far. There's a road trip. Hey, North Bay. Yeah, good luck. Yeah, it's going to take you four days to get there,

play two games and then go back. But this is going to be like, if you're expanding it to the U.S. and trying to have a bigger footprint there. Yes. Like this, it, you're almost contradicting yourself to not allow this type of thing to happen based on the type of player that he is.

Again, consensus across the board, clear cut number one draft pick for the OHL. if he's able to have that status. I mean, Osama may say, if this is prolonged, Osama may just say, you know, what the act with this? We're taking them anyway, and then we'll deal with this afterwards. Might be a little extreme.

But, like, they value this kid. Try City. Hang on. Tri-City took Jonathan Dave. Now, did he tell him that he was going to NODAQ at that time instead of Tri-City? That's a conversation with him and Olaf Colzing. But we have seen number ones before.

Yes. Do something else. Anyhow, I digress. Yeah. This, again, I think, I think this is going in the direction of which he'll be granted exceptional status. But it has not been, as you alluded to right out of the gate. This has not been as smooth as I think everyone involved in this has wanted.

And yes, Hockey Canada will have and does have a bit of a say or a pretty big say in this. But it looks like it's going to go in this direction. We'll see kind of how this folds out. But the primary argument, as we've been discussing, if all these kids are leaving the CHL to go to the NCAA route, Yeah. Why can't this be allowed to happen for a kid who's, by all accounts, absolutely deserving of the status? It's fine.

I really do think that, you know, at the end of all this, and again, we've talked about this all year long, you and I about, you know, various players in situations. This is the first year of it. So this is the year where all the speed bumps, you know, all the speed bumps get sorted out and all the, you know, all the angles get rounded off and it becomes a little bit smooth. I kind of chalked this one up to, well, here's an experience that we haven't had before, you know, an American kid applying, even though he's lived in Toronto. He's not a Canadian citizen.

Listen, maybe that's the way around it. Just get your Canadian citizenship. And then college a day and hockey Canada, in hockey Canada. I say that like it's like breaking sticks. Oh, just go get your Canadian citizenship. Like it's no big deal. Yeah. There are a few hurdles there too, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me if he approaches that route. as well. Because what is it? Four years, I think? He's done four years that he's been in the GTA.

Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, there's some footprint here. So it's a possibility if the hurdles become a little bit larger than instead of being smoothed out. If they grow a little bit more, well, okay, let's see. Let's see if this is a route to take. Interesting time. You're the best man.

Thanks so much for popping on today instead of Friday. Much appreciate it. There is. Thank you. On a couple of different things here, the Islander's situation. with Pete DeBoer and then Nkato work and exceptional status for a player born in Texas. And what are the issues around that?