Mathieu Darche’s unveiling as general manager of the Islanders will finally take place on Thursday, nearly a week after the 48-year-old was tapped as the successor to Lou Lamoriello, with a news conference at UBS Arena.
Now that their monthlong search for someone to head up hockey operations is finally over, the focus turns to what could be an offseason packed with change.
Darche will have his hands full right from the get-go with key decisions surrounding the coaching and front office staff, the roster, the No. 1 pick in next month’s draft and the overall direction of a franchise that’s waited so long for change that it might just all come at once.
Here are some of the biggest questions he’ll need to address on Thursday.
Will Patrick Roy be the head coach next season?
The biggest question for Darche is the most obvious.
If yes, then Darche and Roy will need to build a relationship quickly and Darche will need to navigate everything that comes with Roy’s personality.
If no, then the monthlong GM search that ended Friday becomes a coaching search — with the Islanders showing up late to the carousel.
What, if any, changes will there be to the hockey operations staff aside from Roy?
In no particular order, this question is regarding the status of NHL assistant coaches John MacLean, Benoit Desrosiers and Tommy Albelin, AHL Bridgeport coach Rick Kowalsky, assistant GMs Steve Pellegrini and Chris Lamoriello, goalie coach Piero Greco, the scouting staff, the analytics staff and the player development staff.
If there are changes further down on that list — particularly scouting-wise — now likely isn’t the time for them, since the Islanders have just a month before making the No. 1 pick, so it’s not really the moment to start firing scouts.
Further up the list, though, if there are changes coming, Darche should be making those decisions soon.
Will Lou Lamoriello work for the Islanders next season, and if so, in what capacity?
Lamoriello and Darche have a relationship dating back to Darche’s playing career, and rumors circulated during the GM search that Lamoriello would be kept on as a senior advisor, perhaps to owner Scott Malkin.
If he’s still around, it will be an ongoing question throughout the season whether Lamoriello is influencing hockey decisions.
How close does Darche feel the Islanders are to being a Stanley Cup contender?
The Islanders were 35-35-12 last season and never looked like a serious contender, but suffered frequent injuries and have the No. 1 pick this summer along with some cap space.
Does Darche believe the injection of a couple of young players in Cal Ritchie plus the top pick, along with the right moves in free agency, can fix the Islanders?
Or does he think it will require more serious roster reconstruction?
What will the Islanders do with the No. 1 pick?
We’re not expecting Darche to come out and say who he’s planning to take — actually it would be a surprise if he was certain about that even in private, though consensus opinion among draft experts is coalescing around defenseman Matthew Schaefer as the top pick.
Still, it’ll be interesting to see how Darche describes his approach to the pick and whether he’s open to moving it.
How will the Islanders allocate their cap space this summer?
The Islanders are projected to have just short of $30 million in space this summer, but if they’re planning to more or less keep the roster together, then most of it will go to that end.
The two big sub-questions here are Kyle Palmieri and Noah Dobson.
Lamoriello kept Palmieri at the trade deadline with the intention of signing an extension — does Darche keep things moving along that track or does he view it differently?
And with Dobson, a restricted free agent, does Darche view him as a No. 1 defenseman who’s worth $10 million-plus annually or is he a little more skeptical, which might mean an openness to trading Dobson’s rights or letting him walk via offer sheet?
How involved will John Collins be in hockey operations?
Collins, a minority owner and operating partner, ran the GM search and will speak alongside Darche at Thursday’s presser.
His expertise is on the business side, and it’s a safe bet that he’ll have a major say in reshaping that part of the Islanders operation; it’s less clear whether he’ll be a part of hockey ops.
We know from the news release announcing the hire that Darche “will manage all aspects of the team’s hockey operations” but not whether he will have final say.