Pete DeBoer sends a message to Patrick Roy before it’s too late
Photo credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images
Pete DeBoer and Mathieu Darche did not wait for summer, and that says everything about how the Islanders viewed this opening.
The biggest angle is not only that Patrick Roy was fired. It is how fast New York moved to grab DeBoer before the rest of the league could get involved.
DeBoer admitted it caught him off guard too. He said the call came “out of left field,” and his first reaction was basically the same one everyone else had.
Why now, with only 4 games left?
That is where Darche's push matters. DeBoer said the general manager sold him on the organization, the vision, the direction, and the ownership.
So this was not some panic move made only to shake the room. This was the Islanders deciding they had a chance to land a top coach and refusing to risk waiting.
Darche framed it even more clearly. He compared the hire to landing the No. 1 free agent on July 1, which tells you exactly how the team values DeBoer.
"I think anytime a coach loses his job, if you've got good character like we have in that room, they feel bad about it."
Peter DeBoer talks about the Islanders responding to the firing of Patrick Roy and how the team is looking to move forward:
Peter DeBoer talks about the Islanders responding to the firing of Patrick Roy and how the team is looking to move forward:
The Islanders did not want to lose Peter DeBoer to the summer market
That part is easy to understand. Darche pointed to DeBoer's record and called him a structured coach with success everywhere he has been.
He also noted that coaches with that kind of résumé do not stay available for long. That is the real reason this move happened now instead of in June.
The Islanders know other clubs will be hunting for a bench boss soon. By acting early, they skipped the line and got their man before the carousel even started spinning.
There is also a hockey reason for the timing. New York is only 1 point out and still has a pulse in the playoff race, so the season is not dead yet.
Because of the schedule, DeBoer also gets 3 full practice days with the group before Thursday's game against Toronto. That is not a lot of time, but it is enough to install tone and structure.
And structure is probably what Darche is chasing most. The Islanders were 10-10-0 in their last 20, and a slide like that clearly pushed management to stop waiting.
Ilya Sorokin has played at an elite level, and Matthew Schaefer's rookie season has given this team a real lift. The Islanders do not see themselves as a roster that should drift into the offseason.
That is why DeBoer's comments matter. He did not chase this job publicly. The Islanders came hard, sold him on the plan, and moved before anyone else could.
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| POLL | ||
AVRIL 8|94 ANSWERS Pete DeBoer sends a message to Patrick Roy before it’s too late Did the Islanders make the right call by hiring Pete DeBoer immediately instead of waiting for summer ? | ||
| Yes | 42 | 44.7 % |
| No | 52 | 55.3 % |
| List of polls | ||