New York Islanders fans want Lou Lamoriello fired, and it's not hard to understand why

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Joshua Deeds
August 19, 2022 (8:33)

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The New York Islanders were in the playoffs the previous three seasons, until 2021-2022. Last season the cracks began to show as the Lou Lamoriello constructed team began to fall apart. Many expected Lou to make a big move this summer, but that hasn't been the case.

Lou Lamoriello has won multiple Stanley Cups with the New Jersey Devils, and after that, it seems like a lot of front-office personnel and coaches in the NHL, coast off of these wins. This Isles offseason has shown, that Lamoriello is not up to the task of building a contending team anymore.

His first mistake was jettisoning Barry Trotz, who had brought legitimacy to a struggling franchise. Using Garth Snow's core to go to the playoffs, three times in his tenure with the organization.

Lamoriello has made 21 coaching changes since he was named general manager of the Devils in 1987 and has not been shy about exchanging one big-name coach for another. He would not say what his plans were for a new leader behind the bench, but in explaining the surprising move, he made it clear he wanted more out of the current squad.

The theme of the 2021-2022 New York Islanders is mismanagement, and while it was great to secure another defenseman like Alexander Romanov, the cost was too high, for a team who is aging.

Based on CapFriendly's 20-man projected rosters, the Islanders are the 5th oldest team in the league at an average age of 28.6. The roster hasn't had much turnover since the end last of the season, but adding Alexander Romanov (22) on the blue line and removing Andy Greene (39) and Zdeno Chara (45) dropped the average age by nearly a year from 29.4 at the end of last season.

Let's discuss Lou's horrific free-agency decisions, other than Romanov. There were in fact no decisions made, Lou punted on Sonny Milano, Kevin Fiala, and lost out on Nazem Kadri and Johnny Gaudreau.

How are the Islanders supposed to be taken seriously as a team ready to win, if they're passive with the cap and afraid to move contracts to make it work? This is an abject failure for the front office.

Above is the list of players he did pull the trigger on, and the only player still in the NHL is Semyon Varlamov, who has been relegated to the backup by Ilya Sorokin.

I'd argue that this was incompetence, but this is par for the course with Lou-managed teams, as we've covered before.

The next GM will need to tear this team down to the studs, to get anywhere after this season.