Islanders fire Patrick Roy with four games left in the season, name Peter DeBoer new coach
Head coach Patrick Roy of the New York Islanders reacts during the first period against the Florida Panthers at UBS Arena on Saturday, Mar. 28, 2026 in Elmont, New York. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Patrick Roy couldn’t survive the Islanders’ slide.
As a result, it’s now veteran NHL coach Pete DeBoer’s job to try and guide the slumping Islanders into the playoffs.
General manager Mathieu Darche announced on Sunday Roy had been relieved of his duties and replaced by DeBoer, who will be making his sixth NHL stop after last being behind the Dallas Stars’ bench in 2022-25.
He will run his first practice as Islanders coach — and make his first comments since being hired — on Monday. His first game will be Thursday against the Maple Leafs at UBS Arena when the Islanders open a season-ending four-game homestand.
The Islanders (42-31-5) have lost a season-high four straight and seven of their last 10. Roy’s swan song as Islanders coach was a 4-3 loss on Saturday night to the Metropolitan Division-leading Hurricanes in Raleigh, North Carolina, that was not as close as the final score would indicate. The Islanders were outshot 40-16 and had only six shots through the first two periods.
That came after Friday’s damaging 4-1 home loss to the Flyers in which the Islanders got off to a sluggish start, leaving Roy to admit he needed to do a better job in having his team ready to play.
“Sometimes you just make sure you say a few words in the room after the meeting,” Roy said in response to Newsday asking him what more he thought he could do. “I thought the team was ready to play a strong game and I could have done a better job approaching the guys and saying a few things. That was an important game for us. They’re all going to be important games, no kidding. I just feel like I could have done a better job, period.”
DeBoer, 57, has an overall coaching record of 662-447-152 in 1,261 games over 17 NHL seasons with Dallas, the Vegas Golden Knights, San Jose Sharks, New Jersey Devils and Florida Panthers. He led the Stars to the Western Conference final in each of his three seasons in Dallas.
But DeBoer came under fire in last season’s conference final after pulling goalie Jake Oettinger after he allowed two goals on two shots in the opening 7:09 of a deciding 6-3 loss to the Oilers in Game 5.
Still, he ranks 18th in NHL history in coaching wins and 22nd with 1,261 games coached. He led both the Devils (2012) and Sharks (2016) to the Stanley Cup Final, losing to the Kings and Penguins, respectively.
His teams are 9-0 in Game 7s, giving him the most Game 7 wins in NHL coaching history.
Now he becomes the 20th coach in Islanders history and, significantly, the first Darche has hired after former president/GM Lou Lamoriello brought in Roy.
DeBoer's mandate is twofold: First, get the Islanders into the playoffs. Darche showed he believed the Islanders were playoff-worthy by sending a first-round pick to the Blues on March 6 as part of the package for second-line center Brayden Schenn. Second, DeBoer will be in charge of integrating some of the Islanders’ prospects such as Victor Eklund and perhaps Cole Eiserman into the lineup over time. And succeeding with the new talent.
It was a task Roy, 60, was eagerly anticipating.
But the Hall of Fame goalie, who backstopped the Canadiens to two Cups and the Avalanche to two more, ends his tenure on Long Island having coached just one full season after taking over for the fired Lane Lambert on Jan. 20, 2024. He guided the Islanders to a 20-12-5 record that season as they qualified for the playoffs but were eliminated in five games by the Hurricanes.
They missed the playoffs at 35-35-12 last season and Roy was 97-78-22 overall with the Islanders after going 130-92-24 over three seasons — and one playoff appearance — with the Avalanche from 2013-16.
Following Saturday’s discouraging loss, defenseman Ryan Pulock was asked whether Roy’s message was still getting through to the team.
“Yeah, 100%,” Pulock said. “He believes in us and we believe in him.”
But Darche was the final arbiter. And now the GM has thrown his belief to DeBoer.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
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