The first move of the Islanders’ offseason came Friday night.
Assistant coach Benoit Desrosiers was relieved of his duties, the team confirmed Friday, marking Pete DeBoer’s first personnel move as head coach.
The decision does not come as a surprise given Desrosiers’ ties to former coach Patrick Roy. The Quebec native was hired shortly after the Islanders brought in Roy in early 2024, and worked under him with the QMJHL’s Quebec Remparts before going to the Islanders.
Desrosiers was well-liked by players and ran faceoffs, helping the Islanders to the third-best win percentage at the dots across his two full seasons as an assistant.
After Roy was axed with four games left in the year, though, it seemed likely that Desrosiers would soon follow him out the door. DeBoer now gets the privilege of bringing in his own staff.
Whether this is the only change on the coaching staff remains to be seen.
Ray Bennett, hired by Roy before last season, seems another possibility to be let go, as the power play he was hired to fix ranked 31st in the league and continued on as a liability.
DeBoer has worked with Bob Boughner before, and praised him extensively after taking the job, making it seem unlikely that a change was in store there.
“We’ve got a reaon special coach here in Bob Boughner, a great defensive coach,” DeBoer said. “I had him in San Jose, coached Brent Burns there. He’s a guy that played, he’s a hell of a teacher. His reputation as a communicator is second-to-none.”
Goaltending coach Sergei Naumovs figures to be safe as well, given his tight connection is with Ilya Sorokin, who exceled under his tutelage last season.
