Patrick Roy was fired as coach of the New York Islanders on Sunday and replaced by Peter DeBoer.
The 60-year-old went 97-78-22 in three seasons after taking over for Lane Lambert, who was fired Jan. 20, 2024.
The Islanders (42-31-5) have lost a season-high four in a row and seven of 10 games since March 18 while getting outscored 37-26. They’re third in the Metropolitan Division, one point ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers and Columbus Blue Jackets. Philadelphia has two games in hand; Columbus has one.
DeBoer, 57, was fired by the Dallas Stars on June 6 and replaced by Glen Gulutzan. He’s coached the sixth-most games (1,261) among active coaches, trailing Paul Maurice of the Florida Panthers (2,006), Lindy Ruff of the Buffalo Sabres (1,933), Joel Quenneville of the Anaheim Ducks (1,845), John Tortorella of the Vegas Golden Knights (1,623) and Todd McLellan of the Detroit Red Wings (1,268). His 662 wins are sixth among active coaches behind Quenneville (1,010), Maurice (953), Ruff (946), Tortorella (773) and McLellan (664).
DeBoer guided the Stars to the Western Conference Final in each of his three seasons, losing to the Golden Knights in 2023 and the Edmonton Oilers in each of the past two seasons.
He was an assistant for silver medalist Team Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
“I’m very confident with my ability to come in and get a team on the same page and play the right way and being able to win in the playoffs,” DeBoer told NHL.com in September, his first comments since being fired. “Again, my confidence in being able to do that is really high.
“Am I thinking about that right now? No, I’m thinking about the Olympics right now. But that doesn’t mean if the phone rings, that a switch doesn’t go off in my head and that changes.”
The Islanders are off until Thursday, when they’ll host the Toronto Maple Leafs (6:45 p.m. ET; HULU, ESPN+, TSN4).
DeBoer is 662-447-152 in 1,261 regular-season games for the Florida Panthers, Devils, San Jose Sharks, Golden Knights and Stars, and 97-82 in 179 Stanley Cup Playoff games while also guiding San Jose to the 2016 Final, a six-game loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. His teams have advanced to at least the third round of the playoffs each of his past six seasons qualifying for the postseason, and in eight of his 10 overall.
Roy is the fourth coach to be fired this season. Rick Bowness was hired by the Columbus Blue Jackets to replace Dean Evason on Jan. 12, D.J. Smith took over the Los Angeles Kings after Jim Hiller was fired March 1 and Tortorella replaced Bruce Cassidy with the Golden Knights on March 29.
