List of New York Islanders head coaches

Al Arbour led the Islanders to four consecutives Stanley Cups from 1980 to 1983

The New York Islanders are an American professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. They play in the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Hockey League (NHL). The team joined the NHL in 1972, and won their first Stanley Cup championship in 1980. The Islanders play their home games at UBS Arena in Elmont.[1] Jon Ledecky and Scott D. Malkin are the Islanders' majority owners, Lou Lamoriello is their general manager, Patrick Roy is the head coach and Anders Lee is the team captain.[2][3]

There have been 19 head coaches so far for the Islanders franchise. The team's first head coach was Phil Goyette, who coached the team for part of the 1972–73 season.[4] Al Arbour is the franchise's all-time leader for the most regular season games coached (1,500) and the most regular season game wins (740); he is also the franchise's all-time leader for the most playoff games coached (198), and the most playoff game wins (119).[5] Arbour is the only coach so far to have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.[5] He and Trotz are the only coaches so far to have won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's top coach.[5] The franchise has participated in the Stanley Cup Finals five times so far, coached by Arbour each time; they won Stanley Cup four of those times. Arbour, Terry Simpson, Peter Laviolette, Steve Stirling, Ted Nolan, Jack Capuano, Barry Trotz, and Lane Lambert are the coaches who coached the team into the Stanley Cup playoffs.[5][6][7][8][9]

Key

# Number of coaches[a]
GC Games coached
W Wins = 2 points
L Losses = 0 points
T Ties = 1 point
PTS Points
Win% Winning percentage[c]
† Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder
* Spent entire NHL head coaching career with the Islanders

Coaches

Butch Goring coached the Islanders from 1999 to 2001
Peter Laviolette coached the Islanders from 2001 to 2003
Jack Capuano coached the Islanders from 2010 to 2017

Note: Statistics are correct through the 2023–24 season.

# Name Term[d] Regular season Playoffs Achievements Notes
GC W L T OTL Win% GC W L Win%
1 Phil Goyette* 1972–1973 48 6 38 4 — .167 — — — — [4]
2 Earl Ingarfield* 1973 30 6 22 2 — .233 — — — — [10]
3 Al Arbour† 1973–1986 1,038 552 317 169 — .613 171 109 62 .637 Stanley Cup champions (1980, 1981, 1982, 1983)
Jack Adams Award (1979) 		[5]
4 Terry Simpson 1986–1988 187 81 82 24 — .497 20 9 11 .450 [6]
 — Al Arbour† 1988–1994 461 187 220 54 — .464 27 10 17 .370 [5]
5 Lorne Henning 1994–1995 48 15 28 5 — .365 — — — — [11]
6 Mike Milbury 1995–1997 127 35 73 19 — .350 — — — — [12]
7 Rick Bowness 1997–1998 100 38 50 12 — .440 — — — — [13]
 — Mike Milbury 1998–1999 66 22 39 5 — .371 — — — — [12]
8 Bill Stewart* 1999 35 10 18 7 — .386 — — — — [14]
9 Butch Goring 1999–2001 143 41 89 14 4 .338 — — — — [15]
 — Lorne Henning 2001 17 4 11 2 0 .294 — — — — [11]
10 Peter Laviolette 2001–2003 164 77 62 19 6 .546 12 4 8 .333 [7]
11 Steve Stirling* 2003–2006 118 56 51 11 6 .520 5 1 4 .200 [8]
12 Brad Shaw* 2006 40 18 18 — 4 .500 — — — — [16]
13 Ted Nolan 2006–2007 82 40 30 — 12 .561 5 1 4 .200 [9]
 — Al Arbour†[e] 2007 1 1 0 — 0 1.000 — — — — [5]
 — Ted Nolan 2007–2008 81 34 38 — 9 .475 — — — — [9]
14 Scott Gordon 2008–2010 181 64 94 — 23 .417 — — — — [17]
15 Jack Capuano* 2010–2017 483 227 192 — 64 .536 24 10 14 .417 [18]
16 Doug Weight* 2017–2018 122 59 49 — 14 .541 — — — — [19]
17 Barry Trotz 2018–2022 288 152 102 — 34 .587 49 28 21 .571 Jack Adams Award (2019) [20]
18 Lane Lambert* 2022–2024 127 61 46 — 20 .559 6 2 4 .333 [21]
19 Patrick Roy 2024–present 37 20 12 — 5 .608 5 1 4 .200 [22]

Notes

  • a A running total of the number of coaches of the Islanders. Thus, any coach who has two or more separate terms as head coach is only counted once.
  • b Before the 2005–06 season, the NHL instituted a penalty shootout for regular season games that remained tied after a five-minute overtime period, which prevented ties.[23]
  • c In hockey, the winning percentage is calculated by dividing points by maximum possible points.
  • d Each year is linked to an article about that particular NHL season.
  • e Arbour replaced Ted Nolan as an interim head coach for one game in order to have coached 1500 Islanders games.[24]

References

General
  • "New York Islanders Coach Register". Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2008-08-20. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
  • "New York Islanders: History". CBS Sports. Archived from the original on November 18, 2008. Retrieved August 23, 2009.
  • National Hockey League (2007). National Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book 2009 (77 ed.). Chicago, Illinois: Triumph Books. p. 88.
Specific
  1. ^ "New York Islanders". NHL.com. Lincoln Hockey and the National Hockey League. Archived from the original on 2009-01-16. Retrieved 2008-06-07.
  2. ^ Neumann, Thomas (January 20, 2024). "Islanders Name Patrick Roy Head Coach". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on January 21, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
  3. ^ "Players". New York Islanders. Archived from the original on 2024-01-17. Retrieved 2024-01-21.
  4. ^ a b "Phil Goyette". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2008-12-03. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g "Al Arbour". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2008-08-07. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  6. ^ a b "Terry Simpson". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2008-09-07. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  7. ^ a b "Peter Laviolette". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2008-10-13. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  8. ^ a b "Steve Stirling". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2008-10-13. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  9. ^ a b c "Ted Nolan". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2008-08-20. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  10. ^ "Earl Ingarfield". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2008-12-03. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  11. ^ a b "Lorne Henning". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2008-10-06. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  12. ^ a b "Mike Milbury". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2008-10-11. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  13. ^ "Mike Milbury". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2022-05-21. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  14. ^ "Bill Stewart". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2008-08-30. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  15. ^ "Butch Goring". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2008-09-06. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  16. ^ "Brad Shaw". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2008-10-06. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  17. ^ "Scott Gordon". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2019-04-07. Retrieved 2010-08-23.
  18. ^ "Jack Capuano". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
  19. ^ "Doug Weight". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2017-01-20. Retrieved 2017-01-17.
  20. ^ "Barry Trotz". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2008-08-30. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  21. ^ "Lane Lambert". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2022-09-27. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
  22. ^ "Patrick Roy". Hockey-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Archived from the original on 2024-05-14. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  23. ^ "Official Rules" (PDF). NHL.com. Lincoln Hockey and the National Hockey League. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-05-11. Retrieved 2008-12-05.
  24. ^ "Al Arbour returns to coach 1500th game". New York Islanders. 2007-07-19. Archived from the original on 2008-04-21. Retrieved 2009-01-20.