Zizing ‘Em Up: Islanders hire DeBoer with playoff hopes on line

If so, DeBoer would have been a natural candidate based on regional bias alone. He’s a southern Ontario native from the town of Dunville, 85 miles south of Toronto near Lake Erie, and enjoyed  a successful career as the coach of nearby Kitchener of the Ontario Hockey League, leading it to the Memorial Cup in 2003.

That’s just one example of the possible landing spots DeBoer potentially could have had during the summer. The Nashville Predators are making front office changes that could alter their coaching situation. And what happens to interim coach D.J. Smith if the Los Angeles Kings don’t reach the playoffs?

Such speculation is all moot now, because what the Islanders did was beat everyone else to the punch.

As a result, DeBoer lands his sixth NHL coaching job, following gigs with the Florida Panthers (2008-11), New Jersey Devils (2011-14), San Jose Sharks (2015-19), Golden Knights (2019-22) and Dallas Stars (2022-25). 

In lieu of the interesting goings-on Sunday, here are three interesting facts and observations of the DeBoer-Islanders situation you may or may not have known.

1. The Wanted Man

Teams already had inquired about DeBoer’s availability prior to the 2026 Winter Olympics, where he served as an assistant to Jon Cooper with Team Canada.

“I had multiple teams, what I would call kicking tires and keeping an eye on us,” DeBoer said last week. “I’ll probably leave it at that. I don’t want to get into specifics but there were multiple teams that reached out in different ways to kick tires.”

Was there ever anything that came close to fruition?

“Listen, you never know how close you are,” he said. “I think there was, you know, at least one situation that was really close that was interesting.”

2. The Lou Connection

There were plenty of eyebrows raised that the Islanders would relieve Roy of his duties on Easter Sunday.

Ironically, DeBoer, the man who replaces Roy, was once fired on a special holiday like that himself.

It happened on Christmas in 2014 when he got a call from then-Devils GM Lou Lamoriello. The message had nothing to do with season’s greetings.

It was more like getting a lump of coal dumped into your stocking.

“He did wait until late in the day before he fired me. We were well past the presents,” DeBoer laughed during an interview we did in 2016. 

Even after Lamoriello’s Grinch-like actions, DeBoer considers him a friend and mentor.

“Lou’s played a huge role in my coaching development,” DeBoer said. “I loved working for him.”

Here’s the intriguing part of the DeBoer-Lamoriello relationship. 

A year ago, Lamoriello’s contract was not renewed by the Islanders and he was replaced as GM by Mathieu Darche. But that didn’t mean he retired. Indeed, the Hall of Fame builder now serves as an adviser to Islanders owner Scott Malkin.

Given his friendship with DeBoer, how much may Lamoriello have suggested (nudge-nudge, wink-wink) to Darche and Malkin that the Islanders seriously look at the veteran coach as a long-term solution behind the Islanders bench?

If he did, you won’t hear it from Lou. When it comes to any hockey team he works or had worked for, Lamoriello is the poster boy for being tight-lipped. Always has been. Always will be.

3. The Hired Gun

This is not the first time DeBoer has been airlifted into a job mid-season.

On Jan 15, 2020, he was hired to replace Gerard Gallant as Vegas coach.

To say the offer caught him off guard would be an understatement.

At the time the Golden Knights reached out to him, he was vacationing with his family in Florida and had no formal clothes with him to wear for his first game behind the Vegas bench against the Ottawa Senators in the Canadian capital the following day. 

Thankfully, his longtime pal and assistant Steve Spott came to the rescue. DeBoer caught a flight from Florida to Toronto, where Spott picked him up and took him suit shopping before dropping him off back at the airport for his connecting flight to Ottawa.

Not only did the Golden Knights subsequently reward him by defeating the Senators 4-2 in his Vegas debut, he had some spiffy duds to wear to celebrate the moment.

“’Spotter’s always been there for me,” DeBoer said of Spott, now an assistant with the Boston Bruins.