Islanders fire Patrick Roy with four games left in the season, name Pete DeBoer new coach

Patrick Roy couldn’t survive his team’s slide.

As a result, it now is veteran NHL coach Pete DeBoer’s job to try to guide the slumping Islanders into the playoffs.

General manager Mathieu Darche announced on Sunday that Roy had been relieved of his duties and replaced by DeBoer, who will make 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 to the Metropolitan Division-leading Hurricanes on Saturday night 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 say he needed to do a better job of having his team ready to play.

“Sometimes you just make sure you say a few words in the room after the meeting,” he said in response to Newsday asking him what more he thought he could have done. “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.”

The Islanders entered Sunday in third place in the Metropolitan Division with 89 points but ended the day below the cutoff line for the playoffs. The Flyers and Senators won, moved ahead of the Islanders with 90 points and also have a game in hand on them. The Red Wings and Blue Jackets are a point behind the Islanders and also have a game in hand.

DeBoer, 57, has an overall coaching record of 662-447-152 in 1,261 games over 17 NHL seasons with Dallas, Vegas, San Jose, New Jersey and Florida. He led the Stars to the Western Conference finals in each of his three seasons in Dallas.

He came under fire in last season’s conference finals for pulling 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.

He ranks 18th in NHL history in coaching wins and 22nd in games coached. He led 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 whom 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 they 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, he will be in charge of integrating some of the 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 only 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 Carolina. They missed the playoffs at 35-35-12 last season.

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.

After Saturday’s discouraging loss, defenseman Ryan Pulock was asked if 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 he has thrown his belief to DeBoer.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

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.