Peter DeBoer knows what he’s walking into on Long Island, and what needs fixing. Speaking with The Athletic last week, the new Islanders head coach was blunt about the flaws that undercut a team that missed the playoffs despite a respectable point total in 2025-26, pointing to a defensive foundation that surrendered far too many chances. “That’s something we have to address quickly,” DeBoer said, while stressing he wasn’t disparaging last year’s group.
He also flagged the power play, 30th in the NHL last season, as a focal point heading into September’s training camp.
DeBoer’s late-season arrival, after GM Mathieu Darche fired Patrick Roy with four games remaining, has proven to be a head start. The 58-year-old, who reached three straight Western Conference Finals with Dallas, said he’s “much further ahead” for having gotten an early look at his roster, his facilities, and players like Matthew Schaefer, Bo Horvat, and Mathew Barzal.
He even reached out to Roy days into the job, a gesture rooted in empathy, to talk through the organization and lifestyle awaiting him rather than individual players.
He also tempered expectations, noting the Islanders sit in a different spot than the win-now Vegas and Dallas teams he previously took over. But he pointed to how quickly the modern NHL landscape shifts as reason for optimism, arguing teams can climb, or fall, faster than anticipated. Reinforcements should help: injured veterans Kyle Palmieri and Alexander Romanov are set to return after being limited to 25 and 15 games, respectively, and DeBoer is banking on bounce-back years from reclamation candidates like Anthony Duclair and Pierre Engvall.
As for the captaincy left vacant by Anders Lee‘s departure, DeBoer isn’t rushing a decision. He called Schaefer, the reigning Calder Trophy winner after a 23-goal rookie season, an already-respected voice with “future captain written all over him,” but cautioned against loading too much onto an 18-year-old’s plate too soon. “I want to spend training camp with the group again, get a little more feel for the players and the options,” he said.
“Then we’ll make some decisions.”
The Islanders become the sixth NHL head-coaching position DeBoer has held, dating back to his first stop with the Florida Panthers in 2008-09. Across 1,265 career games behind the bench, his teams own a 663-450-152 (.584) record. Those 663 wins ranking 18th on the all-time list, a number the Islanders will be poised to watch him climb.