If the Islanders are no longer content to continue pushing this situation backwards, who is the best person to move them forward?
That’s the first and most important question facing the franchise after Wednesday’s 6-3 loss to the Hurricanes that ended its season, and the only people who can answer it are owner Scott Malkin and general manager Lu Lamoriello’s fate is in his hands. .
The 81-year-old Hall of Famer has had six highly successful years since 2018, but his refusal to make any changes to the roster has left the Islanders too good to rebuild but not good enough to contend for a championship. ing. Stanley Cup.
If the owners and Lamoriello are on the same page about where they go from here, whether it’s going back to management or retooling, there’s no doubt he’ll remain in that position next season.
But if that’s not the case, big questions arise as to how the Islanders will proceed.
The Post looks at four more issues the franchise must address this offseason.
Will Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck return?
Martin and Clutterbuck are synonymous with the Islanders’ identity, and both will become free agents on July 1st.
Martin has not yet said whether he wants to play another season, but Clutterbuck said last month that he still thinks he has the ability and wants to play another year.
If one or both decide to play another year, the question becomes whether it will be with the Islanders or elsewhere.
What will happen to the assistant coach?
The entire staff of assistants was hired under Barry Trotz or Lane Lambert, with the exception of Benoît Desrosiers, who was hired mid-season while working with Patrick Roy in Quebec City.
Doug Huda led the penalty kill, but they finished last in the league.
John McClain commanded the power play and improved from 2022 to 2023, but still finished the season in the bottom half of the league and struggled in the final month of the season.
Director of goaltending Mitch Cohn has worked with Trotz for most of the past 25 years, and it’s natural to wonder if Roy would want to hire himself as a goaltending coach — Francois Allaire ,who? — instead of Piero Greco.
Can Ilya Sorokin fix his game?
Let’s get this out of the way — Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov will be a goalie tandem next season.
Even if the Islanders wanted something different, which they didn’t, Sorokin has an eight-year contract extension with a no-move clause starting July 1, and Varlamov signed last offseason. He is now in the second season of a four-year contract and has full participation rights. No-trade clause from 2025 to 2026.
Great goaltenders have had sub-par seasons before, but history shows they usually recover from them, so no one should press the panic button here.
But if Sorokin gets off to a bad start in 2024-2025, alarm bells will start ringing.
Will the Islanders keep their draft pick?
With the season over, the Islanders will lock up the 18th pick in the first round if they keep that.
Mr. Lamoriello last made a first-round pick in 2019, before the presidential administration was fully in place, and as you might imagine, it had an impact on the Islanders’ agricultural system.
However, Lamoriello sounds like he would be willing to part ways with a first-round pick at the trade deadline if the right deal happens, and it would be surprising to see him move before the draft if he gets an offer he likes. It’s not something you should do.
