The New York Islanders’ decision to hire Patrick Roy to replace Lane Lambert on Jan. 20, 2024, was a shocking move.
Outside of general manager Lou Lamoreillo and Roy being two completely different people, the Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender wasn’t a name many kept in mind for head coaching vacancies after he left the Colorado Avalanche bench ahead of the 2016-17 seasons.
Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch reported that the Blue Jackets had interviewed Roy prior to hiring Mike Babcock for the 2023-24 season, a coach who didn’t even make it to opening night due to his usual antics, the one that cost him his job in Toronto.
It turns out that, ahead of the 2019-20 season, there was an NHL team trying to bring Roy back to the NHL.
That team was the Ottawa Senators, who ended up hiring D.J. Smith, a former assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs, after firing Guy Boucher during the season — Marc Crawford served as the interim.
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“In 2019, it was between Patrick Roy, DJ Smith, and Jacques Martin,” former Senators general manager Pierre Dorion said in an interview with Martin Lemay.
“When I called Patrick back and told him that we had decided to go with D.J. Smith — there was Patrick, and there was Jaques Martin. They were the three finalists — I told him it wasn’t easy because he hadn’t had a chance for a long time since Colorado, and there were so many things that I liked about him, but I made the decision I made the decision to go with D.J.
“In everything we do, there are two things I hate doing the most. [The worst is] telling a player that he’s going to the minors. Trades are part of the job in general, but telling a player that you’re going to the minor [is tough]s but even more than that was when you fire someone.”
On Nov. 1, 2023, the Senators fired Dorion as their general manager after an NHL investigation regarding his failure to honor Evgenii Dadonov’s modified no-trade list. This led to the Senators forfeiting a first-round pick.
On Dec. 6, Martin, who coached Ottawa from 1996-2004, was hired by the Senators as a senior adviser to the coaching staff.
On Dec. 18, 2023, the Senators fired D.J. Smith (131-154-32) and elevated Martin to interim head coach.
On May 8, 2024, Ottawa hired former Islanders forward and Devils head coach Travis Green.
How things may have been different for the Senators had they hired Roy in the first place.
