EAST MEADOW, N.Y. — Peter DeBoer knew there would be NHL head coaching jobs available to him this offseason. But when the chance to take over the New York Islanders “came out of left field” with just four games left in their season, the league’s top coaching candidate was convinced they were the best fit.
“It’s like grabbing the No. 1 free agent on the market. Pete’s an outstanding coach,” said Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche on Monday at the team’s practice facility.
ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reports that DeBoer’s contract with the Islanders is for the rest of this year, plus three more seasons. That aligns him with Darche’s contract.
DeBoer said he and Darche first connected about him replacing head coach Patrick Roy after the Islanders’ 4-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night — their fourth consecutive defeat, dropping New York out of a playoff seed. Darche said he didn’t consider any other replacements for Roy.
“Once Pete was out there, without going too much into specifics, it really intensified [Sunday] morning,” he said, having asked and received permission to speak with DeBoer from the Dallas Stars, who fired him last June.
There could be a half dozen coaching changes in the NHL after this season, with teams such as the Los Angeles Kings and Toronto Maple Leafs potentially making moves. DeBoer said he weighed those possible openings against the opportunity with the Islanders, but they “quickly became my priority” among his job prospects.
“It wasn’t like I had been studying the New York Islanders, I’ll be honest with you. So it’s been a lot of New York Islander hockey the last 48 hours for me,” DeBoer said on Monday at the Islanders’ practice facility.
DeBoer was fired last June after leading the Stars to their third straight Western Conference final loss. He was signed through the 2025-26 season.
He has coached 1,261 games over 17 seasons with the Florida Panthers, New Jersey Devils, San Jose Sharks, Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas. He has a career regular-season record of 662-447-152, and his .585 points percentage ranks fourth among active head coaches with at least 700 games behind the bench in the NHL.
DeBoer cited three main factors in choosing the Islanders. The first was a return to the East Coast and Metro Division, where he coached the Devils for parts of four seasons (2011-14).
“I’ve coached in every division in the league. There’s nothing like the rivalries of the Rangers, Devils, Islanders, Philly … it’s fantastic. And I won’t B.S. you: The travel’s nice compared to Dallas and San Jose and Vegas,” he said.
The second factor was familiarity with some personnel in the Islanders organization. He worked with assistant coach Bob Boughner in San Jose and video coach Matt De Mado with the Devils, and he is familiar with several members of New York’s front office and training staff. But the key factor, according to DeBoer, was the vision that Darche set out for the Islanders in his first season as general manager.
“He really sold me. I think when I first picked up the phone, my initial reaction was probably exactly what you guys were saying: ‘We’re two weeks away from offseason. What’s the rush?’ And he sold me on the organization and the vision and the direction and the ownership,” DeBoer said.
Another selling point: Star rookie defenseman Matthew Schaefer, whom DeBoer knew from his time evaluating defensemen for the Canadian Olympic team last year.
“Honestly, I couldn’t believe my eyes the first half of the year, what I was seeing from an 18-year-old. The maturity in his game and how dynamic he was. He was within a razor of being on that Olympic team at 18,” DeBoer said of Schaefer, who is tied for second in rookie scoring with 58 points.
Roy was in his third season as Islanders head coach, having been hired by previous general manager Lou Lamoriello with 37 games remaining in the 2023-24 season. He finished with a record of 97-78-22, coaching the Islanders to a first-round playoff loss in his first season.
Roy had the Isles in a playoff seed for most of the 2025-26 season, but they are currently outside the playoff bubble– one point behind the Philadelphia Flyers for third place in the Metro Division and one point behind the Ottawa Senators for the final wild-card spot in the East. Both of those teams have a game in hand on the Islanders.
New York had the fourth-worst points percentage (.412) in the NHL since March 4. It has lost its last four games by a combined score of 20-10.
Darche said Roy was “the utmost professional” when told he was being fired on Sunday. “Patrick hasn’t lost the room. It wasn’t about guys don’t want to play for him, by any means. Guys respected Patrick a ton. Again, we just wanted to move it forward from where the things have been trending,” the general manager said.
Islanders players said that even with their struggles, they were shocked that Roy was dismissed with just four games left in the regular season. “When [John Tortorella] was hired in Vegas the other week, I kind of laughed with eight games left. And then this happens,” Islanders center Mathew Barzal said.
DeBoer makes his Islanders coaching debut on April 9 when the Maple Leafs visit Long Island. Stathletes gives New York a 19.8% chance of making the playoff cut.
“You don’t expect that with four games left in the year. But Darche saw us not playing well and he saw Peter being a really good coach. It’s obviously a long-term play for this organization. It’s not just a four-game stint,” center Brayden Schenn said.
