Islanders can't run it back

The time has come for veterans to be gone and youth to be served.

Reading social media this week, not only were Islanders fans happy about the season, but they also wanted the veterans back.

I couldn’t believe what I read. I had to reread it again to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. To say it was surprising is an understatement.

The Islanders completed a Mets-like collapse (think 2007, 2008 and 2025) by finishing the season as losers of 10 of 14, including a 2-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes to end the season on Tuesday night at UBS Arena. Patrick Roy was fired as their head coach on Easter Sunday. It’s hard to say this season was a success based on that alone, and the veterans made a case that their services are no longer needed.

The onus is on the organization to figure this out, not the players. We already know what the roster has done. There’s nothing else they can do.

The Islanders hired Mathieu Darche as the president of the hockey operations last year so that he could provide them a direction. The time has come to do something.

It was one thing not to break the team up last year, though no one can blame him if he wanted to reboot this team as soon as possible.

Now, he saw enough to make a conviction. The players made it easy for him to move in another direction.

Will he? That’s another story.

It sure appears Darche may just retool and keep the veterans with the hope that the young players can keep it going and make the older guys’ jobs easy.

Why else was Pete DeBoer hired to be the new coach with four games to go? If the team is rebuilding, there’s no way he would waste his time taking the Islanders’ job when better job openings await this offseason. Plus, it would be foolish to pay an experienced coach to overpay a rebuild.

It shouldn’t be surprising the Islanders are likely not following the Yzerplan of rebuilding from ground zero. As Gil Martin mentioned on the Locked on Islanders podcast, the Islanders owners Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin want to get playoff revenue at UBS Arena, not to mention they don’t want to see empty seats at the four-year-old arena. They rather see Darche do a half-rebuild.

It doesn’t work at all. If the team is going to rebuild altogether, youth must be served. This means the veterans can’t be there to poison the rookies by not being supportive enough and being selfish for their own good. This means winning can’t be a priority anymore.

The Islanders need to trade guys with value for draft picks. The more picks they accumulate, the better off they are going to be. They have guys who are tradeable that teams can use, such as Bo Horvat, Mat Barzal and Ilya Sorokin.

For anyone that’s turned off about rebuilding after citing the struggles of the Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Blackhawks and Buffalo Sabres, I present you the Philadelphia Flyers, who rebuilt quickly in a short time and made the playoffs. The New York Rangers rebuilt quickly, too under Jeff Gorton and John Davidson.

It can work with the right people. Darche was hired to oversee change. If ownership wants to keep more of the same, there was no point letting Lou Lamoriello go. The Islanders could have stuck with him and hoped for the best.

How many more years can we tolerate the same old thing with nothing to show for it? These veterans failed time after time. They were terrible down the stretch. If the Islanders did not have a special season by rookie Matthew Schaefer, this team would even be worse.

The Islanders have been boring to watch in recent years with this aging roster. It really got old watching Horvat be useless come March and April. Seeing Barzal just skate rather than shoot caused enough consternation.

To expect things to turn out different with the veterans next season is insanity.

It’s hard to believe Darche wants to keep more of the same. He had a honeymoon phase this season, and now that’s over after his first year of the job. The fans should want some moves to make sure things get better. He would love to start overseeing changes knowing that everything is now on his record.

It’s on ownership to let the Islanders’ hockey boss do his job.

It’s up to Ledecky and Malkin to understand this really is not working.