EAST MEADOW, NY — Ultimately, and in his words, a late-season collapse that resulted in a second straight playoff miss made the 2025-26 season a failure for New York Islanders first-year general manager Mathieu Darche.
Largely in control of their fate for the majority of the season, the Islanders went 11-13-0 after the Olympic break. They lost 10 of their last 14 and seven of their last eight, derailing a season that had exceeded nearly every single expectation over the first five months of the season.
“I don’t want to say we lost our mojo, or we didn’t get away with the same [mistakes as we did earlier in the season],” Darche said. “We had a lot of comebacks this year. But at the end of the year, every night you see teams come back from two goals, three goals. Then it’s tougher at the end of the year. And a lot of games, we came out, and we gave up the lead early, and maybe didn’t get away with as much…
“That’s very disappointing… They know they controlled what we had, and we let it slip.”
In hopes of bolstering their playoff standing, Darche tried to beef up the defense after Alex Romanov went down for the season in November and prospect Isaiah George was dealing with injury issues of his own by bringing in Carson Soucy from the New York Rangers.
Without Kyle Palmieri and zero production from Jonathan Drouin, Max Tsyplakov, and Anthony Duclair, he brought in veterans Ondrej Palat (New Jersey Devils) and Brayden Schenn (St. Louis Blues).
It wasn’t enough, and we’ve learned that March’s trade deadline presented Darche with a significant fork in the road on how to approach things. He could have deemed a deep playoff run unlikely, stayed the course, and sold. Instead, he chose to reward his players for surging into second place in the Metropolitan Division.
“I’m happy with the process we went through,” Darche said. “Did we get aggressive a little bit? Yeah. But you know what? I’d rather fail trying than failing to try. So I felt like if we had been six points out of the playoffs, would we have done all that? Maybe not. But at the end of the day, it’s tough… we were in second place in our division.
“To sell, what do you show your fans? What do you show your team? I showed the team, ‘Hey, we’re in a good position. You guys played well enough to get to this position. The Palat, Soucy acquisitions were basically for nothing, right? Because we got some draft picks, too.”
In a last-ditch effort to save the season, Darche fired head coach Patrick Roy with four games left in the season and brought in Pete DeBoer, who signed a multi-year deal. The Islanders dropped three of their last four to confirm they would miss the playoffs, though the four-game head start is invaluable heading into the offseason.
The structure that DeBoer’s defense showed wasn’t shabby, either. The Islanders allowed roughly 19 shots on goal over the last four games.
“The defensive structure was outstanding in those games,” Darche said.
Now comes Darche’s next big test: navigating a roster with a ton of money tied up in existing contracts and making difficult decisions about the status of veteran mainstays, like captain Anders Lee.
“Listen, I think this team can compete in the playoffs,” Darche said. “We literally had a bad three weeks. And listen again, there’s no pity party in the NHL. Two of our biggest acquisitions this summer will be Romanov and Palmieri. When I took this job last year, I knew that for two years we’d have a fairly similar roster, because contracts are contracts. It takes two to tango. I look every day to improve the team. I want to give opportunities to guys that are earning it. But you can’t put too much pressure on young players—they need to develop. You don’t want players surviving, you want them thriving. If someone earns a spot, we’ll make room.”
For more on Mathieu Darche and the Islanders, visit AMNY.com
