The New York Islanders announced Monday that Rocky Thompson has been named Bridgeport Islanders head coach.
The 47-year-old Thompson becomes the 10th head coach in team history. Bridgeport will be celebrating its 25th anniversary this season. Thompson joins Bridgeport following three seasons as an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Flyers. Prior to his time on the Flyers coaching staff, Thompson spent the 2020-21 season as an associate coach with the San Jose Sharks under Bob Boughner, the newly named New York Islanders assistant coach. He also spent the 2014-15 season on the Edmonton Oilers coaching staff.
Thompson has AHL head coaching experience, as he led the Chicago Wolves from 2017 to 20. The Wolves lost in the 2019 Calder Cup.
Selected by Calgary in the third round (72nd overall) of the 1995 NHL Draft, the defenseman played 25 NHL games between the Calgary Flames (1997-99) and the Florida Panthers (2000-02).
To say that Thompson has his work cut out for him would be an understatement. Bridgeport, under former head coach Rick Kowalsky, finished dead last the past two seasons. The team had a historically low four home wins last season. The entire Bridgeport coaching staff was let go following the hire of the New York Islanders new general manager, Mathieu Darche. The prospect pool over the past couple of seasons has been pretty bare, but the previous regime failed to develop the prospects they have (William Dufour, Matthew Maggio, and Alex Jeffries). Dufour was included in the Brock Nelson to the Colorado Avalanche deal at the trade deadline.
Thompson will likely have an immediate impact on defensemen Jesse Pulkkinen and Calle Odelius, both are former second-round picks. Odelius had an uneven rookie season last year, and Pulkkinen will begin his first full season in North America in the fall.
While the coaching staff has been let go, it still appears that Chris Lamoriello will stay on as general manager after being extended by his father, Lou Lamoriello, prior to his dismissal as GM of the big club. Chris still holds the title and was allowed to stay in place for the hiring of a new coach.
Thompson will likely hit the ground running as the Islanders development camp starts June 27. The Bridgeport head coach has historically run the camp. Thompson will see firsthand the organization’s top prospects in Cole Eiserman, Danny Nelson, Quinn Finley, Kamil Bednarik, and potentially Matthew Schaefer, the likely first overall pick in this year’s draft. None of the above-mentioned prospects will begin the season in Bridgeport.
There was speculation that Matt Carkner, who just left the Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL to pursue coaching opportunities in the AHL, would be a candidate for Bridgeport. The former Islanders defenseman was a Bridgeport assistant coach from 2016-21. Orlando is the ECHL affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Darche’s former organization.
For their sake, I hope that they don’t let Rocky T run the power play. His record on running the PP at the Flyers was downright awful. In fact, legendary awful. The worst PP in modern league history.