The New York Islanders have announced Monday the hirings of Bob Boughner and Ray Bennett as assistants to head coach Patrick Roy’s coaching staff. The duo will replace Tommy Albelin and John MacLean. The Islanders also announced that both goalie coach Piero Greco, who has been with the team since 2018, and assistant coach Benoit Desrosiers, hired shortly after Roy took over on Jan. 20, 2024, will return.
Islanders general manager/executive vice president Mathieu Darche announced at his introductory news conference on May 29 that MacLean and Albelin, who both had close ties to former president/GM Lou Lamoriello from their New Jersey Devils days, would not return.
The 63-year-old Bennett has been an NHL assistant coach since 1999, working with the Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues and Colorado Avalanche. For the last seven years, he ran the Avalanche’s power play, which was a top-five unit in the league during Bennett’s tenure (23.0%).
Bennett has ties to Calum Ritchie, the Avalanche’s top prospect who was the centerpiece of the Brock Nelson deal.
The 54-year-old Boughner played ten seasons in the NHL with the Sabres, Flames, Predators, Penguins, Avalanche and Hurricanes. He spent the previous three seasons as the Red Wings’ associate coach. He was let go, along with Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde, back in December. He was the Panthers head coach from 2017 to 2019 and then spent three seasons as the Sharks head coach from 2019 to 2022. Boughner will run the Islanders penalty kill.
Coaching Staff task no. 1: Improve special teams
To say the Islanders special teams have struggled the past few seasons would be an understatement. During MacLean’s tenure which began in 2022, the Islanders ranked 31st on the power play (16.4%). Albelin was brought in last summer to replace Doug Houda, whose PK unit ranked 24th (76.8%) from 2022-24. Albelin actually fared worse, ranking 31st (72.2%) last season.
