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The New York Islanders hired Rocky Thompson as an assistant coach during the offseason. Thompson will be the main coach of the power-play, though head coach DeBoer emphasized the importance of his coaching staff being collaborative. The addition of Thompson was DeBoer’s first major addition to his coaching staff for the Islanders.
Past Coaching Experience
In the 2025-26 season, Thompson was the head coach of the Bridgeport Islanders, the team’s AHL affiliate. Being with the team for just a year, he led them to their first playoff run since 2022.
Thompson has also had stints in the NHL. He spent three seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers (2022-2025) as an assistant coach, two seasons with the San Jose Sharks (2020-2022) as an associate coach, and one season as an assistant coach with the Edmonton Oilers (2014-15).
History with Special Teams
Being a special teams coach isn’t a new role to Thompson. Thompson was the special teams coach for the Philadelphia Flyers from 2022 to 2024. During his two seasons with the Flyers, their power-play was ranked 32nd in the league two years in a row, with 15.6% and 12.2% power-play percentages, respectively.
DeBoer shows a lot of confidence in hiring Thompson for this role, as his power-play coaching record is lackluster. However, DeBoer emphasizes Thompson’s ability as a teacher as one of the key reasons he brought him up from their AHL affiliate for this position.
This past season, the Islanders’ power-play percentage was 16.5%, which was 29th in the league. Being able to capitalize on the man-advantage will make a big difference for the team.
Both Thompson and the Islanders don’t have the best power-play record going into this season. It will be interesting to see if Thompson is able to improve the Islanders’ power-play. Even a marginal improvement would make a difference.
If his stint in Bridgeport proves anything, it’s that Thompson has the ability to connect with and develop talent. For this Islanders team looking to have a comeback year, but still in flux, that is invaluable.
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