LAS VEGAS — Changes are coming to the Islanders’ coaching staff.
General manager Lou Lamoriello said after Saturday’s draft that the team is letting go of assistant coach Doug Houda, who ran the defense and penalty kill.
“This is a change and Doug will certainly be going to another organization,” Lamoriello said. “Great human being, tremendous for us. I think this is something that we’re just going to have to go forward with a different type of defense coach.”
Houda was the subject of intense criticism last season as the Islanders ranked dead last on the penalty kill, posting a 71.5 percent success rate that ranked 10th-worst all-time in doing so.
Lamoriello said Houda’s replacement will be named on Monday.
Assistants John MacLean and Benoit Desrosiers will be retained on coach Patrick Roy’s staff.
As for Sergei Naumovs, the newly-minted AHL goalie coach who worked with Ilya Sorokin at CSKA Moscow, Lamoriello indicated there are no plans for him to work with No. 30.
“His role will be in the American League, developing the goalies we have there,” Lamoriello said.
Lamoriello was noncommittal on the question of bringing back Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck, who are scheduled to become free agents on Monday.
“There’s nothing that’s been done. I’ve had my conversations with them, they’ve had theirs with me,” he said. “The three of us, independently, we know exactly what the situation is. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
Asked about Sebastian Aho, Mike Reilly and Robert Bortuzzo, who also will be free agents Monday, Lamoriello gave a shorter, “We’ll see.”
Russian winger Maxim Tsyplakov is expected to compete for an NHL job out of training camp, Lamoriello said.
“We did not sign him for Bridgeport,” Lamoriello said of the player who scored 31 times for Spartak Moscow last season and was rated the top European free agent. “And he had a lot of opportunities. I think our scouts did a great job with him. You’ll get a chance to see him, but he’s an NHL type of player.”
With this likely being the last centralized draft for the NHL, Lamoriello said he prefers a virtual option.
“Within 24 or 48 hours, we have to get to another phase [free agency] and the travel and so forth. I think it’s the right thing,” he said. “I think we’ve gone now when we only had a limited number of teams and expansion came, it’s very difficult. It’s been great, but there’s reasons why other [leagues] have got it virtual too.”