Cross Islanders Parkway: Takeaways from Mathieu Darche's Introductory Press Conference

I discuss Mathieu Darche's introductory press conference with the New York Islanders yesterday, and the key takeaways from that, as well as recapping recent Isles news, and looking ahead to the offseason and 2025 NHL Draft.

The return of the Cross Islanders Parkway is here, talkin' Isles all offseason!

Intro: NEIKED - Better Days (ft. Polo G)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Pag's perspective with your host Ryan Pagano. Same shame, honaway.
Can I get in a honor well here in Isles Nation,

(00:27):
better days are indeed here. Matthew Darsh just yesterday being
introduced as the next general manager of the New York
Islanders at Ubs Arena, A ton of reporters, a ton
of fans, even some players in attendance, all for the
big spectacle. Matthew Darsh being introduced to the media outlining
his agenda for this very important offseason ahead, answering a

(00:50):
lot of questions that Isles fans have been dying to
know as far as the future of the team goes.
I gotta say I have a very early first impression
of him, not just because he was very instrumental in
getting those back to back cups for the Lightning, but
if you thought that Darsh bringing up the beard cigarette
smell at the Coliseum following Bavilier's overtime game winner in

(01:11):
Game six four years ago, if you think that wasn't
a good start to how he'd be portrayed by Isles fans,
then I genuinely do not know what to tell you.
He was making reference to just how passionate the Isles
fans are. He's already very enduring himself to not just
the players, but the fans too, and it was pretty
evident with Captain anders Lee being in attendance for the

(01:31):
press conference yesterday, Dar saying that he's had several conversations
already with his captain and that at least in his
first week as the GM of the New York Islanders,
that he's talked to almost every single player on the
roster right now. That's one of his main things that
he wants to accomplish as the GM that I'm just
a big fan of right off the bat, that he

(01:52):
wants to keep communication very open between the team and
the media and players. Because nothing against his assessor lou Lamborello,
I personally felt like there were times during that era
where sometimes the communication aspect really wasn't as clear. Just
take the Anthony Duclair situation a couple of months ago,

(02:14):
for example, Duke not having a good stretch in late
March early April, head coach Patrick Wall calls him out.
Next thing you know, he's taking a leave of absence
from the team for the rest of the season. And
there really isn't much communication on that front as far
as when he's gonna return, if ever, to the team.
Nobody really knows what's gonna happen with that. Once the

(02:36):
twenty four to twenty five season was in the books,
neither lou Wa or Duke met with the media to
really talk about this situation, leaving us fans with not
really a lot of clarity on the situation, what exactly
this could be moving forward, and just leaving it to
us to guess what the heck is gonna happen moving forward.
That's not really a healthy way to operate a franchise.

(02:58):
Just ask my New York Mets to six years ago
were very much like this when it came to the
whole Jed Lowry injury situation. Greatest met of all time,
Jed Lowry stealing twenty million dollars from my New York
Mets for just six played appearances over two years. I
still can't get over that, man. But you'd see it
in Brodie Van wagon In's press conferences every couple of months, like, hey,

(03:23):
Jed's fine, we don't really have a timetable when he's
gonna come back. No further questions at this time, thank
you very much, And that was the theme of his
time with the Mets for two seasons and he got
paid twenty million dollars for that. Just some crazy stuff
all around. If that doesn't tell you enough about the
trauma that I've had to face as a sports fan
growing up, I really don't know what to tell you.

(03:46):
But the days are looking very much better here on
the Island. A lot of optimism as to what Matthew
darsh can accomplish with the Isles, especially since they have
the first overall pick in this year's NHL Draft in
Los Angeles, so little less than a month away from
that for now, but in the interim some other business
to take care of. One of the biggest questions entering

(04:07):
the twenty five to twenty six season was whether or
not head coach Patrick Waugh was going to stay put
under whoever the new GM was going to be. His
status was a little bit up in the air following
Lula Morello's exit from the president and GM role. Now,
I've been on the record saying that I would not
at all be mad if wa got kicked to the curb.
In fairness, that was because Mike Sullivan was available and

(04:30):
I think he could have been a tremendous hire with
the Isles if that's the route they wanted to go.
That isn't what happened, of course, Sully ending up with
the Rangers, the same franchise that he spent parts of
a couple seasons as an assistant coach with. Now he
gets to be the next big bench boss in Midtown
and he has an interesting offseason ahead of him there,
so he'll be looking for success and what it is
sure to be a jam packed Metro Division in twenty

(04:52):
five twenty six. But to be honest, I really wasn't
a fan of the other options that were out there.
Sully was really the only coach that I would be
willing to fire Wah for. But now that he's off
the table, the second best option at this point in
time was keeping Wah and that was one of the
first things that Darsh made very clear that Patrick Wah

(05:13):
will remain head coach going into the twenty five twenty
six season. Again, really like it from the perspective of
just allowing Patrick Waugh to be Patrick Wah. We saw
it a little bit with his first couple of games
with the Islanders when he took over for the fired
Lane Lambert midway through twenty three to twenty four. Quick
note on Lane, by the way, he just got hired

(05:35):
yesterday as the next head coach of the Seattle Krakens,
So it's good to see him picking his feet back
up for his second ever NHL head coaching gig after
he's spent a season with the Maple Leafs and helped
tremendously on their special teams there that year. And not
only that, but he gets to be reunited now with
a former Islander and current kracking team captain, Jordan Everly,

(05:56):
so wishing him the best of luck over there. But
getting back to Wah's first few games as the ales
new bench boss, you could hear his intensity that he
was bringing to the bench throughout his first couple of
games on the island. It got results. I mean, it
took them from a team that was just barely holding
their heads above five hundred to a team that made
the playoffs. Now we won't talk about what happened in

(06:19):
those playoffs, but hey, they made the Big Dance for
the second straight year, fifth time in six seasons of
the lou Lamorello era up to that point. But then,
especially in twenty four to twenty five, you really just
didn't see the same kind of intensity from Patrick Wab
behind the bench, and I feel like a lot of
that has to do with Lou kind of forcing him
to water down his intensity at times. He just didn't

(06:41):
really seem that authentic to me compared to when he
first entered the job. And I feel like, if you
allow him to just let him be him, let him
coach the team the way that he wants, especially now
with a GM who understands the modern game way more,
then let's make it happen. He's got a lot to
prove and I surely have hope that this will work
out and that maybe he was just held back by

(07:03):
the octagenarian Lou Lamorello. We'll just have to see what
happens there. Now. Speaking of coaches, a couple more things
to bring up on that front. A shake up when
it comes to the assistant coaches, as John McLean and
Tommy Albilene. They're not going to return for twenty five
twenty six. Will's closest confidate in Benoit de Rogier, will return.
He'll be the only assistant coach from twenty four to

(07:26):
twenty five staying on the staff. And for those of
you wondering if perhaps one of the Bridgeport coaches could
be called up to the big league level and serve
on was staff, the answer to that is a resounding no.
Bridgeport's going to have an entirely new coaching staff next season.
Rick Kowalski fired after one of, if not the worst

(07:46):
season in the history of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Yes,
I know they're the Bridgeport Islanders, but there's still the
Sound Tigers to me. Come on, there's no island in Connecticut.
I thought the Sound Tigers were just fine too, but
that's another debate for another day. I'm sure a lot
of my Bridgeport confidants can probably agree with me over there.

(08:08):
So yeah, Bridgeport's going to get a new staff as
far as their front office goes. Darsh didn't provide an
update on the job status of Chris Lamorello loose Sun,
as well as assistant GM Steve Pellegrini, although it's been
alleged that Lou extended both of them to multi year
extensions before he ultimately got canned as president at GM.
So barring a sudden change, it looks like they're going

(08:31):
to be staying put for the long term, which best
of luck Bridgeport, that doesn't exactly align with what darsh
was really hoping to see from the Baby Aisles, which
is building up a winning culture across the Long Island Sound.
As he eloquidly put it during his opening presser, that
he wanted to build a winning culture over there because,
let's be real, NHL clubs, they're gonna need to call

(08:54):
up a solid amount of players from the miners throughout
the season. You got to keep these guys ready, and
a great way to do that is if they're coming
from a winning culture directly into the highest stakes, which
is the NHL level. You really didn't have a lot
of that in Bridgeport, with the exception of Isaiah George,
of course, who I hope gets a regular spot in
the lineup this upcoming season. But apart from him, what

(09:16):
other big names do you really have from Bridgeport that
could have made an immediate impact at the NHL level
this season? You really didn't have that much. Alex Jeffries,
Matt Maggio, Danny Nelson, Quinn Finley, just to name a few.
I doubt they're ready to hold down a consistent spot
at the NHL level right now. Cole Eiserman, Yeah, he
was their best prospect at the start of last season,
first round pick of the Isles last year, but he's

(09:39):
not ready for the NHL yet. Again. I got to
give Lewis Flowers for making the trade for Callum Richie,
giving up a long time franchise mainstay in Brock Nelson
and getting back Callum Ritchie, who's now their best prospect,
one of the best in the NHL right now and
could make an impact as soon as next season, which
will be pretty fun to see, especially if the number
one pick is going to be making their debut at

(10:00):
the NHL level right away. And yes, I did say
whoever the number one pick will be, because Darsh also
made it clear he is not trading the first overall pick, unless,
of course, he gets an offer that just blows him
out of this world, which is highly unlikely. So yes,
we will be seeing the Isles make the number one
overall pick in this year's NHL draft, most likely Matthew Schaeffer,

(10:22):
could perhaps be Michael Misa, maybe James Hagens. I have
my own opinions on that stuff, of course, that I've
expressed on the podcast before. And it just be pretty
redundant of me to express it again. So you know,
go listen to my past podcast if you really want
to hear about who I think the Isles should take
with the first overall pick. But I don't know if
that's just beating a dead horse at this point, So

(10:43):
let's just move on to what comes after the draft,
which is free agency. Mentioned that he talked to most,
if not every single player on the Isles right now,
and that includes the pending free agents, which darsh has
wasted no time in signing. Announced earlier today that both
Kyle Palmery and Adam Bochvest will be extending their contracts,

(11:07):
Paul Mary getting two years, nine and a half million dollars,
which you'd have to think this just makes him an
Islander for life at this point. Don't know yet if
I'm necessarily a fan of the AAV given that it's
gonna be a little bit shy of five million a year.
But you know, people forget that Paul Mary is a
top three scorer on this team right now, assuming they

(11:29):
don't make any changes with that. Chicken Palms was a
big source of goal scoring these past few seasons. Ever
since he came over from the Devils, he's been a
steady force as a right winger, holding down the ford
and scoring goals when the team needs him to. And
it certainly isn't like any of the seven year deals
that his predecessor was signing these impending free agents too,

(11:49):
so you know, that's at least a plus a shorter
term deal for Kyle Palmerray, so his offense is staying put.
Interesting thing of note, this was the same contract that
who had promised pal Mary before his dismissal that he
was going to be working on, So indeed, the new
GM honoring the previous GM's commitments. And as for Adam Bolkfist,

(12:11):
one year, eight hundred and fifty K to be exact,
small sample size with the Island, but I really did
like what he had to bring to the table. Aligns
with Darsh's defensive philosophies that heavily involve quickness and getting
right to the puck, So Adam I think could be
a very big part of that, assuming he'll have a
consistent role in the lineup as well, which again, just
like Isaiah George, I'd be held down to see that.

(12:33):
For Adam Bochfist, even if he skates as a forward,
which he has done a couple games this season, is
that he suited up as a forward as opposed to
a defenseman. Could see that happen again, but it just
depends on the injury situation in twenty five twenty six,
which you know, yeah, that's hockey, so you're going to
be bound to see that happen. And speaking of injuries,

(12:55):
we did get an update on assistant captain Bohorvad who
so Sain did ankle injury in the sixth game of
Team Canada's run through the World Championships, which ended his
tournament early require Bo to come back to New York
for further evaluation. It's been a little over a week
since the injury and a lot of fans were worried
whether or not he was going to be ready for

(13:16):
training camp. But it turns out, and this is something
you never see under lou an update on an injured
player to the media, recovery isn't going to take as
long as previously expected, darsaying Horvat will miss four to
six weeks with that injury and that the team doesn't
have any concerns right now as to whether or not.
He's going to be able to suit up for training

(13:36):
camp in time. So everything's looking smooth from here on out,
setting up Bo to be fully healthy come the start
of the twenty five to twenty six season and looking
ready to continue his role as New York's top center,
hopefully this time by some more talent that Darsh can
acquire in the offseason, or maybe his existing talent at
his disposal that he could just shift up in the lineup.

(13:57):
But there's going to be a lot of time between
now and October, a couple months to make these important decisions.
But I have to give Darsh the absolute credit here
as he begins his first off season as the Isles GM,
he is hitting the ground running all gas, no breaks.
I know, in New York sports circles, that's not a
very good cliche to use, given how it ended for

(14:19):
the main figure who used said expression, Robert Sala, but
it really is all gas, no breaks. He's going full
steam ahead into his first off season with the Isles,
and I'm really looking forward to seeing what he can
cook up this summer. So we'll see what happens with that.
I'll be back here on Pag's perspective with more Islanders

(14:40):
updates as the off season continues. For right now, we're
continuing down to the Cross Islanders Parkway and yes, that
is indeed back a special late May edition of the
Cross Islanders Parkway