After one of the worst seasons in AHL history in the post-1967 NHL expansion era, the Bridgeport Islanders will have a new coaching staff next season.
Incoming New York Islanders general manager and executive vice president Mathieu Darche announced Thursday that Bridgeport head coach Rick Kowalsky and his coaching staff will not return next season. Bridgeport finished 15-50-4-3 with 37 points and managed just four home wins in 36 games at Total Mortgage Arena to set a new league record for home-ice futility.
“I’m a new person coming in,” Darche said at his introductory press conference when asked about his plans for Bridgeport. “I want a new staff moving us forward.”
Darche did not provide any word on whether New York assistant general manager Chris Lamoriello, who doubles as Bridgeport’s general manager, will return. Lamoriello has been with New York since 2016 when he joined the organization as its director of player personnel. He moved into his current roles for the 2017-18 season.
“That’s all being evaluated,” Darche stated. “There are a lot of good people here. Right now my focus was focusing on the coaches because a lot of teams are looking for coaches at this time of year, so you don’t want to be too late on that. But the whole structure of how we work with development in the AHL will be enhanced.”
Darche, named to his post last Friday, comes to the organization after spending six seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning as their director of hockey operations. He also took on an additional role as Tampa Bay’s assistant general manager before the 2022-23 season. Although Tampa Bay’s prospect pipeline has slowed down considerably in recent years, their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch have not missed the Calder Cup Playoffs since 2016.
As a player, Darche spent parts of nine seasons in the AHL, served as a captain, and won the Calder Cup as a member of the Milwaukee Admirals in 2004. In all, he played 552 regular-season AHL games and had 212-231-443, and he hit the 30-goal mark three times. He also played 250 regular-season NHL games.
“I believe in developing in a winning environment,” Darche said. “It doesn’t mean you’re going to win every year because the AHL is one of the toughest places to coach…so the AHL will definitely be a focus for me because your players have to be ready. Because, let’s face it, every team needs players called up during the year.
“Player development is a huge part of developing a winning organization. I want us to develop well. I want us to have success in the AHL. When I say [the organization] is ‘vertically integrated,’ that’s what it is. You can’t just have a good NHL teams and [say], ‘I don’t care about the AHL [affiliate].’ That’s your pipeline. You have to move forward. Player development, that’s where I think the Tampa Bay Lightning have done an unbelievable job.”
Darche also indicated that the organization’s ECHL affiliate, the Worcester Railers, will play a key role. AHL clubs rely heavily on their ECHL affiliates to plug rosters holes, and the ECHL can also be a valuable training ground to develop goaltenders and other raw talent.
Darche and his staff have a large task in front of them as they attempt to build up an operation in Bridgeport that has long struggled. Bridgeport entered the AHL for the 2001-02 season and reached the Calder Cup Finals that season. Since then, however, the team has missed the postseason cut 11 times and has only won one Calder Cup Playoff series.
Bridgeport’s 2024-25 performance landed the team 32 points behind the seventh-place Hartford Wolf Pack in the Atlantic Division, 37 points out of a playoff spot, and 59 points behind the regular-season division champion Hershey Bears. The team had a minus-113 goal differential, lost its final seven games, and won just seven of 36 games in the second half of the season.
With Bridgeport largely devoid of strong prospects, veterans Chris Terry, Brian Pinho, and Liam Foudy had to account for 35.3 percent of the team’s scoring. Terry managed to finish fourth in AHL scoring (19-47-66) while Pinho represented the team at the AHL All-Star Classic this past February. Bright spots beyond them became difficult to find. Bridgeport ranked last in the AHL with 4.08 goals-against per game and 31st overall with 2.51 goals per game. The power play finished 29th (15.6 percent) while the penalty kill was second-to-last at 74.2 percent.
Goaltender Marcus Hogberg ended up spending much of the season with the NHL club while Jakub Skarek only played 22 games for Bridgeport. Their absences left much of the goaltending work to Henrik Tikkanen (6-18-3 | 4.12 | .865 in 30 games) and Hunter Miska (2-8-0 | 4.28 | .861), who joined the team midseason from the KHL.
The Bridgeport coaching change is the second one in the AHL this week. Earlier the Philadelphia Flyers announced that Lehigh Valley Phantoms head coach Ian Laperriere will shift from that post to a hockey operations advisor.
If Darche goes for an experienced option, several former AHL head coaches may be available for consideration. Chris Taylor, an assistant coach with the New Jersey Devils for five seasons, is available; he served as head coach of the Rochester Americans for three seasons before going to New Jersey. The Anaheim Ducks did not retain assistant coach Brent Thompson, who was with Bridgeport before going west. Drew Bannister, released midseason by the St. Louis Blues, guided the San Antonio Rampage and Springfield Thunderbirds for parts of five seasons. J.D. Forrest, a Syracuse assistant coach, had four seasons as head coach of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins as well.
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