New poll shows Islanders fans are the least confident in their front office

For the last eight years, ranking the confidence levels of each fanbase in their front office has been a staple of The Athletic’s NHL coverage.

The site released its 2023 version of its rankings on Wednesday, which weighed responses from over 11,000 fans across the league’s 32 teams plus 300 votes from a “general public” that voted on every team and ranked them all from most to least confident with a somewhat surprising new team earning the dishonorable title of last place — the New York Islanders.

“Aside from the Ilya Sorokin extension, there hasn’t been a lot to like from the Islanders’ decision-making brass of late,” NHL analyst Dom Luszczyszyn wrote. “… But even when the Islanders were at the top of their game there was evidence that this would be the end result. Trading Devon Toews for two seconds is not emblematic of a front office with a strong vision or process. Each move since has been further confirmation of that.”

Among the chief grievances raised by Islanders fans in the poll was general manager Lou Lamoriello’s penchant for handing out big-money, long-term contracts that typically tend to blow up in his face.

Down four spots from 28th last season, Lamoriello’s didn’t do himself any favors with some of the questionable contracts he signed players to this offseason including forward Pierre Engvall (seven years, $21M), defenseman Scott Mayfield (seven years, $24.5M) and 35-year-old backup goaltender Semyon Varlamov (four years, $11M).

Confidence in the Islanders front office is 51% less than it was last year among the fanbase, which gave the team grades of “D” or “D-“ in five of the six categories used to measure the club’s success including roster building, cap management, drafting and developing, trading, free agency and team vision. The fans gave the team a “C” in trading.

Confidence in the front office is 82% less than it was last year among the public, which gave the team grades of “D” in roster building and trading and a “D-“ in everything else.