If the Islanders are no longer content to keep on running it back, then who is the best person to move them forward?
That is the first and most important question facing the franchise after the season ended with a 6-3 loss to the Hurricanes on Wednesday and the only person who can answer it is owner Scott Malkin, in whose hands rests the fate of general manager Lou Lamoriello.
The 81-year-old Hall of Famer has presided over an immensely successful six-year run that started in 2018, but his refusal to make changes to the roster has left the Islanders too good to rebuild, but not good enough to compete for a Stanley Cup.
If ownership and Lamoriello are on the same page as to where to go from here, whether it is running it back again or retooling, then he will undoubtedly still be in place for next season.
But if not, then there is a real question around how the Islanders will proceed.
The Post looks at four more questions the franchise must address this offseason.
Do Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck return?
Martin and Clutterbuck are synonymous with the Islanders’ identity, and both will be free agents July 1.
Martin has yet to indicate whether he wants to play another season, while Clutterbuck sounded last month like he wanted to play another year, saying he still thinks he’s capable.
If one or both decide to play another year, the question becomes whether that will be with the Islanders or elsewhere.
What happens to the assistant coaches?
Other than Benoit Desrosiers, a midseason hire who worked with Patrick Roy in Quebec City, the entire staff of assistants was hired under Barry Trotz or Lane Lambert.
Doug Houda ran the penalty kill, which finished dead last in the league.
John MacLean ran the power play, which improved from 2022-23, but still ended the year in the bottom half of the league and struggled badly for the last month of the season.
Director of goaltending Mitch Korn has worked with Trotz for most of the last 25 years and it’s fair to wonder whether Roy would want to bring in his own hire to coach goaltenders — Francois Allaire, anyone? — instead of Piero Greco.
Can Ilya Sorokin fix his game?
Let’s get this out of the way — Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov will be the goaltending tandem next season.
Even if the Islanders wanted otherwise, which they do not, Sorokin has an eight-year extension with a no-move clause kicking in July 1 and Varlamov is entering the second of a four-year deal signed last offseason under which he holds a full no-trade clause until 2025-26.
Great goalies have had subpar seasons before and history says they usually recover from it, so nobody is hitting the panic button here.
But a bad start to 2024-25 for Sorokin would start to set off alarm bells.
Will the Islanders keep their draft pick?
With their season finished, the Islanders are locked into the 18th pick in the first round, if they keep it.
The last time Lamoriello made a first-round pick was in 2019, a full presidential administration ago, and the effects on the Islanders’ farm system have been just as you would expect.
But Lamoriello sounded willing to deal away a first-rounder at the trade deadline if the right deal had come along, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him make a move ahead of the draft if he gets an offer he likes.
