The New York Islanders, once a revered franchise in the NHL, have fallen on hard times. In the 1980s, the Islanders won four straight Stanley Cups, only one of two teams to ever achieve such a feat.
But since that point, there has been a mix of bad decisions and leadership dysfunction that have made them less revered and more of a laughingstock.
After their poor season, the Islanders missed the playoffs for the first time in two years. The first move that the Islanders made at the end of the season was to fire General Manager (GM) Lou Lamoriello, who had been with the organization since 2018.
Every part of the Islanders organization has been affected by Lamoriello’s presence. Under his tenure as GM, the Islanders made the playoffs five times and got to the conference finals twice in 2020 and 2021.
Lamoriello, at 82 years old, ran the organization the old-school way with a strict no facial hair policy. He was a builder throughout his career as an NHL GM, and his time in Long Island should be remembered fondly by fans as he helped build a few Stanley Cup-contending teams since the 1980s.
His tenure as GM was a successful one for the Islanders, even with many ups and downs.
But Lamoriello is not the only thing that the Islanders are deciding to move on from. The team has also fired longtime radio voice and play-by-play announcer Chris King, along with color commentator Greg Picker.
King has been broadcasting for the Islanders since 1998 and Picker since 2013. This announcement has been a dagger in the hearts of many Islanders fans.
The Islanders, looking for a few cost-cutting efforts, are now looking to simulcast their games from the television broadcast on Madison Square Garden (MSG) Networks to the radio. This is not an uncommon practice, as other NHL teams have done it before, notably the Carolina Hurricanes in 2018 after firing Chuck Kaiton, their longtime radio broadcaster going back to the Hurricanes’ days as the Hartford Whalers.
The broadcast being simulcasted to the radio will only make it even more difficult for listeners to understand what is going on during the game. On television, the broadcasters don’t have to describe every play like on the radio, where they try to create pictures for those who can’t watch. It will never be the same without a dedicated team on the radio side of things.
The Islanders are not just any other team: they are in one of the biggest sports markets in the United States. The Islanders are now one of the only teams in all of New York’s big four major sports franchises without a radio team. This move feels less like one that would be made by a professional sports organization in New York, but more like one made by a minor league organization hoping to keep its lights on with the cost savings.
MSG Networks’s Brendan Burke said on X about the move, “What I will say here is Chris King and Greg Picker bleed blue & orange. Their Isles passion and knowledge is what made them special and they are wonderful people.”
Afternoon drive host and radio voice of the New York Rangers Don La Greca called the move “small-time, small market and semi-pro. Do you really want that for your organization? How much is that really worth?”
After the pandemic, King and Picker didn’t travel with the team, and instead did the broadcasts from the studios at Hofstra University during every away game (except for games against the Rangers and New Jersey Devils).
The Islanders’ team evaluation over the years has skyrocketed. According to Forbes, they are worth $1.9 billion, and only a few years ago, they moved into the brand-new UBS Arena in Nassau County, New York. The amount of money that the organization will save with this move will be minimal in comparison to how the fans feel about this move.
This move is not only a loss for fans but also a loss for the students at Hofstra, where the games were being produced on WRHU 88.7 FM. Over the last 15 seasons, Hofstra students have helped oversee production and the engineering of the games, as well as some of the on-air roles.
The Hofstra student broadcasters are losing out on the valuable experience that many students don’t get until they are working their first job.
The Islanders ended this season as one of the bottom ten teams in attendance. This could be because fans cannot take the mismanagement and dysfunction that have seemed to follow this NHL franchise for the last few years.
