The Islanders have an AHL coaching search on their hands.
Brent Thompson, who had coached the team’s affiliate in Bridgeport since 2014, is leaving the organization to be an assistant coach on Greg Cronin’s staff with the Ducks, The Post confirmed. The Orange County Register first reported Thompson’s hire.
Thompson totaled 10 years behind the bench for Bridgeport, also serving as head coach during the 2011-12 season before a two-year stint as an NHL assistant with the Islanders. He and Cronin were both in the Islanders’ organization from 2014-18, when Cronin was an assistant on Jack Capuano and Doug Weight’s NHL staffs.
It is not yet clear whether Rick Kowalsky and Chris Terreri, Thompson’s assistant and goaltending coaches in Bridgeport, will be candidates for the vacancy, but both have the résumés to suggest they could be.
Kowalsky’s association with Islanders president Lou Lamoriello dates back to his beginnings in coaching, when he was tapped as the head coach of the ECHL Trenton Titans in 2006, staying on as it became a Devils affiliate the next season. He stayed in New Jersey’s organization, including as an NHL assistant, from then until 2021 when the Bridgeport Islanders hired him.
Terreri goes back even further with Lamoriello, who coached him as a freshman at Providence College in 1982-83. As a player, Terreri then played for Lamoriello’s Devils before coming back to work for him with the Devils, then Islanders.
Those would be the two most obvious names to take over, though Terreri’s experience is almost exclusively as a goaltending or development coach.
Under Thompson, Bridgeport never made it past the first round of the playoffs, but successfully developed prospects including Adam Pelech, Ryan Pulock, Scott Mayfield and Devon Toews.
The organization’s prospect pool is routinely ranked toward the bottom of the league, but a group including Arnaud Durandeau, William Dufour and Matt Maggio has some promise.
The Islanders also have also yet to announce whether they will be bringing back NHL assistants John MacLean and Doug Houda. Lamoriello has confirmed that head coach Lane Lambert and director of goaltending Mitch Korn will return.