Peter DeBoer is back in the NHL as another head coach is fired!

Head coach Peter Deboer is back behind a bench in the National Hockey League.

In a shocking move, the New York Islanders have fired head coach Patrick Roy and have immediately replaced him with DeBoer despite there only being a handful of games remaining in the regular season.

The Islanders released the following statement:

New York Islanders General Manager and Executive Vice President Mathieu Darche announced today that Patrick Roy has been relieved of his coaching responsibilities. Peter DeBoer has been named Head Coach of the New York Islanders.

The move is especially surprising given that it has been made by a rookie general manager in Mathieu Darche, who made the move to fire a National Hockey League legend in Patrick Roy, and that it comes so late in the season with only 4 games remaining on the schedule for the Islanders.

DeBoer is of course a very highly respected figure in the hockey community and has had a great track record of leading teams on deep playoff runs throughout his career as an NHL head coach, despite always falling short of his ultimate goal of winning a Stanley Cup.

Another interesting detail here is that Roy only just recently challenged his team to play for him, doing so publicly in front of the media, and it may very well be the case that this public challenge to his players has backfired for Roy.

Update: NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman reports that this deal comes with term, making this slightly different than the coaching change we saw from the Vegas Golden Knights last week.

Stay tuned for more details.