Islanders fire coach Jack Capuano in his seventh season
The struggling New York Islanders fired coach Jack Capuano on Tuesday, ending his tenure in the middle of its seventh season.
General manager Garth Snow named assistant GM/coach Doug Weight as Capuano’s interim replacement. The Islanders were 17-17-8 and are in last place in the Eastern Conference with 42 points.
“The New York Islanders would like to thank Jack for his tireless work throughout his seven seasons with the organization as head coach,” Snow said in a statement. “His leadership guided the team to the playoffs in three of the past four years, which included two straight 100-point seasons.”
Capuano had been behind the Islanders bench since 2010 and was the fourth-longest tenured coach in the NHL behind Claude Julien of the Boston Bruins, Joel Quenneville of the Chicago Blackhawks and Dave Tippett of the Arizona Coyotes. Capuano’s 482 games and 227 wins rank second in franchise history behind four-time Stanley Cup-winning Hall of Fame coach Al Arbour.