The NY Islanders have officially hired Benoit Desrosiers as an assistant coach.

Until Lou Lamoriello declares something official, it’s not official. Benoit Desrosiers’ potential hiring by Patrick Roy’s coaching staff was leaked, as it turned out, and this didn’t harm his chances of joining the team and sitting behind the new head coach of the New York Islanders.

Desrosiers, who assisted Roy as an assistant coach with the Quebec Remparts from 2018 to 2013, was added to the Islanders staff as an assistant coach, according to a French-Canadien news source on January 22. The Islanders denied the report after it started to circulate, claiming that Desrosiers had not been hired by the team but that he was scheduled to meet Lamorielloin in the future.

The 35-year-old, who was previously head coach of the QMJHL’s Gatineau Olympiques, joins a staff that also includes Doug Houda and John MacLean. Desrosiers had worked as an assistant coach for the Chicoutimi Saguenéens in 2012–13 and Sherbrooke Phoenix for four seasons before joining Roy in Quebec.

Roy has spoken widely about his time as the Remparts’ coach and the lessons he took away from his 2016 resignation from the Colorado Avalanche since joining Lamoriello. The Quebec junior team won the Memorial Cup in 2023 after being led by him to become one of the league’s best defensively constructed squads.

Desrosiers’s addition provides Roy with an additional voice that is knowledgeable about his system. That doesn’t necessarily mean Roy won’t be as animated during practice, where he has been yelling directions while whistling and banging his stick, but it is significant that Roy now has a translator for the same language he is using on Long Island.