Lou Lamoriello Speaks: As you were

At long last, and for whatever reason, New York Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello came down from the mountain and spoke for the first time since the Islanders were eliminated from the playoffs a month and a half ago.

As you probably expected, he said the things you imagine he would — so he could’ve waited to speak until August after all.

Here you go:

He did say, however, the reason he didn’t speak soon after breakup day when the players did, is he had “lots of questions” that he wanted to answer (about the team, not from media, obviously).

Lane Lambert “remains under contract” as does Lou, which is to say he is still the head coach. But the GM did not pledge the same for the entire coaching staff.

He of course wants his free agents back, though we know that will be a hard salary cap puzzle to figure out if he is to fit Scott Mayfield, Semyon Varlamov, Zach Parise (barring retirement) and Pierre Engvall in while Mat Barzal and Bo Horvat already have massive raises baked in.

On Josh Bailey, who has seen the writing on the wall that he’s no longer a regular, and was scratched for all six playoff games. It looks like it’s “near the end”:

Anyway, that’s that. Back into the cave until the qualifying offers and draft.

As you were.