Marc Bergevin, Mathieu Darche in the running to become next Islanders GM

While the New York Islanders’ hunt for a GM is well underway, sources are indicating to Frank Seravalli that Marc Bergevin and Mathieu Darche are in the running to take the job.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Yesterday, you had a report about the islander’s GM vacancy. It could be down to a two-horse race there?

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, always careful to, you know, definitely call it a two-horse race. There might be a another late entrant or a stalking horse, so to speak, but yeah, sources suggest that if we were to handicap it at this point right now, fittingly, the horse racing metaphor because they arena backs up to Belmont Park is that it’s a two horse race between Mark Bergervin and Mathieu Darche.

Frank Seravalli: They’ve gone back and forth for a while. I think both of these guys understand that they are finalists for the position. They both had multiple interviews and two totally different um paths to get to this point. I was kind of surprised that Bergevin, who was a 10-year NHL GM and spent the last three years as a senior advisor in LA, was kind of quickly passed over for the position that went to Ken Holland. And in Darche’s case, who’s been with the Tampa Bay Lightning since 2019, I’ve seen a lot of really interesting reporting and characterization of his candidacy.

Frank Seravalli: No doubt he’s a strong candidate, but it’s really funny because I’ve seen stuff say that he’s the only person qualified for this job and I’m thinking, like, there’s assistant GMs out there that have been doing what he did for five years for the last 20 to 25 years and had their fingerprints on every facet of a hockey operations. I just don’t buy that. I think he’s a strong candidate for sure and has definitely learned a lot under Julien BriseBois, but at the same time, it feels like a guy that’s sort of been out there campaigning that is a guy that’s taken breaks from running the Tampa Bay lightning every spring to involve himself in GM seat is that I’m sure at some point he’s gonna break through, but it’s been an interesting path to this point.