Lou Lamoriello is ready to turn the page.
The New York Islanders president of hockey operations spoke candidly Tuesday about the departure of John Tavares.
"There's no aftermath. Players come and go," Lamoriello told Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post.
"It's different if they had won championships. It's different if they had had a lot of success. They haven't done much - and I don't say that with any disrespect. Haven't been to the playoffs the last couple years. Things haven't worked out the way everybody would have liked them to, from what my understanding is."
Since drafting Tavares No. 1 overall in 2009, the Islanders have qualified for the postseason three times, winning one playoff series against the Florida Panthers in 2016.
"So, an aftermath? There's no such thing in my mind," Lamoriello, who joined the club's front office in May, continued. "What the players we have here should be thinking about is not making the playoffs last year, and that's what the goal should be. Teams win, not players. Individual players win some games, but teams win championships. And that's what we have to create."
In addition to Tavares leaving to join his hometown Toronto Maple Leafs on July 1, the club lost one of its top blue-liners, Calvin de Haan, to the Carolina Hurricanes via free agency and its starting goaltender, Jaroslav Halak, signed with the Boston Bruins this summer to be Tuukka Rask's backup.
Like Lamoriello, new head coach Barry Trotz is looking ahead to the future.
"I don't think with us we mentioned John once, other than when we get asked," Trotz, who signed on to be the Isles' bench boss in June for a reported five years at $4 million per season, told Cyrgalis. "We move on. We're not looking back, we're looking forward."
The Islanders brought in veteran free agents Valtteri Filppula, Leo Komarov, and Tom Kuhnhackl, and traded for a familiar face in Matt Martin this offseason.
"The people that were brought in, they all have an element of one of two things," Trotz said. "They've either won, or they bring a high-character value to the group."
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