It’s the end of an era. What that era means, no one really knows.
Brent Thompson, the longtime AHL coach for the New York Islanders — mostly of the “Bridgeport Sound Tigers,” who in recent years have been known simply as the Bridgeport Islanders — has left the organization to accept an assistant coach position in the NHL, with the Anaheim Ducks. He’ll join the staff of new head coach Greg Cronin, who was Bridgeport’s first coach and whose second stint with the Islanders at the NHL level overlapped with Thompson’s Bridgeport run.
Thompson spent two years (2012-14) as an assistant on the NHL Islanders bench, before returning to lead Bridgeport, which he initially led in 2011-12 after leading a championship at ECHL Alaska.