TAMPA — When Barry Trotz was first presented with the opportunity to coach the Islanders, he wasn’t afraid of the challenge.

Assuming the role in June 2018 meant taking on a team that had missed the playoffs the previous two seasons and hadn’t gotten past the second round since 1993. The organization had endured the futile rebranding to the Fisherman logo, a fraudulent owner named John Spano, a revolving door for coaches and a stint in Brooklyn, where Barclays Center simply wasn’t equipped to host hockey games.

Then, after Trotz had been on the job for less than a month, former Islanders captain John Tavares jumped ship for his hometown team, the Maple Leafs.

Still, Trotz, who had coached the Capitals to the Stanley Cup title two weeks before taking the Islanders job, took the challenge head on and established one of the most well-respected cultures in the NHL. Trotz has brought the Islanders to the playoffs in each of his three seasons, including two straight trips to the Stanley Cup semifinals, and has led them into relevancy for the first time since the days of the dynasty from 1980-84.

“I think you will learn as a coach through experiences over time,” Trotz said Friday morning before the Islanders took the ice for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup semifinal against the Lightning. “In our business, we all watch, how we handle our own situations, we also watch how other coaches handle situations. Systematically, all coaches, we try to take the good and the bad from the people that we learn [from], observations and experiences, and try to learn from it.

“Over time, I know as a young coach, I wanted to, and I’ve said this before, I wanted to control everybody around and everything. I think what experience allowed me to do is filter out what really is important. It’s not necessarily how I feel that I have to take it out on different people, I think it’s understanding that sometimes the way I feel, it’s not really that accurate, and you have to sit back.

“Another way to say it, too, is that [with] experience you trust good people, you trust your staff, you trust your players. Because that experiences, they’re good pros, they’re good people.”

Since the Giants won the New York City area’s last title in 2011, only the 2015 Mets have gotten closer to a championship than the Islanders. The Yankees reached Game 7 of the ALCS in 2017, but ultimately lost to the Astros.

The Islanders are at the forefront of New York sports. While talent, competitiveness and skill are important, dynasties aren’t built without leadership. Coach Al Arbour and general manager Bill Torrey proved that sentiment during the Islanders’ four consecutive championships in the 1980s.

There may never be another four-peat in NHL history, but Trotz and general manager Lou Lamoriello have certainly laid some solid groundwork to build upon. More than anything, Trotz already knows what it takes to win a Stanley Cup.

“I think just his demeanor,” Travis Zajac said when asked what’s unique about Trotz. “He’s got a presence about him, and the way he talks, the way he prepares us for games. You just feel real confident in him behind the bench and the decisions he makes. You see the track record he’s had, he’s won before and he’s been in this league a long time.

“He’s a veteran coach, he knows how to adapt to different situations and he’s got us on the right track.”