The 30-year-old forward was placed on long-term injured reserve Sunday, three days after a collision with New Jersey Devils forward Pavel Zacha in the first period of a 5-3 win March 11.
He will be out for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"The rehab will not be as bad as a lot of ACL injuries are because there is nothing else damaged," Lamoriello said. "We feel he will be ready for next season; we have all indications of that. Certainly knowing the character and discipline of Anders and the rehab that he will be so diligent at, that he will be ready for next season."
Lee, who has been Islanders captain since the start of the 2018-19 season, scored 19 points and is tied with center Brock Nelson for the New York lead with 12 goals in 27 games this season. He had played 295 consecutive games and missed three in the previous six seasons.
"He's the life of our team and he leads us," Islanders center Casey Cizikas said. "He's one of the one of the best character guys in our dressing room and guys look up to him. That's why he's our captain, so losing him definitely hurts. Guys have big shoes to fill and we're going to continue trying to push forward and do as well as we possibly can.
"From an athlete standpoint you try to do whatever you can to heal and take care of yourself because coming off an injury like that, you want to make sure that you're 100 percent. You don't want to be rushing things, you don't want to be putting yourself in a vulnerable spot when you come back. You've got to take care of yourself. And that's what you've got to do when you're rehabbing, when you're doing those things. Because when you come back, you want to be 100 percent. You want to add to the team as quickly as possible."
Lee's placement on long-term injured reserve frees up $7 million in space under the NHL salary cap. With the NHL Trade Deadline set for April 12, the Islanders could pursue pending unrestricted free agent forwards such as Taylor Hall (Buffalo Sabres) or Kyle Palmieri (New Jersey Devils).
Kieffer Bellows has scored three goals in three games in Lee's absence on New York's top forward line with Mathew Barzal and Jordan Eberle.
"There's no question that now that we have cap room with Anders being on LTIR deputy managing editor Adam Kimelman contributed to this report*
