Bo Horvat is officially the face of the Islanders’ leadership room now, and Peter DeBoer sounds ready to spread that responsibility far beyond one letter on a sweater.
On Monday morning, the Islanders announced Horvat as the 16th captain in franchise history, a move that marks a clear shift as the team heads toward the 2026-27 season. It also brings Horvat back into familiar territory. After Henrik Sedin retired, he served as captain of the Vancouver Canucks for four years before arriving on Long Island.
The change from Anders Lee, who has worn the “C” since 2019, is a significant one, but hardly a shocking one. Horvat has already done the job before, and the Islanders are handing him the same kind of responsibility again.
DeBoer, though, made it clear this won’t be a one-man operation. He confirmed that Ryan Pulock and Kyle Palmieri will return as alternate captains, and he described a much larger group helping steer the room.
"Definitely the guys who wore A's last year are going to come back, and they'll wear A's (Ryan Pulock and Kyle Palmieri)," DeBoer said Monday. "But that leadership group around those guys is going to be significantly bigger than three people.
There's a lot of really good people: Mat Barzal, Adam Pelech, Palms. There's a lot of other guys -- Schaefer, obviously -- that whole leadership group.
"I'm sure I'm leaving some guys out here. I'm going off the top of my head.
My daily interactions, I'll probably have more 1-on-1s with Bo than those other guys. But the direction our team moves will be from that group."
That group now includes some established veterans and one rising name in Matthew Schaefer, whom DeBoer singled out as part of the mix. The Islanders are also set for a notable season opener, with Schaefer and the team facing 2026 1st-overall pick Gavin McKenna.
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