Pete DeBoer has wasted little time putting a clear stamp on the Islanders: if you earn it, you keep it.
That showed up again Thursday night in Ottawa, where Matias Maccelli opened on Bo Horvat’s top line with Kyle Palmieri after jumping up from the fourth line off a goal and an assist in Tuesday night’s 3-2 win over the Canucks at UBS Arena. It showed up on the blue line too, with Logan Stanley still alongside No. 1 defenseman Matthew Schaefer after signing as a free agent on Sept.
- And it showed up in net, where Semyon Varlamov made his second start of the season as he continues his return from two partial knee replacement surgeries that had kept him out since Nov.
29, 2024.
For DeBoer, the idea is straightforward: reward the guys who are driving play, and make sure everyone knows exactly where they stand.
“It’s awesome,” Maccelli, signed as a free agent on July 1 after the Maple Leafs failed to tender him a qualifying offer, said when Newsday asked about being rewarded quickly. “You want to go in and boost your confidence.
Pucks all of a sudden start following you out there. It feels really good.”
Palmieri said the internal push has been a real plus for the room.
“It’s really good to have that kind of internal competition,” Palmieri told Newsday. “On any given night it gives you the opportunity, it doesn’t matter where you start the game. Some of the in-game adjustments have worked pretty well.”
That part matters. A coach can spot hot hands, but it takes real touch to move pieces around without making players feel like they’re getting jerked around. Palmieri said the key is knowing when to tweak and when to let things breathe.
“It’s more about the balance of it,” Palmieri said. “Sometimes you have coaches who hit the line blender after the first three or four shifts and, sometimes, that’s maybe a little frustrating as a player.
As you play for a coach, you start to get to know him and his tendencies. As we all continue to get comfortable with each other, it’ll just continue to be more of an impact on the game.”
DeBoer came into the season in a strange in-between spot: new coach, but not totally new. He was hired to replace Patrick Roy with four games left last season, so he had a head start on learning the group. Still, he said the process is very much ongoing.
“It is communication,” DeBoer said. “I think we were really clear right at the beginning of [training] camp.
I’m still getting to know this group and I haven’t been with these guys for two or three years. A coach that has that experience with a group, that’s had success with certain line combinations over a long period of time, maybe gives a little more runway.
That’s not the case here.
“Everybody is trying to show me where they fit and what they’re capable of doing. I want to reward the guys early that are doing it. The guys going the other direction on those haven’t necessarily played poorly and I think that sometimes gets lost in translation.”
Stanley said he wasn’t familiar with the word “meritocracy,” but he understood the message just fine.
He also noticed DeBoer staying with Palmieri on Horvat’s line even after Palmieri went point-less through the first five games. That patience paid off against Vancouver, when Palmieri scored twice, including the winner.
“It’s not junior hockey anymore,” Stanley told Newsday. “It’s grown men.
Pete wants to win. Whoever is going on any given night is going to be out there a little bit more.
But there’s definitely a balance. A guy like Palms comes off a big injury last year and it takes guys a little bit to find it when you miss that much time.”
Varlamov’s usage fits a different kind of plan. With Ilya Sorokin, the Islanders are not treating that spot the same way they are the rest of the lineup. DeBoer said the goal is to keep his No. 1 goalie fresh.
“I want to make sure that Varly gets in the net at least once a week or once every 10 days,” DeBoer said. “We’ve got a loose framework where we don’t want to overwork Ilya and we want to respect the fact that we have a great backup.”
For now, the message is clear, the leash is short, and the ice time is being handed out exactly the way DeBoer wants it.
In Other News...
Kyle Palmieri May Be Giving The Islanders Needed Scoring Hope
Kyle Palmieris return to the scoresheet offered the Islanders a welcome jolt against Vancouver, a reminder that one of their more reliable scoring pieces may be finding his way back at the right time. After spending months working through recovery from the torn ACL in his left knee he suffered in November 2025, Palmieri had been focused on getting himself back to a point where he could help more than just by showing up in the lineup.
The timing matters because the Islanders have been searching for offense, and Palmieris first points of the 2026-27 season came at a useful moment. He said the emphasis has been on recovery and on improving his impact on the team, and his performance against the Canucks at least suggests there may be more to come as he settles back in. [Read more 🡒]
Islanders Prospect Is Starting To Look Like A Draft Steal
A late-round defenseman can be easy to overlook in a draft class, but Vladimir Dravecky is starting to attract attention in a way that should matter to the Islanders. The 2026 fifth-round pick is developing with the Guelph Storm, where associate coach Ron Davison, a former Islanders defenseman, has been able to see the progress up close. Davison has liked what Dravecky has brought so far, pointing to his growing role, his time on the power play and the offensive flashes that make him more than just a depth project.
Dravecky is also being molded by a staff that includes Davison and Dan Girardi, which gives the Islanders a familiar development path to watch as he keeps moving through junior hockey. There is still work to do, as there always is with a young defenseman, but the early signs are encouraging enough that this pick no longer looks like a simple lottery ticket. For an organization always looking to add impact on the blue line, Dravecky is becoming a prospect worth following closely. [Read more 🡒]
Islanders Just Put A Bigger Spotlight On Semyon Varlamov
Semyon Varlamov is getting another chance to settle in for the Islanders, with a start against the Senators marking his second of the season. It also sends him back to Ottawa for the first time since the knee injury that cut short his 2024 run there, a fitting backdrop for a goalie trying to reestablish a rhythm after a rocky debut earlier in the year.
The Islanders have made it clear they want Varlamov to be part of the equation, not just a fill-in, as they manage the crease with an eye on keeping Ilya Sorokin fresh down the stretch. Mathieu Darche and Pete DeBoer both see a real workload for Varlamov this season, and each outing now carries a little more weight as the team keeps testing how much it can lean on him when the games matter most. [Read more 🡒]