For the New York Islanders, the new season brings a familiar kind of hope. After the sting of the 2025-26 collapse, there’s a temptation to chase fixes fast and lean hard on the brightest thing they have.
But with Matthew Schaefer, that urge could come at a cost. The Islanders have to protect their star defenseman, not run him into the ground.
That caution starts with how much he’s already accomplished. Schaefer just wrapped up one of the best rookie seasons in the salary cap era, a 23-goal breakout that earned him the unanimous Calder Trophy.
The 19-year-old now faces a tougher follow-up because he set the bar so high. As dazzling as he was, the Islanders still need to remember he’s early in his career and still physically developing.
The offensive production made the headlines, but Schaefer’s game was far more complete than the scoring alone suggested. As the 2025 first-overall pick, he arrived with massive expectations and delivered beyond them. He became the record holder among 18-year-old defensemen in goal scoring, and he did it while showing he could handle both ends of the ice.
At five-on-five, his defensive numbers held up well within the team context. Among the five Islanders defensemen who played at least 75 games, Schaefer ranked fourth in expected goals against per 60 minutes at 2.96 xGA/60, according to Natural Stat Trick.
That figure was only 0.04 behind Ryan Pulock for third. In actual goals against per 60 at five-on-five, Schaefer was third at 2.28 GA/60.
The gap between those two numbers was significant, but that was true across the roster and tied in large part to Ilya Sorokin’s work.
The bigger picture was even stronger. Schaefer posted a 55.12 goals share, meaning the Islanders scored 55.12% of the goals while he was on the ice.
Only two Islanders defensemen finished above 50% in that category: Schaefer and Pulock. For an 18-year-old, that kind of impact pushed his stock even higher.
But all of that excellence came with a heavy workload. Schaefer played more minutes than any other Islanders defenseman, and while only five defensemen on the team topped 1,000 minutes, he finished with more than 2,000.
That was the fifth-highest ice time among NHL defensemen. It says plenty about the trust he earned.
It also raises obvious concerns about what happens if that usage stays this high.
The physical risks are part of the league, and hockey always carries them. Broken bones and collision injuries happen.
The bigger worry here is soft-tissue trouble, especially in a condensed 2025-26 season that saw more injuries than usual. The Florida Panthers, for example, lost almost 600 man-games to injury.
Even with an extended schedule ahead, there’s no guarantee that the injury burden gets lighter.
For the Islanders, the equation is simple: they cannot afford a serious injury to their best young defenseman. Playing him the way Patrick Roy did last season may have made sense during a playoff push, but that logic changes if the team is not in contention. Schaefer is the bridge to a better future, and keeping him healthy has to matter as much as anything else.
There’s also the development side. Schaefer has the talent to become one of the best defensemen in the world, if he isn’t already there.
He needs meaningful minutes, but he also needs space to learn from mistakes before they harden into habits. That matters even more under a new head coach with a different system, like Pete DeBoer.
None of this means Schaefer can’t handle responsibility. He clearly can.
It means the Islanders have a rare asset on their hands, and they need to be smart about how they use him. Rest, growth, and protection all matter here.
If they want the future to outshine the present, they have to resist the easy temptation to overplay him.
In Other News...
Pete DeBoer Is Pushing An Islanders Identity Change That Had To Happen
Pete DeBoers first full season behind the Islanders bench is shaping up as a course correction built on clarity. After a season in which the defensive end needed to look a lot cleaner, the message has been simple so far: keep the game organized, make the reads easier and lean into the kind of structure that lets players know exactly what is expected of them. Bo Horvat and Brayden Schenn have both noted how straightforward DeBoer has been, which matters for a team trying to establish a new standard rather than just patch over old problems.
The bigger challenge is making that identity show up everywhere else on the ice, not just in the defensive zone. The Islanders are also looking to rework their breakouts, improve how they handle the neutral zone and get more out of the power play, all while trying to make the team harder to play against in the areas that decide games. For a roster that needs its details sharpened, the change is less about flash than about habits, and that is exactly why it feels overdue. [Read more 🡒]
Islanders Camp Opens With One Big Question About Key Veterans
The Islanders opened 2026-27 training camp with a familiar mix of optimism and uncertainty, as several key veterans showed up in various stages of recovery. Semyon Varlamov is back on the ice after a lengthy rehab, Alex Romanov is said to be in strong shape, and Pierre Engvall has returned after hip and ankle procedures, giving the club a better sense of its depth as the preseason opener against the New Jersey Devils approaches.
Mathew Barzal is the name that hangs over the first few days of camp, even as the Islanders take a cautious approach with his latest injury issue. The team is treating the situation carefully, which leaves his immediate availability for the opener very much up in the air, and it adds another layer of intrigue to a camp that already feels like a test of how quickly this group can get healthy and settled. [Read more 🡒]
Devils Prospects Suddenly Have A Real Opening Night Opportunity
Training camp is giving the Devils a real chance to sort through a few young players before the roster gets locked in for opening night, and three prospects have quickly become names to watch. Amadeus Lombardi, Anton Silaev and Nico Daws are all in the mix as New Jersey works through its final decisions, with the preseason set to open Sept. 20 against the Islanders.
For New York, it is another early reminder that the teams around it are already treating these exhibition games like auditions with consequences. The Devils still have some sorting to do, but the camp chatter has made clear that this is not just about filling out the preseason lineup, and one of the more interesting roster battles is unfolding in goal, where Daws could force his way into a much bigger role if the opportunity stays open. [Read more 🡒]