The Islanders are turning the page on a one-off lineup wrinkle as they wrap up their three-game road trip tonight in St. Paul against the Minnesota Wild.
New York arrives in Minnesota with the trip split right down the middle. The Islanders opened with a 6-3 loss to the Dallas Stars, then bounced back with a 4-3 shootout win over the Nashville Predators. That win also gave New York its first victory in that building since 2017.
Peter DeBoer made a notable adjustment for the Nashville game, inserting Scott Mayfield back into the lineup and scratching Kyle MacLean. That pushed the Islanders into an 11-forward, 7-defensemen setup, and the minutes reflected it.
Matthew Kessel logged just 5:31, while Mayfield played 9:06. Every other defenseman skated more than 16 minutes, with Matthew Schaefer going a career-high 32:16, including all five minutes of overtime.
The forward group felt the squeeze too. Mitchell Chaffee played a little more than 7 and a half minutes, and Casey Cizikas barely got over 10.
For tonight, the Islanders are back to their usual structure. MacLean is back in after sitting out one game, and Kessel is the healthy scratch. That restores the standard 12-forward, 6-defensemen alignment.
Ilya Sorokin gets the start in goal after having Tuesday night off.
Full Islanders lineup:
Forwards: Simon Holmstrom - Bo Horvat - Kyle Palmieri
Emil Heineman - Brayden Schenn - Victor Eklund
Ondrej Palat - Jean-Gabriel Pageau - Anthony Duclair
Kyle MacLean - Casey Cizikas - Mitchell Chaffee
Defense: Logan Stanley - Matthew Schaefer
Adam Pelech - Ryan Pulock
Scott Mayfield - Tony DeAngelo
Starting goalie: Ilya Sorokin
In Other News...
Matthew Schaefer Is Putting An Untouchable NHL Teen Mark In Play
Matthew Schaefer has already done enough in a brief NHL career to make the Islanders pay attention every night, and the 19-year-old keeps stacking production at a pace that is hard to ignore. He has averaged nearly a point per game so far, and with the way he is being leaned on in New York, his scoring touch is no longer just a promising start. It is becoming part of the conversation around how far he can push this season.
The bigger picture is even more striking because Schaefer is still a teenager, which keeps the door open on a mark long considered out of reach. He is still tracking toward a huge year offensively, and the ice time he is getting suggests the Islanders are willing to let him learn on the fly while he drives play. If that usage continues, the chase could get very real before his next birthday. [Read more 🡒]
Islanders Patience With Maxim Shabanov Looks Worse By The Week
Maxim Shabanov arrived on Long Island in 2025 with the kind of rsum that tends to buy a player a little patience. After a strong KHL season, the Russian winger was brought in to see whether his skill could translate to the NHL, but the Islanders never got much return on that bet during his rookie year. For a team that has spent years looking for offense wherever it can find it, the decision to move on from a player with upside already looked like a gamble.
Mathieu Darche made the call not to extend a qualifying offer, and Shabanov left to sign a one-year deal with the Minnesota Wild. Early in his new stop, he has looked far more comfortable than he ever did in the Islanders organization, and that is only sharpening the frustration around the original decision. With Shabanov producing right away elsewhere, the Islanders are left to wonder whether they were too quick to let a gifted scorer get away before he ever had a real chance to settle in. [Read more 🡒]
Islanders Keep Hanging Around Despite A Lineup Problem That Wont Go Away
The Islanders have been piecing together their lineup on the fly, and it has not been a small issue. Injuries have forced constant adjustments around key names like Mathew Barzal, Calum Ritchie, Matias Maccelli and Alexander Romanov, yet the group keeps finding a way to stay in the mix. A 6-4-2 start has been enough to keep them relevant, with captain Bo Horvat, defenseman Matthew Schaefer and the goaltending tandem of Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov giving the club a steady base.
There is still plenty of uncertainty built into every game plan, though, and Barzal remains a particularly important one for the Islanders to solve as the schedule rolls on. Even with the rotation of bodies and the obvious roster strain, the club has climbed to No. 19 in the NHL power rankings, a sign that the early results have impressed outside observers as much as they have helped inside the room. The question now is whether they can keep hanging around while the lineup problem refuses to go away. [Read more 🡒]