The New York Islanders have spent this season juggling their lineup just to keep up with the injuries, and nowhere has that been more obvious than on the blue line.
Three projected top-six forwards - Mathew Barzal, Calum Ritchie and Matias Maccelli - are currently out, though each is expected back at some point. On defense, the hit came even harder: Alexander Romanov’s season ended with an ACL injury in the third game of the year.
That forced head coach Peter DeBoer to keep reshuffling the pairings, and one of his most interesting calls came when he slid Logan Stanley up next to Matthew Schaefer on the top duo. It was an unexpected move, especially since Stanley was signed right before the regular season after training camp had already wrapped. Plenty of fans were skeptical, but the results have made that reaction look premature.
Stanley has fit in well alongside Schaefer, who has been firmly planted on the No. 1 pairing and is logging by far the most ice time on the team. Through 12 games, no Islanders defensive pair has been on the ice for more goals than Stanley and Schaefer. According to Money Puck, New York is ahead 5-3 with that tandem out there, and the pair has posted a 55.6% expected Goals Percentage with 2.79 expected goals per 60 minutes.
The encouraging numbers haven’t stopped there. Stanley has helped drive play with whichever partner he’s lined up beside. In 12 games with Adam Pelech, the Islanders have posted an expected goals percentage of 80% over 12 minutes, the best mark on the team among pairings and lines that have played at least 10 minutes.
His pairing with Ryan Pulock has also been productive. Stanley and Pulock have generated a 62.5% expected goals percentage across 11.7 minutes in 12 games. The sample sizes are small, but the trend is hard to miss: when Stanley is out there, New York is tilting the ice in the right direction.
Offense hasn’t been Stanley’s calling card in the NHL, but he’s giving the Islanders a real lift anyway. He has five assists and a plus/minus of +8, which leads the team heading into its game against the Minnesota Wild.
For a team trying to survive a long list of injuries, DeBoer has done a solid job of stitching the defense together. More importantly, the combinations he’s chosen are working.
In Other News...
Matthew Schaefer Is Already Earning The Kind Of Praise Islanders Fans Crave
After the Islanders 4-3 overtime win against the Minnesota Wild, Matthew Schaefer picked up something every young defenseman wants early in his career: a public nod from one of the games best. Quinn Hughes, the 2024 Norris Trophy winner, praised the 2025 NHL Draft first overall pick and pointed to the way Schaefer has already handled the jump to the league at 19, a stretch that has come with 95 NHL games and the kind of attention that usually follows elite blue-liners.
For Islanders fans, the appeal goes beyond the highlights and the draft pedigree. Schaefer was the first unanimous Calder Trophy winner since 1992, and Hughes comments only added to the sense that the Islanders may already have a cornerstone on defense. The bigger question now is how high that trajectory can go as he matures, because the leagues top voices are starting to talk about him in a way that suggests his ceiling is still very much ahead of him. [Read more 🡒]
Islanders Are Playing Through Too Much To Keep Getting Overlooked
The early part of the 2026-27 season has already asked plenty of the Islanders, with season-ending injuries to Alexander Romanov and the continued absence of Mathew Barzal forcing the group to keep adjusting on the fly. Even so, Peter DeBoers club has found a way to stay organized defensively, and the results have started to show with points in seven of its last eight games. For a team that has had to absorb so much so soon, that kind of steadiness has mattered.
Matthew Schaefer has been a big part of why the Islanders have been able to keep hanging around in the standings. The young defenseman has already turned in some eye-catching moments, including a franchise record for longest shift and a game-winning overtime goal, the sort of stretch that can change how a team is viewed around the league. If the Islanders keep playing this way while they wait for more help to arrive, the conversation around them may finally have to catch up. [Read more 🡒]