EAST MEADOW, NY — After averaging 24:41 per game in 2025-26, the hope entering this New York Islanders’ season was that Pete DeBoer wouldn’t have to rely on Matthew Schaefer as heavily as Patrick Roy did.
Roy’s main reason for giving Schaefer that much ice time was pretty simple: He was trying to win hockey games.
Schaefer was the Islanders’ X-factor, and he proved throughout his rookie season that he could handle the workload.
With Alexander Romanov returning and Logan Stanley added to the blue line, though, Schaefer might not have to eat minutes at quite the same rate.
Through the first three games, the now 19-year-old, who has been playing on the right side, has averaged 24:27.
Part of that was Schaefer playing 25:03 in the Islanders’ 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Tuesday, with New York chasing the game and then losing Romanov to what we now know is a torn right ACL in the third period.
Romanov is expected to miss six to eight months, putting the rest of his 2026-27 season in serious jeopardy.
With Romanov out, an already shaky Islanders defense corps just got shakier.
And while the organization has made it clear that this is a team in transition, what the Islanders elect to do with Schaefer’s minutes from here is vital.