(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Top Comments: Islanders Season Recap, Matthew Schaefer Edition [1] ['View Profile', 'Back Of Bourke'] Date: 2026-04-21 Normally, this is the time of the year where I rant about how badly the New York Islanders season went. Sure. there are plenty of things for that list. I did go into the season with zero expectations and for a large part of the season, I was enjoying the hell out of the season. Thanks to our goalie performing at a Vezina Trophy level for most of the season, a healthy season from our top forward, and the emergence of of our number 1 overall draft pick, Matthew Schaefer, one could see the light moving towards the team being a contender for the Stanley Cup sooner rather than later. However, the underlying numbers of the team’s performance showed they are still a long way from becoming a contender. After a late season swoon that was eminently predictable, the general manager opted to fire the coach due to the avaiabilty pf a highly touted coach. Rather than wait until the offseason, the GM took the chance to save the season by making the switch with 4 games left. It didn’t happen, but the team seemed to have a bit of a better defensive zone structure those 4 games. At the beginning of the season, it was expected to be an evaluation season where the GM would consider how to effectively move the team towards the ultimate goal. Somewhere along the way, when the team was holding down a playoff position despite the clear signs the team had no chance at winning a Cup nor maybe even making the playoffs, the GM decided to end his evaluation and make three moves that made absolutely no sense essentially tripling down on the type of player we already had too many enough and are both on the wrong side of 30 and not very effective in the way most of the League is playing. That will all be what I say regarding the negatives of the season except to say it turned a fun season into a miserable one. Not the beginning you want when things looked so promising less than a year ago. Now on Matthew Schaefer and his record breaking rookie season as an 18 year old defenseman. I noted in a previous the Islanders owned the `0th pick in last year’s draft. While they had a chance to win the draft lottery and move up to the 1st overall spot, it was only a 3.5% chance. After the first three balls appeared, the Islanders were on of 6 teams left with a chance to win the lottery. One of the two numbers the Islanders needed to win was 13, the number of our best skater, Mathew Barzal. Lo and behold, the 4th and final ball to appear was #13. The Islanders had won and would be picking 1st overall and the right to select the consensus best player, defenseman, Matthew Schaefer. Schaefer, by virtue of being born on September 5, would become one of the youngest drafted players in the modern NHL missing the cutoff for the 2026 draft by less than two weeks. Going into the season, few expected Schaefer to make the team out of camp. He only play 17 games in the OHL in the previous season due to injuries. To go from junior hockey to the NHL as an 18 year old is difficult enough but even more so with so little playing time in your draft year. However, it was clear fromtraining camp and pre-season, Schaefer would be given every opportunity to make the team. Boy, did he. In his first two games, Schaefer became the youngest defenseman in NHL history to record record his first point/assist (game 1) and youngest defenseman in NHL history to score his first goal (game 2). He would go on to record at least one point in his first 6 games tying the record for scoring streak to start an NHL career while also being the first 18 year old defenseman to do it as well as the being the first defenseman selected #1 overall to do it. By scoring the game winning goal in his sixth game, Schaefer became the youngest NHL defendant to record a game winning goal. By the end of the season, Schaefer scored 23 goals tying the rookie record for goals scored in a season by a defenseman first set by ex-Ranger Brian Leetch in the 1988-89 season, who had played 17 games the previous season. (The NHL shifts someone’s official rookie season forward if they play less than 25 games in their first season playing in the NHL.) He holds both the goal scoring and point scoring records for 18 yer old defensemen in NHL history taking the top spot from Phil Housley (Buffalo) who was the previous record holder back in the 82-83 season. (Housley also spent some time that season playing forward.) For the Islanders, Schaefer holds the record for 18 year olds in goals, assists and points. With similar totals next season, Schaefer could claim all those records for Islanders teenagers as he will spend the entire season as 19 year old. To continue on the goal scoring records, Schaefer also now holds the record for youngest player to score an overtime goal in NHL history and is the only 18 year old defenseman to do it as well. He also bested Bobby Orr’s record by scoring 7 goals in his first 18 games. He is also the youngest defenseman in NHL history to score a goal in consecutive games as well as being the youngest defenseman to record a multi-goal game. Finally on the goal scoring front, Schaefer became the first rookie defenseman to be the first rookie to score 20 goals. Prior to him, every rookie to be the first to score 20 goals was a forward. Time-on-ice per game (TOI) has only been tracked by the NHL for about 25 years. Since that data has been tracked, Schaefer set the record for 18 year olds with a staggering 31:59 in one game back in March vs Chicago. That game did not go to overtime either. In fact, Schaefer has the top three TOI’s by an 18 year old in NHL history. He also holds the record for most games in a row of a TOI over 20:00 minutes by a teenage in NHL history with 70 straight games. One final record, Schaefer became the youngest defenseman in NHL history to record 50 points in a season. He also named rookie of the month twice (October and December) and in an Islanders fan vote, won goal of the year for a goal scored against Toronto matching a similar goal Auston Matthews scored earlier that night. Schaefer was also this close to making the Canadian Olympic roster. Some would say he might have been the difference between silver and gold for them. I am just glad he got three weeks off to rest for the end of the season. There are a number of other firsts and he records he holds, but this gives you an idea of how a in team like hockey, one player can really have an outsized impact on a team’s performance. Who knows what the future holds for the Islanders and Matthew Schaefer, but it definitely looks bright. All stats come from Eric Horneck’s The Skinny blog and NHL.com Diarist reserves all rights to his original writing only. Community material is not covered by this © I apologize for any weird formatting. I am still trying figure out how to use the new site and I still am not able to see comments on my desktop. I am working off two different devices right now. If you notice any issues, please comment. I will try to fix any errors. Now a word from out sponsor and onto the Tops! Here at Top Comments we strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site’s best, funniest, most mojo’d & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! Since group kosmail is no longer a thing, here’s the new and improved “how to submit nominations”: If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail dot com or send a kosmail to the username topcomments by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find! We did not have any nominations sent in. Given Search is not functional, I can’t look for highlights as we did in the old system. Top Comments for April 21, 2026 From our fearless leader brillig: From elenacarlena: “I am amazed and appalled at the audacity of the authoritarians, so in the diary I loved this burn by Dirk McQuigley! Apt and succinct simile. 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