This time last year, as the New York Islanders prepared for the start of the 2024-25 season, little had changed since their first-round playoff exit five months earlier. This year, as they gear up for 2025-26, the five months since missing the playoffs have brought significant changes to the team dynamic.
The retool initially began in March, when the Islanders dealt centre Brock Nelson to the Colorado Avalanche ahead of the NHL trade deadline. Five days after their season concluded, they made an even bigger move, parting ways with president and general manager Lou Lamoriello after seven seasons.
With such a significant vacancy in the front office, the franchise faced the opportunity to chart a new course. As fate would have it, less than two weeks later, the Islanders won the NHL Draft Lottery — despite holding only the 10th-best odds after finishing the season 35-35-12 — earning the right to select top prospect Matthew Schaefer.
From there, with a future cornerstone in sight to plan and build around, the Islanders hired Mathieu Darche at the end of May as their new general manager and executive vice president. On June 27, only hours before the start of the NHL Draft, they made yet another big move, sending defenceman Noah Dobson to the Montreal Canadiens. Their departed star blue liner was quickly replaced that night when the Islanders selected Schaefer first overall — as expected, their first No. 1 pick since John Tavares in 2009.
Since then, the Islanders have seen more arrivals and departures with the opening of free agency. And now, with a new season fast approaching, questions loom. Have this off-season’s moves been enough to put them back on track, or will they fall short and push them toward a rebuild?
Arriving at answers will take time, so in the meantime, we continue our look at all 32 NHL teams in 32 days by checking in with the Long Island club.
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Newcomer to watch: Emil Heineman
Acquired in the deal that sent Noah Dobson north of the border and also brought in two 2025 first-round picks (used to select Victor Eklund at 16th overall and Kashawn Aitcheson at 17th), Heineman was the key piece Darche aimed to obtain from Montreal.
“We really wanted him in the trade,” the GM and EVP said on draft night. “He’s a strong kid who skates well and has a rocket of a shot. If you look at his goals, it’s a high-velocity shot that can score. We see a lot of potential in this player and believe he can only improve.”
The 23-year-old Swedish winger played his first full NHL season in 2024-25, posting 10 goals and eight assists in 62 regular-season games and one goal in five playoff games.
“This year I’m excited to take the next step,” Heineman told reporters ahead of Islanders training camp. “New team, new system, but overall I’m looking forward to it. I want to bring my 200-foot game and help the team any way I can.”
Under-the-radar player to watch: Anthony Duclair
Apart from Mat Barzal, perhaps no Islander enters this season feeling like they have more to prove than Duclair. His 2024-25 campaign ended on a sour note in early April, when he took a leave of absence and did not play again after head coach Patrick Roy publicly called his play “god-awful” following a loss.
Since then, fences appear to have been mended. Duclair revealed at the Islanders’ annual golf outing that Roy drove to his off-season home in Montreal to apologize, and both expressed a desire to move past the awkward situation.
Roy, for his part, told reporters: “We’re in a performance sport, and we have expectations and I’m sure Anthony has his, but it’s behind me now and I want to move forward to this year and really hope that Anthony will start like he did (last year) because he had a really good start. When he came back from his injury, it was a little tougher for him for some reason. But I want him to be who he was before he got hurt.”
Duclair suffered a torn groin on Oct. 19, in just the Islanders’ fifth game of the season, and did not return until Dec. 21. He now believes he rushed back, saying the injury “hindered” him the rest of the way as he was “basically playing on one leg.”
Top prospect: Matthew Schaefer
No debating this one! Shaefer is just the fifth defenceman to be drafted first overall in the past two decades, joining Owen Power, Rasmus Dahlin, Aaron Ekblad, and Erik Johnson. He is also the first defenceman drafted by the Islanders at No. 1 since Denis Potvin in 1973.
The Hamilton, Ont. native, who turned 18 earlier this month, spent the past two seasons with the OHL’s Erie Otters. In his first season, he posted three goals and 14 assists in 56 games. In his second, he recorded seven goals and 15 assists in 17 games before a broken collarbone — sustained while playing for Canada at the World Juniors in late December — required surgery, ending his tournament and causing him to miss the final three months of the OHL season.
Where Schaefer will play in 2025-26 is not yet certain. He signed a three-year, entry-level deal with the Islanders on Aug. 4. If he does not make the NHL roster, he must return to the Otters, as his contract makes him ineligible for NCAA hockey, and CHL-drafted players cannot play in the AHL until they turn 20.
Regarding a spot on the opening-night roster, Schaefer told reporters at the NHLPA Rookie Showcase earlier this month: “You don’t just get stuff given to you, right? You’ve got to earn it… and that’s what I’m going into (training) camp to do. Still a lot of hard work.”
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Three burning questions:
1. Can Mathew Barzal return to form after injury-marred season?
A pair of injuries limited Barzal to just 30 games for the Islanders last season. He first suffered an upper-body injury in late October that sidelined him until mid-December, then sustained a knee injury on Feb. 1 that required surgery and ended his 2024-25 campaign.
Coming off the second-best season of his career points-wise in 2023-24, the 28-year-old from Coquitlam, B.C., managed six goals and 14 assists in those 30 appearances. His goal this season will obviously be to maintain his health and regain top form.
“I feel good. I feel like I’ve had a great summer,” Barzal said at the team’s golf outing. “It’s forced me to be extremely focused this summer, and kind of put every drop of energy into getting back. I’m obviously a competitor, and I don’t take anything for granted. So I want to get back to where I was pre-injury.”
Barzal is expected to move back to centre this season, his natural position, which he has only played in short stints since the Islanders acquired Bo Horvat. Day 1 of training camp on Thursday saw him playing with Anders Lee and Kyle Palmieri.
2. Who will secure the job as the Islanders’ backup goaltender?
Starting goaltender Ilya Sorokin remains one of the most critical pieces for the Islanders’ success. But equally important will be the play of his backup, whoever that may be this season. Semyon Varlamov played just 10 games last season before suffering a knee injury at the end of November that required surgery and sidelined him for the remainder of the campaign. The 37-year-old Russian was absent Thursday as the Islanders opened training camp, and while the team has said he is progressing and skating on his own, no timetable has been set for his return.
In Varlamov’s absence last season, Marcus Hogberg stepped up to the backup role. Suiting up for his first NHL games since the 2020-21 season with the Ottawa Senators, Hogberg appeared in 15 games, 11 of them starts. He posted a 1.45 goals-against average and a .947 save percentage in his first seven appearances, but struggled over his final eight games, registering a 5.00 goals-against average and a .821 save percentage.
David Rittich is also in the mix, after the Islanders signed the free agent to a one-year contract on July 1. The 33-year-old Czech spent the last two seasons with the Los Angeles Kings, recording a 2.84 goals-against average and .887 save percentage across 34 appearances in 2024-25, 31 of them starts.
Once Varlamov is healthy, he is expected to reclaim the backup position, but in the meantime, Hogberg and Rittich will battle for the role. The backup spot will be extra significant this season, as the Islanders have 16 back-to-backs scheduled — the most in the NHL.
3. Will they be able to solve their struggles on special teams?
The Islanders struggled mightily on both their power play and penalty kill last season. Their power play ranked 31st in the NHL at just 12.6 per cent, ahead of only the Anaheim Ducks — a steep drop from the 20.4 per cent rate they posted in 2023-24, which ranked 19th. Meanwhile, their penalty kill also finished 31st at 72.2 per cent, better than only the Detroit Red Wings. It marked the second consecutive season the Islanders finished at the bottom in that category, having ranked dead last the previous season at 71.5 per cent.
Just days after Darche took over the front office, he announced that assistant coaches John MacLean and Tommy Albelin would not be returning. At the beginning of June, the team hired Ray Bennett and Bob Boughner to join Roy, returning assistant Benoit Desrosiers and goaltending coach Piero Greco.
Acquired in the off-season, offensively minded Jonathan Drouin could help lift the Islanders’ power play. His 12 power-play points in 43 games last season with Colorado would have tied for the team lead with the now-traded Dobson.
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