Matthew Schaefer's second season: What can accomplish next with Islanders?

Matthew Schaefer plopped himself down at his locker just as his dressing room neighbor, Ryan Pulock, was asked what could be expected out of the 19-year-old after a record-setting rookie campaign in which he unanimously won the Calder Trophy.

It’s a frequently asked question, and not just of Pulock. After all, the outside expectations for Schaefer’s second season are enormous, and how he grows his game will directly influence whether the Islanders can return to the playoffs after missing out the last two seasons.

Newsday posed the query to Pulock and several other teammates, executive Matt Martin (whose family is housing Schaefer for a second straight season), an NHL scout and Schaefer’s father, Todd.

The common answer? The gregarious, supremely talented Schaefer, selected first overall in 2025, just has to worry about himself, not the expectations. Or the large amount of money that presumably will come on or about July 1 when he is eligible to sign an extension.

“It was a great first year, but it’s in the past now,” Schaefer told Newsday. “I wouldn’t say I’m a different person, but I’ve learned a lot more from my first year. I’m able to take everything I learned from my first year from all the older guys and put it into the second year. The second year is a big year. We didn’t make the playoffs and I take that personally.”

Pulock tried his best to give an earnest, serious answer.

“I don’t think you should look at the numbers,” he told Newsday as Schaefer listened in an exaggerated manner. “He’s going to show up every night. He’s going to continue to get better. He’s going to continue to learn. The numbers are going to take care of themselves.”

Pulock quickly dissolved into laughter as Schaefer drew his face close to his fellow defenseman and stared, putting one hand around his teammate’s shoulder and the other on Pulock’s knee.

“He’s still a goofball,” captain Bo Horvat told Newsday.

“Some days he’s 19 going on 35,” Todd Schaefer told Newsday. “But other days he’s 19 going on 12.”

This is all a far cry from last year’s training camp. Despite the lofty draft status, Todd Schaefer said he tried to temper his son’s expectations entering training camp coming straight from junior hockey.

“I said, ‘There’s not much of a chance, Matthew, you’re going to be in the NHL.’ It’s a tough jump,” Todd Schaefer said. “Then a couple of people told me, his agent [Pat Morris] included, ‘I understand what you’re doing. But we don’t want you to do that. We want him to go in with the utmost confidence.’ It’s kind of different than any of the parenting I’ve done in the past. I’ve always tempered my kids’ expectations.”

Mental strength

Schaefer blew past any reasonable expectations for his first season, playing all 82 games, tying the NHL rookie record for defensemen with 23 goals and setting the NHL record for an 18-year-old defenseman with 59 points. He skated on the top pair, quarterbacked the first power-play unit and led the Islanders in average ice time at 24:41.

He quickly made a case for being among the NHL’s elite defensemen along with the Avalanche’s Cale Makar, the Wild’s Quinn Hughes and the Blue Jackets’ Zach Werenski. That just set an even higher bar for his sophomore season.

“Just watching him last year, he proved he’s probably a very top-tier defenseman in this league and you just want him to take that next step to be in that echelon of the Cale Makar conversation,” an NHL scout said.

The scout was asked what stands out about Schaefer’s game.

“His skating, obviously. But I think just his ability to read plays before things happen. He can read the play so well both offensively and defensively. His mind works at the same speed that he skates at.”

The scout said experience is all Schaefer needs to make the final jump to the Makar level.

“If he just keeps on repeating what he did last year and keeps improving, then he’ll be right there,” the scout said. “The season that he had last year is definitely hard to replicate, especially as a 19-year-old player. But he’s head and shoulders above his age level right now.”

That Schaefer had the mental strength to match his innate hockey skills to get to this point is the remarkable part. His mother, Jennifer, died at age 56 in February 2024 after a two-year battle with breast cancer.

Todd Schaefer said the emotional and mental support his son has received from the Islanders’ organization — he specifically named former coach Patrick Roy and current coach Pete DeBoer — has been invaluable.

But chief among that support is Schaefer’s living arrangement. He moved in with Martin, his wife, Sydney, and their four young children, two boys and two girls, during last year’s training camp.

The Martins have become more than a surrogate family. They are family. And Schaefer is the big brother living downstairs.

High expectations

Todd Schaefer said he became emotional in the offseason while making a speech and trying to describe how comforting it is to him as a father to know his son is being taken care of in such a manner. He knows it’s made the defenseman a better hockey player.

“He’s always asking questions,” Martin, a special assistant to general manager Mathieu Darche, told Newsday. “He wants to be one of the best players in the world. He has the talent to do that. The big thing is he’s going to put so much pressure on himself. He has high expectations for himself and there’s so much outside pressure on him already.

“Being a player, there’s adversity that you go through. When that’s going to come and what that’s going to be, you don’t know. But he’s strong enough mentally and talented enough as a player to continue on the trajectory that he’s on.

“I don’t think I have expectations for him as much as I’m just excited to see him continue to grow as a player and take another step. Expectations are sky-high when you tie and break every record that there possibly could have been. Managing that a little bit is the important thing.”

DeBoer said he considered Schaefer among the candidates to replace Anders Lee as Islanders captain before selecting Horvat and called him a “future captain” during the preseason.

Todd Schaefer said he was thrilled that his son didn’t have that responsibility added at his age.

After all, he is just a growing teen. Schaefer is listed at 6-3 and 193 pounds compared to last year’s 6-2 and 186.

“I was on the ice less this summer because when you’re playing that much, I was taking care of my body more in the gym,” Matthew Schaefer said. “I definitely do feel a little stronger.”

“He looks bigger physically, which is great for the longevity of the season,” Horvat said. “I think he knows what to expect now. His maturity that way is going to take him even further to another level this year. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do.”

Everyone is. Because the expectations for Schaefer’s second season are off the charts.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.