2026 Season Preview: New York Islanders
Last season was a glimpse of what’s to come in the Matthew Schaefer era of Islanders hockey. But can he lead this team back to the postseason?
The New York Islanders have been a team retooling for the last five seasons. With two playoff appearances and one draft lottery win to show for it during that window, it’s been tricky to truly gauge what type of team they are trying to be. But after trading a first round pick and firing their head coach down the stretch of last season, it's clear the goal is for them to be more competitive right now.
2025-26 Outcome
Regular Season Results: 43-34-5
For a while, the Islanders remained in the hunt for one of those final playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. Once they started sliding in that race, they fired head coach Patrick Roy and replaced him with another retread in Peter DeBoer. That move, along with their trade deadline business, signaled a desire to compete now. But their lack of business this offseason seems to counter that.
Who’s In and Who’s Out
Not a great deal of change out there on Long Island. The Islanders let David Rittich go and brought in Vitek Vanacek to take over third string goaltending duties. Long time captain Anders Lee decided to hit the open market, and to fill that void they brought in Matias Maccielli. None of that really does much of anything to make the Islanders a better team going forward. The Islanders have enough returning players to piece together a halfway decent lineup, but whether that’s enough is a different story.
