What Can't He Do?

Matthew Schaefer scores first OT goal in comeback win vs. Utah

Good Morning, Islanders Country.

I couldn’t help but put some words out for Saturday morning after last night.

It was another dose of Matthew Schaefer Magic. At this point, you stop asking what the kid can do and start wondering if there’s anything he can’t. Expectations were supposed to be a slow climb, a cautious arc. Instead, they’ve been shattered, scattered, and left behind somewhere at training camp.

His ceiling? It’s no longer a ceiling - it’s a skylight, and the kid keeps breaking through it. We’re long past pinching-yourself territory. This is real. And somehow, impossibly, it keeps getting better.

On Friday night in Utah, the 18-year-old phenom did it again, becoming the youngest player in NHL history to score an overtime goal as the New York Islanders defeated the Utah Mammoth 3–2. Skating 3-on-3 alongside Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal, Schaefer drifted into space, read the play like a veteran twice his age, and uncorked a one-timer past Karel Vejmelka.

It was his seventh goal of the season - a total that leads all NHL defensemen - and another moment that looked scripted for a franchise player, not a teenager still finding his way around the league.

It capped the Islanders’ third straight overtime win - a first in franchise history - on a night when every NHL game went beyond regulation. Emil Heineman scored for the second straight night, notching his eighth of the year. And Jonathan Drouin tied the game in the third on a wild play that bounced off his skate, the post, and then Nate Schmidt, a goal that survived review and breathed life into the comeback.

David Rittich made 27 saves, remaining steady in a game that required it.

But it ended, as these nights keep ending, with the kid in the spotlight - arms raised, smile wide, rewriting history again.

Matthew Schaefer isn’t just living up to the hype.

He’s building something bigger than it, and we all have a front row seat.

📺 New York Islanders Postgame Availability | NYI at UTA (11/14/25)

🔗 Jonathan Drouin’s strong play continues with clutch goal in Islanders’ win by Dave Blezow, New York Post “There will be multiple storylines as the Islanders pull into Denver for Sunday’s meeting with the Avalanche, the fifth game on this seven-stop road trip. Brock Nelson will skate for the first time against the Islanders after playing 901 regular-season games and scoring 295 goals for them.”

🔗 Matthew Schaefer’s success doesn’t mean Islanders rebuild is over by Kyle Morton, The Daily Faceoff “But if the Islanders are going to move toward true contender status as they come out of this rebuilding process, they’re going to need some of the other prospects in their pipeline to pan out while they continue adding more young talent to their core group to support Schaefer.”

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And we leave you with this…the boys coming off the bench.

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