Peter DeBoer’s diagnosis of the New York Islanders starts in his own end. Speaking with The Athletic in an interview published Monday, the new head coach was blunt about a defensive foundation that surrendered too many chances for a team that missed the playoffs despite a respectable point total. “That’s something we have to address quickly,” DeBoer said, while stressing he wasn’t disparaging last year’s group. He named the power play — 30th in the NHL last season — as the other focal point for September’s camp.
The structural critique carries weight because DeBoer has seen the roster up close. GM Mathieu Darche fired Patrick Roy with four games remaining and handed DeBoer the bench early, and the coach said he’s “much further ahead” for having had that look at Matthew Schaefer, Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal before a full offseason. Health should do part of the repair work on its own: Kyle Palmieri and Alexander Romanov return after seasons limited to 25 and 15 games, and Romanov’s minutes in particular address the chances-against problem directly. DeBoer also pointed to bounce-back candidates Anthony Duclair and Pierre Engvall, and tempered expectations by noting this team sits in a different spot than the win-now Vegas and Dallas clubs he inherited before.
Then there is the captaincy, vacant after Anders Lee‘s departure ended a seven-year tenure. DeBoer called Schaefer — the reigning Calder Trophy winner after a 23-goal rookie season — an already-respected voice with “future captain written all over him,” but cautioned against loading too much onto an 18-year-old. “I want to spend training camp with the group again, get a little more feel for the players and the options,” he said. “Then we’ll make some decisions.” The Islanders are DeBoer’s sixth NHL head-coaching job, and his 663 career wins rank 18th all-time — this is a coach who has run this kind of reset before, and he’s telling you the order of operations: structure first, letter later.
For fantasy purposes, the power-play rebuild is the number to watch — a unit that finished 30th has nowhere to go but up, and Barzal, Horvat and Schaefer are the direct beneficiaries if DeBoer’s staff fixes deployment. Schaefer remains a foundational dynasty asset regardless of whether he gets the C, and Romanov’s return restores a physical, blocks-heavy profile for banger leagues.
