Islanders Insider: Kyle Palmieri out for season with ACL tear in left knee
The Islanders' Kyle Palmieri skates against the Boston Bruins at UBS Arena on Wednesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Islanders have lost Kyle Palmieri for the season. The top-six right wing needs surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and has a recovery timeline of six to eight months, the team announced on Saturday.
There likely already was a need for an additional scoring wing before Palmieri was injured in Friday night’s 4-3 shootout loss to the Flyers at UBS Arena. But the latest loss from the lineup probably heightens the urgency for first-year general manager Mathieu Darche to improve his squad before the March 6 trade deadline no matter how well Russian rookie Max Shabanov plays as he gets his top-six opportunity.
Darche will have to monitor how the trade market develops and whether the two-week Olympic break in February will alter the timeline for teams to either declare as buyers or sellers.
“Even if you look the last few years, there’s a lot of trades that happen earlier, too,” said Darche, previously the Lightning’s assistant GM under Julien BriseBois.
“We made a lot of trades in Tampa during those years. It takes a few weeks, usually, for the player to get settled in. He comes into your environment, new coach, new system. So when you’re able to, you’d like to do something earlier rather than later, which is not always the case because the team that’s trading a player wants to wait it out to get the best they can.”
Darche isn’t sure the condensed schedule before and after the Olympic break will be a significant factor in the trade market. Entering Saturday, only five points separated the top 10 teams in the Eastern Conference, a group that included the Islanders.
“The main thing about the condensed schedule is probably a little bit on the injury front,” Darche said. “What makes it a bit tougher right now, too, is there’s a lot of teams that are still in it. It’s so tight everywhere. There’s too many teams that are still in it right now that it’s fairly quiet.’’
Palmieri was hurt as he checked defenseman Jamie Drysdale racing to the end wall in the offensive zone in the second period. He had to support himself along the glass as he kept weight off his left leg. But as he limped back toward the Islanders’ bench, he was able to steal the puck from unaware defenseman Emil Andrae and pass it to Jonathan Drouin before stepping off the ice. Drouin then fed Emil Heineman for a goal that sparked the Islanders’ rally from a three-goal deficit.
Based on that one play, Palmieri could be a candidate to be the Islanders’ nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication.
“No doubt it was a great play by him,” coach Patrick Roy said. “I mean, knowing that he’s been injured on the play, it showed the quality of the player he is and the person he is. It was pretty amazing.”
Still, the Islanders have to have a next-man-up mentality.
Over the course of 11 days, they’ve lost Palmieri and defenseman Alexander Romanov (right shoulder/injured reserve) for the rest of the regular season, and third-line center Jean-Gabriel Pageau (upper body) is out two to three weeks.
Dreamed-about moment
Undrafted free agent defenseman Travis Mitchell was given the honors of a rookie lap before his NHL debut in Friday’s 4-3 shootout loss to the Flyers at UBS Arena. Mitchell, 26, is in his third season in the Islanders’ organization after three college seasons at Cornell.
“It’s a lot of excitement,” Mitchell said of skating solo just before warmups. “You definitely have nerves. It’s something you dream about all the time. Growing up as a kid, that’s what you strive to do is play in the NHL. Being able to do that was unbelievable. It was really cool to do that.”
Analytical thinking
One of Darche’s initiatives in taking over the Islanders was building an expanded analytics department. Both he and coach Patrick Roy are big believers in delving into the numbers for competitive advantages.
But it hasn’t been an overnight process.
“It’s going to take a little bit of time to get to where I feel we should be,” Darche said. “But we’ve made big strides in the last few months. Some of the people we hired . . . they’re a lot smarter than me. They’re math people.
“We’re building out the department. But it’s a big undertaking to modernize that part. It’s going to take a few months. We’re up to about four or five full-time people now.
“But it’s a big undertaking because there’s a lot of data, especially when you incorporate the puck and player tracking that the NHL gives. It’s a huge file of data, but you want to build your own models.”
Schaefer highlights
No. 1 overall pick Matthew Schaefer, who turned 18 on Sept. 5, had a goal and an assist in Friday’s 4-3 shootout loss to the Flyers, giving him eight goals and 10 assists in 25 games. That left him leading all rookies in goals and tied for the most points. Here are some of his highlights:
* His career-high 28:53 of ice time against the Flyers was the most for any teenager in Islanders history. He’s the youngest player in the NHL to skate at least 28 minutes since 1998-99.
* He is the first teenaged defenseman in NHL history with eight goals through his first 25 career games.
* Schaefer leads the NHL with 16 penalties drawn.
* His fourth multi-point game in his first 25 career games is the most for an Islanders rookie since Mathew Barzal also had four in that span in 2017-18.
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.
