Macklin Celebrini's deal tells us one thing: How much the Islanders will have to pay Matthew Schaefer next year
Matthew Schaefer, left, will be entering his second season in the NHL, and the Sharks' Macklin Celebrini just became the highest paid player in the NHL after his second season. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Matthew Schaefer’s next contract with the Islanders came into very clear focus on Wednesday, courtesy of the San Jose Sharks and their young superstar Macklin Celebrini.
Celebrini, who turned 20 last month, agreed to a record-setting, five-year, $94 million extension and his $18.8 million annual average value is the highest in NHL history.
That is the comparable for Schaefer, who turns 19 on Sept. 5, when he is eligible to sign a new deal on July 1, 2027. There will no doubt be some pressure on Schaefer and his agent, Pat Morris, to top Celebrini’s deal, if ever so slightly, just to keep setting the bar higher to benefit future players of this ilk.
So Scott Malkin and the Islanders’ ownership group should probably be prepared to fill in the two blanks with five years and $95 million. Nineteen million a season for a 19-year-old should do it.
It behooves the Islanders to get it done quickly and without any hard feelings that could linger until Schaefer is eligible for unrestricted free agency at age 27.
“I'll let my agent think about that,” Schaefer told NHL.com on Monday in Brampton, Ontario, at a charity golf tournament. “I don't need to think about that, I'm still a kid, I'm still a year away from any of that. I love Long Island, we have something so special going on there. I don't care about the money. I just want to play the game of hockey and that's what I love.”
I 100% believe Schaefer when he says money is not what’s driving him. I also 100% believe there will be no hometown discount for the Islanders, not when the market for restricted free-agent elite talents coming off their entry-level deals has burst open.
The Islanders will pay Schaefer essentially what he asks for because he is good enough to build a Stanley Cup winner around.
Schaefer, the first overall pick in 2025, notched 23 goals and 36 assists in 82 games last season, falling one vote short of being a unanimous winner of the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie. He tied the league record for goals by a rookie defenseman and set the NHL mark for most points (59) by an 18-year-old defenseman. He averaged 24:41 of time on ice, another NHL record for 18-year-olds.
Coach Pete DeBoer, hired to replace Patrick Roy with just four games remaining in the season, caught a quick glimpse of Schaefer last season.
But it left a huge impression that was only fortified as DeBoer watched the World Cup this summer, including attending a game in Dallas.
“Maybe the four best players in the world are all in the semifinals,” DeBoer told Newsday recently, specifically citing France’s Kylian Mbappe, Argentina’s Lionel Messi and England’s Harry Kane. “You don’t get to an elite level as a team without that guy. I guess [Stanley Cup champion] Carolina, you could probably say, is an outlier as far as having a star like that. But they’re very few and far between. What a player like that does, a generational player like that, it just accelerates everything you’re doing.
“He’s that special a player, I think.”
In the past, a player that special but that young would have to wait longer for the ka-ching contract. Until recently, it was standard for a player coming off an entry-level deal, meaning he was ineligible for arbitration, to get another short-term, team-friendly deal. Schaefer is entering the second season of a three-year, $2.95 million entry-level deal.
Arbitration-eligible RFAs could get bridge deals to get them to unrestricted free agency, when the real money was made.
That paradigm has shifted big time, even before the Ducks had to match the five-year, $90 million offer sheet to Leo Carlsson, 21, made by the Flyers earlier this month. Canadiens forward Ivan Demidov, 20, the Calder runner-up, agreed to an eight-year, $73.2 million extension on July 1.
The young stars are getting their money now with the salary-cap ceiling set for $104 million this season and $113.5 million in 2027-28. And they're signing deals that still allow them to be UFAs at age 27.
The maximum salary for an NHL player is 20% of the salary cap ceiling, so $20.8 million for this season and $22.7 million for 2027-28.
Chicago signed Connor Bedard, 21, the first overall pick in 2023, to a five-year, $75 million extension on July 18.
Wednesday, Celebrini, the first overall pick in 2024 who notched 45 goals with 70 assists last season, got paid.
Next July, it will be Schaefer.
And now we all know how much.
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.
