- The Islanders announced Wednesday that Mathew Barzal will not skate for two weeks after aggravating a prior injury
- That window swallows all of training camp and puts the Sept. 30 opener in Toronto in serious doubt
- Read below for the full team statement and the injury history behind it
The Islanders are opening training camp without their leading scorer.
New York announced Wednesday that Mathew Barzal will not skate for the next two weeks after aggravating an injury he was already carrying. Camp starts Thursday. The regular season starts Sept. 30 in Toronto.
Rather than a diagnosis, the Isles offered this:
“Mathew Barzal will not skate the next two weeks due to aggravation of a prior injury that has caused some inflammation. He is actively working to get back to full health. There is nobody more committed than Mathew to getting his body to the level where he thrives on the ice. We expect him to continue getting healthy and back in the lineup as soon as possible.”
Here’s the announcement:
Nobody said what the injury is or where it is. That gap matters, because Barzal has been managing something for a while now.
A blocked shot on Feb. 1, 2025 ended his 2024-25 season and led to a minor knee procedure. He told reporters at cleanout day this spring that he had been managing the knee all year. He then left the World Championship in May with what Hockey Canada described as a minor pre-existing injury.
Whether this is the same problem is unknown. “Aggravation of a prior injury” does not leave many other options on the table.
Barzal played 81 of a possible 82 games last season and led the Islanders with 72 points on 19 goals and 53 assists. The one game he sat had nothing to do with his health.
Take a look at what he did with those 81 games:
Four preseason games against the Rangers and Devils run from Sunday through Sept. 26. Two weeks from Wednesday is opening night in Toronto, which means Barzal is almost certainly watching that one from somewhere other than the ice.
He is 29, signed through 2031 at a $9.15 million cap hit, and was penciled in at center full time this season under Pete DeBoer. This is DeBoer’s first full camp on Long Island, and he now installs his systems without the player those systems are built around.
That leaves more on the plate for new captain Bo Horvat and a young group that includes Matthew Schaefer and Calum Ritchie, at least until Barzal gets his skates back on.
