- Matthew Schaefer turned 19 on Saturday, one season after rewriting the record book for teenage defensemen
- He won the Calder unanimously at 18 years, 223 days, the youngest winner in NHL history
- Read below for the full record haul and what season two looks like for the Islanders blueliner
Matthew Schaefer is out of the 18-year-old record book. He turned 19 on Saturday.
The Islanders defenseman leaves it holding most of the pages. Schaefer put up 23 goals and 36 assists for 59 points in 82 games as a rookie, clearing Phil Housley’s 57-point season from 1982-83 for the most goals and the most points ever by an 18-year-old blueliner.
We put the short version on the board Saturday: youngest Calder Trophy winner ever, plus both of those records. Take a look:
Nobody voted against him in May. Schaefer took all 198 first-place ballots, the first unanimous rookie-of-the-year pick since Teemu Selanne in 1992-93.
He was 18 years, 223 days old on the final day of the regular season. That put him exactly one day younger than Nathan MacKinnon was in 2013-14. One day is the entire margin on the youngest-ever list.
Twenty-three goals is the number that travels. It matched Brian Leetch’s single-season record for a rookie defenseman of any age, and Schaefer became the first blueliner in more than 90 years to lead all rookies in goals.
New York’s account kept the captions short all year. Watch one from a March meeting with the Panthers:
Two other firsts landed before any of that. Schaefer is the youngest defenseman ever to register a point in his NHL debut and the youngest player at any position to score an overtime goal.
His minutes were not sheltered either. Schaefer logged 2,023:59 of ice time, the most on the Islanders and more than 500 minutes clear of the next-busiest rookie in the league, and still came out at plus-13.
Season two opens him as a +1500 Norris wild card, seventh on our board behind Cale Makar.
It starts Sept. 30 in Toronto, where Gavin McKenna is expected to make the Maple Leafs out of camp. Back-to-back No. 1 picks, opening night, national broadcast.
