Matthew Schaefer is not just a boon to the Islanders, but to the NHL as a whole.
The 18-year-old defenseman, unanimously named the Calder Trophy recipient Wednesday, has already been featured in some of the league’s marketing, making a video with Matt Martin’s twin girls to explain how the draft lottery works. If he continues on the path he set in his rookie season, it stands to reason Schaefer will soon be one of the faces of the league.
And, certainly, he’ll be one of the faces of the 2027 All-Star Game at UBS Arena.
“When you look at Matt Schaefer, you can look at what he’s accomplished on the ice, which is a record for an 18-year-old defenseman,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told The Post at the UJA-Federation of New York’s Sports Annual Luncheon on Thursday. “And you look at his maturity, his personality, the way he interacts with people. It’s hard to believe he’s still only 18.”
Bettman was honored with the David J. Stern Leadership Award at the luncheon, named after the former NBA commissioner who worked with Bettman for over 12 years when both were rising through the ranks at the NBA.
The 73-year-old Bettman was mum about the details of the All-Star Game, which will be the first the NHL has held since 2024 and which is expected to have a new, as-yet-unannounced format.
After two years of replacing All-Star competition with best-on-best, international play — first at the 4 Nations Face-Off, then at the Olympics — going back to an All-Star Game in which players aren’t trying particularly hard may feel like something of a disappointment.
In part because best-on-best takes so much out of players, the league has settled on a system of rotating between an All-Star Game and best-on-best competition — an Olympics every four years and a league-run World Cup of Hockey every four years — for the foreseeable future.
UBS Arena, which hosts its first tentpole event since opening in 2021 next season, feels like a bit of a loser in the process. It was originally slated to host the 2026 All-Star Game, but upon the league’s decision to play at the Olympics, that was downgraded to an unspecified sendoff event, meant to be something like a media day, which was eventually canceled.
The Islanders got the 2027 All-Star Game instead.
“You’ll have to hold judgment in the answer to that question [about the format] until we make an announcement one way or the other,” Bettman said. “Everything [gets considered]. And if you have a good idea, we’ll listen to it.”
