As Bo Horvat assumes the captaincy, Head Coach Peter DeBoer is empowering a massive veteran core and rising stars like Matthew Schaefer to steer the franchise's new era.
The 2026-27 season for the New York Islanders continues to steadily approach, and with it, the beginning of a new era.
Monday morning, the Islanders announced that Bo Horvat had been named the 16th captain in franchise history.
Horvat unquestionably deserves that role, and it's not his first time serving as captain.
After Henrik Sedin retired, Horvat served as the Vancouver Canucks captain for four years before being traded to the Islanders.
Horvat becoming captain after Anders Lee had worn the 'C' since 2019 is a major but expected change.
Islanders' Head Coach Peter DeBoer also made it clear he expects an even bigger leadership group and confirmed the alternate captains for the upcoming season.
"Definitely the guys who wore A's last year are going to come back, and they'll wear A's (Ryan Pulock and Kyle Palmieri)," DeBoer said Monday. "But that leadership group around those guys is going to be significantly bigger than three people. There's a lot of really good people: Mat Barzal, Adam Pelech, Palms. There's a lot of other guys -- Schaefer, obviously -- that whole leadership group.
"I'm sure I'm leaving some guys out here. I'm going off the top of my head. My daily interactions, I'll probably have more 1-on-1s with Bo than those other guys. But the direction our team moves will be from that group."
It's not been a secret how nice and tight a group the Islanders' locker room has been in recent years. A lot of that starts when you have an incredible group of leaders, even beyond just the captain.
It's also a vote of confidence in Matthew Schaefer for DeBoer to publicly list him amongst the team leaders. Obviously, that's no surprise to many, but on a team filled with incredible leaders, it's a good reminder of just how highly everyone thinks of Schaefer's character, again to no one's surprise.
The Islanders' season gets underway in just 15 days in Toronto against the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team that features the Islanders' 14th captain, John Tavares.
Tavares then served as Toronto's captain until continued playoff underperformance from the team led to Toronto removing him of the 'C,' and handing it off to Auston Matthews following the end of the 2024 season.
The Islanders and Maple Leafs also foster the two most recent first-overall picks, as Schaefer and the Islanders will face 2026 1st-overall pick Gavin McKenna in an excellent season opener.
