Islanders' Matthew Schaefer Talks Historic Shift & What Prepared Him For It

In Tuesday's 4-3 shootout win against the Nashville Predators, the 2025-26 Calder Trophy winner Matthew Schaefer made history. 

In a game where he played a career-high 32:16, he became the first player to ever stay on the ice for an entire five-minute overtime frame. 

Just 2:17 into overtime, Schaefer, who started the extra frame, drew a penalty and even after the penalty expired at 4:17, he remained on the ice until the horn sounded. 

On Thursday, ahead of their game agianst the Minnesota Wild, Schaefer addressed the situation:

“We started it, and then obviously they took a penalty, and then we were just playing around with it with the delayed penalty on the other team for quite some time. We got some chances, and then I think by the time we got that timeout, it was like two minutes and 34 or something like that, like two minutes and 40 seconds left," Schaefer told reporters in Minnesota.

“Then we called the timeout, and then there were two minutes that went for the power play. We were in the zone for a lot of it, and then obviously they sent it down the ice for the guy coming out of the box, and I backchecked there, and then there were no whistles ever since.”

Schaefer continued: “Honestly, it was broken up nicely where I wasn't super gassed or really that gassed because when you're in the zone, playing with the puck, it's kind of fun. You're not backchecking or anything until later, when the power play expired.”

How is he able to play these big minutes and take part in these elongated shifts night in and night out for his team?

Well, for starters, being 19 helps but he also pointed to his summer workout sessions which involved 3-on-3 games.

Schaefer revealed that his remarkable overtime shift had an interesting connection to his offseason training.

“I was talking to Brad Marchand, and we do a three-on-three game every Friday when I'm training in the summer, and we play on a mini pad. You draft a team, and there's three teams or four teams of three players on it, and you play three-on-three the whole time, and you're on the ice for five minutes straight, and then you'll take a break. But every game's five minutes," Schaefer said. "He's texting me. He's like, 'I guess the three-on-three is paying off,' because it's five minutes long.”

“I just love playing hockey. At the end of the day, it's fun to be out there. Obviously, you want to be able to help your team in any way possible. You don't want to be going out on the ice and putting your team at risk. I think you just got to pace yourself. Obviously, when it's there, go. You don't want to be going every time.”

Here's what head coach Pete DeBoer had to say:

"It was one of those perfect storms. I mean, if you look at it, the way it rolled out, he had a kind of longer shift to start overtime, and then we took a delayed penalty. So he was out, and there was a long delayed penalty. We had possession for a minute plus, so then you got two and a half minutes left with a two-minute power play, and you're not leaving the zone because it's four on three. So it's not like you're racing up and down the ice. So, you know, honestly, I don't even think he was breathing heavily. But it was it was one of those situations where it was a perfect storm, you know. A lot of that five minutes was in ozone time, which allowed him to do that."