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How Rangers barely missed landing Calder Trophy winner Matthew Schaefer
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- How Rangers barely missed landing Calder Trophy winner Matthew Schaefer
New York Rangers fans undoubtedly enjoyed every minute of their four-game season-series sweep of the New York Islanders in 2024-25. Little did they know that it would end up costing them a Calder Trophy-winner this season.
The NHL announced Wednesday that Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer was the unanimous winner of the Calder, given to the League's top rookie. The Isles took Schaefer with the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft after jumping from 10th to first by winning the lottery — despite having just a 3.5 percent chance of doing so.
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The Rangers finished three points ahead of the Islanders in the overall standings (85-82), putting them 11th with a 3.0 percent chance of jumping to No. 1 in the lottery. Instead, they fell back to the 12th overall pick and opted to send it the Pittsburgh Penguins (who acquired it from the Vancouver Canucks and then traded it to the Philadelphia Flyers ) to complete the J.T. Miller trade midway through the 2024-25 season. The Flyers used it to select center Jack Nesbitt, who is Liam Greentree OHL teammate at Windsor. The decision enabled the Rangers to keep this year's unprotected first-round pick, which is No. 5 overall.
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Schaefer was in tears when his father, Todd, and brother, Johnathon, showed up on the set of ABC's "GMA3" in New York to inform him that he'd won the Calder.
"It's definitely an honor to see so many great names on that trophy," he said. "It's definitely a dream come true."
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One name that's not on the Calder is Alexis Lafreniere , the player the Rangers took No. 1 overall in 2020. Lafreniere hasn't quite lived up to that top billing, but did match his career high this season, his sixth in the NHL, with 57 points. He has never finished with more than 28 goals.
While Islanders fans savored Schaefer's play on the ice and the spark he brought to the franchise, Rangers fans could only think of what might have been: One loss to the Isles last season would have dropped them behind their archrivals, putting the Rangers in position to grab Schaefer. The 18-year-old defenseman lived up to his pre-draft billing as the consensus No. 1 pick by becoming the first unanimous Calder winner since Teemu Selanne of the Winnipeg Jets in 1992-93.
Meanwhile, the Rangers' non-Calder streak grew to 37 years since defenseman Brian Leetch won the award in 1989. The only other Rangers player to win the top rookie award in the past 70-plus years was forward Steve Vickers in 1973.
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The Calder was first awarded in 1933, and six Rangers won it in a 15-year span from 1940 to 1954. They include forwards Kilby McDonald (1940), Grant Warwick (1942), Edgar Laprade (1946) and Pentti Lund (1949), goaltender Gump Worsley (1953), and forward Camille Henry (1954).
The thought that they could have had Schaefer and 2021 Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox on the same defense corps and power play is enough to have many Rangers fans wishing they hadn't dominated their suburban rivals so thoroughly. So was the fact that the Islanders avenged the 2024-25 sweep with a perfect 4-for-4 against the Blueshirts this season. Schaefer scored the game-winner in their 2-1 win at the Garden on Jan. 29.
It was promise-keeping of a sort for Schaefer. Shortly after the Islanders selected him , he stated that, "We're going to beat the Rangers every time we play them." They did just that.
Rangers nemesis made history on way to Calder Trophy
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Schaefer is the sixth Islanders rookie to win the Calder and the youngest winner in NHL history (18 years, 223 days). He was first on all 198 ballots cast by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association after leading all first-year players this season in time on ice per game (24:41), tying for the lead in goals (23) and finishing third in points (59).
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He was first among rookie defensemen in each category, as well as in power-play goals (eight), power-play points (18), overtime goals (two), game-winning goals (four) and shots on goal (222). His plus-13 rating was second.
His 23 goals and 59 points were records for 18-year-old defensemen, and he was the first defenseman in more than 90 years to lead rookies in goals (tied or outright).
No Blueshirt rookie was among the 16 players receiving votes this season, and only Gabe Perreault (27) and Noah Laba (24) finished with more than 20 points.
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