Matthew Schaefer is the youngest player in the NHL at 18 years and 132 days old, yet he’s one of the most exciting players in the league.

The young New York Islanders defenceman’s skating has been compared to Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey. He’s been incredibly smooth as he navigates the icy NHL landscape for the first time, and tonight he, along with his elite goaltender, Ilya Sorokin, will face the most dangerous duo in the NHL in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Skill respects skill and all parties want to test themselves against each other.

Schaefer is a rookie and obviously doesn’t have the pedigree or resume of McDavid, Draisaitl or even Sorokin, but Schaefer is doing things very few rookie NHL defencemen have ever done. Schaefer has 13 goals and 30 points through 46 games. Orr had 13 goals in his rookie season while Coffey had nine. Those two went on to own the top 10 highest scoring seasons in NHL history. Orr’s five best seasons had point totals of 139, 135, 122, 120 and 117, while Coffey tallied 138, 126, 121, 120 and 103 points. Schaefer will be hard-pressed to have a 100-point season, but he’s off to an amazing start.

Only three rookie defenders managed 20 goals. Brian Leetch scored 23 in 1989, Barry Beck had 22 in 1978, and Dion Phaneuf had 20 in 2006. Phil Housley owns the record for most goals by an 18-year-old with 19. Schaefer is on pace to score 23 and it’s even more impressive considering the Islanders are not a high-scoring team. He isn’t playing with skilled players like McDavid, Draisaitl or other top scorers. Matt Barzal leads the Islanders with 37 points, which is tied with the Oilers Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for 66th overall, and RNH has played eight fewer games.

The Islanders ranked 27th in GF/GA last season at 2.71/game. This season they are 22nd at 2.91. Schaefer has helped them become a bit more offensive, but they are still a team searching for more offence. When you watch him play tonight, look at how well he moves laterally, how effortless his stride is — and remember it is only his first season in the NHL. How good will he be in a few seasons with more strength and experience?

The Islanders sit second in the Metro division, but they are only three points out of fifth place, and they are in second mainly due to the play of  their goalies, specifically Ilya Sorokin. He’s been outstanding and he’s been even better lately. In his last 10 games he has an +11 goals saved above expected. That is ridiculous. On the season only seven other goalies are above 11 goals saved above expected and one of them is his goalie partner, David Rittich. The Islander netminders have covered up a lot of defensive miscues.

The Islanders have a -120 SF-SA differential at five-on-five, but they’ve allowed the second most high danger chances against. When they bend, they really bend, but Sorokin and Rittich have bailed them out. Sorokin couldn’t save them two nights ago in Winnipeg when he allowed five goals for the first time this season. Even the best can’t be superhuman every game. The Oilers will be able to generate chances, and based on the previous 46 games, the Islanders will give up numerous high danger chances, and it will come down to whether the Oilers can beat Sorokin.

This game has the potential to be very entertaining with two superstars, a young phenom defenceman and an elite goalie. It’s been a long time since I can recall being excited to watch the Islanders, but I’m excited to see Schaefer and Sorokin up close.

— The Islanders are banged up. Olympian Bo Horvat is still out along with Kyle Palmeiri and Alexander Romanov. Romanov has only played 15 games, while Palmeiri has missed 21 games, while Horvat missed six games leading up to Christmas, returned to play four games, and then got injured on New Year’s Day and hasn’t played since. Initially they said he’d be out at least a week, but it is now two weeks and he still hasn’t returned. He leads them with 21 goals and is still second on the team in points despite missing 10 games. Horvat isn’t on the road trip, but he might join them for the final two games next week in Vancouver or Seattle.

— Tonight is game four of a seven-game road trip for the Islanders. They lost 2-1 in a shootout in Nashville last Thursday, won 4-3 in OT in Minny on Saturday and lost 5-4 to Winnipeg on Tuesday. It is a long trip spread out over 15 days, but only seven games and none are back-to-back. The longer a trip goes the more it becomes a grind living out of a hotel. It is rare to see a seven-game trip have no BTB games.

— Zach Hyman’s hot streak has been overshadowed by McDavid’s ridiculous hot streak, but Hyman has been excellent with 14 goals and 21 points in his last 17 games. His wrist mobility continues to improve and while it isn’t 100% yet, he is feeling and playing much better.

— With his two points in Nashville, McDavid became the 20th player with a point streak of at least 20 games. McDavid is now tied for the 21st most points during any point streak of 15+ games with 46 points. Those with more:

Gretzky: Eleven times with points totals of 153, 108, 76, 66, 64, 63, 57, 55, 51, 48 and 47.

Mario Lemieux: Three times, 103, 59 and 51 points.

Steve Yzerman: Two times with 65 and 50 points.

Guy Lafleur (61), Paul Coffey (55), Bryan Trottier (55) and Sidney Crosby (50) did it once.

— McDavid’s 20-game streak is the seventh longest in Oilers franchise history. He needs to reach 24 games to tie Wayne Gretzky for sixth and then Paul Coffey and Gretzky are at 28 and Gretzky has streaks of 30, 39 and 51 as the top three spots.

— Leon Draisaitl is one assist shy of 600 for his career. He’ll be the 108th player to reach 600 assists and 20 more assists will move him into the top 100. It was only a few weeks ago that he became the 103rd player to reach 1,000 points, but he’s already moved up to 95th with 1,023. If he scores 40 points in the final 34 games, which seems likely, he will be in the top 80 by the end of the regular season.

— While McDavid has 46 points in his 20-game scoring streak, Draisaitl ranks second in that span with 36 points, Evan Bouchard is tied for ninth with 24 points and Hyman is tied for 15th with 23. The Oilers’ big dogs have been very productive.

— The Oilers’ powerplay is 40% in the last month with 18 goals on 45 opportunities. The Islanders’ PP is 32nd in that time at only 10% with three goals on 30 chances. Edmonton has a clear advantage on the power play in tonight’s game.

RNH – McDavid – Hyman
Podkolzin – Draisaitl – Kapanen
Howard – Roslovic – Savoie
Janmark – Lazar – Frederic

Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Emberson
Walman – Stastney

Ingram

Lee – Barzal – Duclair
Drouin – Ritchie – Heineman
Shabavov – Pageau – Holmstrom
Maclean – Cizikas – Gatcomb

Schaefer – Pulock
Pelech – DeAngelo
Boqvist – Mayfield

Sorokin