Matthew Schaefer played every second of overtime Tuesday night in Nashville, and the Islanders' 19-year-old made NHL history doing it.
According to Elliotte Friedman, he's the first player in NHL history to play an entire five-minute overtime without leaving the ice.
He finished with 32:16 of ice time and an assist in a 4-3 shootout win.
Five minutes of 3-on-3 doesn't sound like much until you try it. It's like running wind sprints on an empty basketball court with nobody coming off the bench to sub you out.
Peter DeBoer could have rolled anybody out there. He left the teenager on the ice the whole way.
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That tells you exactly where Schaefer sits on this depth chart, a kid already trusted like a veteran.
Matthew Schaefer, 19, has 11 points in 12 games for Peter DeBoer's Islanders
Schaefer has 11 points through 12 games.
Three of his assists have come on the power play.
His cap hit sits at $986,250. Few bargains in the league look better right now.
He also has five points over his last five games, so this didn't come out of nowhere.
Bo Horvat, Anthony Duclair and Brayden Schenn scored for New York, and Semyon Varlamov made 20 saves.
It was only the Islanders' second road win of the season, and it pushed them to 6-4-2.
The Predators fell to 4-3-5, with five of their losses coming after regulation.
Here's the part to watch, though. That kind of workload is heavy for anybody, let alone a teenager in October.
DeBoer has to balance the trust with the mileage, because the Islanders need him fresh in April, not just on a Tuesday in Nashville.
Would you have taken him off the ice? DeBoer clearly didn't think twice.
Next up is Minnesota on Thursday, then Edmonton visits Saturday. Watching Schaefer share the ice with Connor McDavid is suddenly must-see hockey.
And if he's already making history at this age, the real question is how much the Islanders lean on him once the games get heavier.
Is Matthew Schaefer already the Islanders' best defenseman?
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