New York Islanders’ rookie Matthew Schaefer is already a franchise NHL player at 18, and when is that last time we could say that about a defenceman? Heck, maybe you turn back the clock 50 years when Ray Bourque was the same age in Boston.

The first-overall pick in last June’s draft only turned 18 four months ago. He has 30 points in 46 games in his first trip around NHL rinks. He has played 34 straight games of at least 20 minutes, he is going up against another former Erie Otters’ junior grad Connor McDavid tonight, and when he plays against Colorado he’s seeing Nate MacKinnon, against Tampa he’s trying to check Nikita Kucherov. And he is plus-9.

“The other night in Winnipeg he had to do the concussion protocol and also got hit with a shot. He had only played nine minutes. I said I don’t know if he’s hitting 20 minutes tonight. He goes and plays 11 ½ minutes in the third,” said former Islanders Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe winner Butch Goring, a former coach who works on their TV feed.

Schaefer is shooting the theory to smithereens that it’s a torture test breaking into the NHL as an 18-year-old defenceman, trying to process the game, being targeted on the forecheck, playing against first-liners, not third-liners. It is harder to be a teenager on defence than breaking in as a forward, in terms of pressure.

“This is a tough league to come into, no matter the position,” said McDavid. “But certainly as a defenceman you’re asked to do a lot of different things. The responsibility of breaking pucks out against heavy pressure, against big men. But he’s doing great. It’s impressive to see.”

Schaefer isn’t so sure that defence is harder than being a No. 1 centre as a teenager.

“There’s always challenges when you come into a new league. The D are probably the last line, then the goalies, but when you have a goalie like we do in (Ilya) Sorokin, it’s a little easier,” said Schaefer.

Schaefer bows to McDavid, of course.

“Connor’s the best player in the world and he’s so fun to watch. I look at it both ways, it’s tough at either position. He adapted super quick. It was easy for him. He had to learn a lot of things from the older guys and that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to learn as much as I can so I can be the best version of myself.”

Oilers bench boss Kris Knoblauch, who coached 18-year-old defencemen in junior in Erie once upon a time, knows the jump from there to the NHL, at that age and being a No. 1 guy, already, is almost unfathomable.

“It’s tough being a defenceman in the NHL at any time and to be playing as many minutes as he has now, against the competition he’s seeing, yeah, it’s impressive for me,” said Knoblauch.

“As a coach you can hide younger forwards, you can get them favourable matchups, you can help them with a stronger centreman or linemates. But a young defenceman has to be able to defend, play regular shifts against other team’s top lines. There’s only three D pairs. Obviously, his strength is his skating. But he’s also a smart player who can see the game.”

He is on Canada’s Olympic team wait list, along with Oilers defender Evan Bouchard, 25, in case any defenceman already named to the squad gets hurt between now and the NHL stoppage Feb. 4. He was nowhere on their radar to start the season, but he was a major talking point in the selection process with the management team. In the end, they decided to go with the same eight defencemen from last February’s 4 Nations Face-Off, but they haven’t written off Schaefer, or Bouchard.

“Yeah, they asked if I wanted to keep doing the drug-testing (an Olympic requirement). Of course,” said Schaefer, who wasn’t the least-bit bummed he wasn’t one of the eight defencemen named New Year’s Eve. “There’s a lot of great Canadian defencemen and it was pretty easy to get the roster they did.”

But none of them are 18. Bobby Orr broke in with a bang in Boston at the same age in 1966, Bourque in 1979 with the Bruins, scoring 65 points in 80 games. Phil Housley had 66 points in 77 games at 18 in Buffalo in 1982. But to bring this forward, while we were wowed by a young Cale Makar, and rightfully so, in his first NHL season on the Avalanche blueline. But he had gone to college for two years after being drafted. He was 21, still an NHL babe, but not like Schaefer, trying to soak it in.

“I see a lot of Makar in Schaefer. They don’t just want to show up, they want to be instrumental in the game and they have the ability to do that,” said Goring.

Goring, who played on the Islander dynasty teams as the second-line centre behind Bryan Trottier, was completely gobsmacked by the 6-foot-2, 195-pound Schaefer’s poise, speed and no fear with the puck and without at Islanders’ training camp. He does see some of Bourque in Schaefer as 18-year-olds.

“Great two-way player at that age, similar talent-wise, and I was lucky enough to coach Ray,” said Goring. “He is everything that you’ve heard … that’s the best way to describe Schaefer. He’s the entire package, and you don’t see that (in defencemen) all the time. He can take over a game. Terrific skater, great hands, hockey sense, he competes, his will to win is beyond imagination. But he’s better as a personality. He’s entertaining, unbelievably nice kid, knows the values in life, very mature for 18.”

“I didn’t see Orr play,” said Goring, “but Schaefer is the best 18-year-old (D) I have ever seen.”

He’s a treat for Islanders coach Patrick Roy, who also coached junior in Quebec City and knows he has travelled a road to the NHL at bullet-train speed.

“Every day you’re thinking is he going to hit the wall? But he hasn’t. That’s what’s impressed me the most. Every city we go to, people are asking questions about him, and he stays himself. He’s very humble,” said Roy.

“You need to be very special to come into this league at this age and dominate. It’s not just his skating. They see him going on the rush like Makar or (Josh) Morrissey the other night in Winnipeg. But like they do, he closes very fast. He’s got a great stick.”

Morrissey raved about Schaefer when the Islanders were playing the Jets.

“Josh said he’s a guy who plays the game fast, his hands move with his feet and his brain moves with the other two parts,” said Goring.

“He told me that’s a rare thing for anybody to have, let alone an 18-year-old. That’s as good a compliment as you can have.”

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