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The New York Islanders can’t catch a break.
As if dealing with the neighboring New York Rangers and their success (first team this season to claim an NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs berth), the Isles announced on Tuesday, March 26 that one of the centerpieces of the team, veteran defenseman Scott Mayfield, will miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery.
“He is expected to make a full recovery and not have any issues with his summer training regiment,” the franchise wrote in the message published on X (formerly known as Twitter) ahead of their game against the Florida Panthers scheduled for Thursday, March 28.
The news isn’t good for an Islanders fanbase that has experienced quite a few ups and downs this season, although it’s nothing out of the range of outcomes as Mayfield was moved to long-term injured reserve just before the March 8 trade deadline.
Mayfield was first placed on Injured Reserve back on December 14 and then again on March 5.
“We’re going to shut him right down until he gets completely healthy,” Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello told reporters back then.
The initial recovery timeline offered by the Islanders was expected to last between four and six weeks, which meant Mayfield was facing a worst-case scenario lasting through the final week of the regular season.
Scott Mayfield has Endured a Tough Season
Mayfield has dealt with a lower-body injury since the start of the season. The team hoped rest would lead to improvement and a recovery in time for the home stretch of the season, but it seems like surgery became inevitable.
After discussions between the franchise brass, the player, and the medical staff of the Islanders, all parties agreed that surgery was the best option going forward to avoid any further damage, let alone in the final stages of a campaign that is nothing but lost for the Isles.
Before getting shut down for the remainder of the season, Mayfield played 41 games this year for the Islanders contributing 5 assists with an average ice time of 18:46 per game. On defense, he logged 70 hits and 106 blocked shots.
Mayfield was drafted by the Islanders back in 2011 when he became New York’s second round in that year’s event. Now 31, he’s spent his entire 10-year career with the Islanders appearing in 469 career games. In that time, Mayfield has scored 25 goals and notched 91 assists.
Last summer, coming off his best season (6 goals, 18 assists, 24 points—all of those figures were career-high marks), the Islanders locked in Mayfield with a hefty seven-year extension worth a grand total of $24.5 million. Mayfield’s total value ranks ninth among Islanders players currently under contract.
This contract was more a vote of confidence in Mayfield than anything else, considering his age, his breakout 2023 season, and the fact he’s turned into an Isles icon spending his full career with the franchise.
The Islanders Fired Their Head Coach Mid-Season, Ran Out of Time
The Islanders have had a rocky season and this is just another bump in their road to nowhere. The franchise fired Lane Lambert last January and named Patrick Roy as the new head coach of the team for the remainder of the season on January 20.
Since Roy took charge of the team, the Islanders have put up a mediocre 11–11-4 record over the 26 games he’s been managing from the bench.
The Islanders (75 points in 71 games) are right off the final wild-card spot by a good chunk, trailing the Washington Capitals (81 points in 71 games) by six points through matchups played on Tuesday, March 26. In other words, it’d take a miracle for New York to pull off the comeback and sneak into the postseason.
That’s mostly because of the team’s overperformance after appointing Roy as their new head coach only to fall back down to earth of late.
The Islanders won their first game with Roy on the bench, then put up a monster 6-0 run between the end of February and the start of March, but they have lost seven of their last eight games including a pivotal matchup against the New Jersey Devils on March 24.
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