The NHL\u2019s rookie of the year honor is one of the top in the sport. You can only make a run at it once, and so many of its winners have become legends. This year might be no exception.<\/p>\n
But let\u2019s be real: it\u2019s going to take a miracle for someone outside of Schaefer to win it. He\u2019s in the midst of one of the greatest seasons<\/a> by a defender taken first overall in the previous draft that the NHL has ever seen. Brian Leetch owns the record for most goals by a rookie defenseman with 23 in 1989. Schaefer\u2019s at 20 already, with 18 games left. He\u2019s on pace to become the first 25-goal scoring rookie defender ever and potentially just the second rookie defender to register 60 points in the 21st Century after Lane Hutson had 66 a year ago. Few defenders over the past 20 years have looked as dynamic as a playmaker, either.<\/p>\n According to MoneyPuck.com<\/a>, Schaefer\u2019s 11.7 expected goals is third among all blueliners behind Jakob Chychrun (16.6) and Cale Makar (14.8). Those are two star defenders chasing after the Norris Trophy \u2013 and Schaefer is right with them. Schaefer doesn\u2019t hit many players, and doesn\u2019t get hit often, either. But because he has speed to burn, opponents are often caught trying to chase him down. Only Jeremy Lauzon (61 PIM) has drawn more penalties<\/a> among defenders than Schaefer (60) this year.<\/p>\n Much of his defensive dominance comes down to how often he has the puck on his stick. Between the way he thinks and the way he moves, Schaefer is already one of the toughest defenders to steal the puck off of. He\u2019ll make the odd mistake, sure \u2013\u00a0but he also plays north of 24 minutes a night as an 18-year-old defender. Schafer uses his speed to cut off scoring angles and maintains tight gaps as effectively as any U-20 defenseman we\u2019ve seen in a very, very long time. He\u2019s always moving and looking to shut plays down, and he has the obvious skill and endurance to go the other way to create a quality scoring chance.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for more flash, then Demidov has you covered. The 20-year-old winger was incredibly productive in the KHL last year and is tracking for nearly 65 points in Montreal. The middle-six winger has a solid shot, too. But he makes everyone around him better thanks to his high-end passing and elite processing power.<\/p>\n Demidov is averaging 2.54 points-per-60 at 5-on-5. That\u2019s good for 19th among NHLers with at least 700 minutes played according to Natural Stat Trick<\/a>. If you sort it by assists, he\u2019s sixth at 1.78. Given he\u2019s hanging around guys like Nikita Kucherov, Nathan MacKinnon, Mitch Marner and Macklin Celebrini, that\u2019s quite special. And the Russian winger is doing it despite averaging 15:19 a night, too. Demidov has primarily played with Oliver Kapanen and Juraj Slafkovsky this season \u2013\u00a0and Kapanen, in particular, has played much worse hockey when not paired beside Demidov.<\/a><\/p>\n Perhaps the most entertaining of the bunch, though, is Sennecke. The 19-year-old was a surprise pick at No. 3 by the Ducks in 2024 after registering 68 points in 63 games with the Oshawa Generals. Since then, Sennecke has become one of the most fascinating young players in the game. He recently became the first freshman forward to register 20 goals this season while also cracking 50 points. Sennecke is a human-wrecking ball,<\/a> too, using his mature 6-foot-3, 205-pound frame to win battles.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n But then you watch him play, and he executes moves you\u2019d expect someone 4-5 inches smaller to pull off with ease. Seriously, Sennecke is one of the most skilled forwards you\u2019ll find, exhibiting elite skill on a consistent basis. Sennecke\u2019s ability to absolutely obliterate opponents, with and without the puck, should allow him to become a truly effective power forward for the next 15+ years.<\/p>\n And yet, going up against Schaefer for rookie of the year means he likely won\u2019t get the glory he deserves. Demidov and Sennecke deserve so much credit for the tremendous numbers they\u2019ve put up this season to help their respective clubs stay in the playoff hunt. Without Sennecke,<\/a> the Ducks absolutely wouldn\u2019t be first in the Pacific Division. Demidov has been so electric for the Canadiens and truly looks like the team\u2019s next superstar. <\/a><\/p>\n But what Schaefer \u2013 and what Hutson did a year ago \u2013 as a defenseman is truly special. He\u2019s tied for the goals lead and is a few points behind Sennecke in the points race, too. Scorers are expected to score \u2013 defenders aren\u2019t. So when they do that, and defend well, that\u2019s when blueliners really shine. Calder voters often look at average ice time when deciding on the award. Schaefer is the only rookie with at least 50 games played who averages more than 19 minutes per night, sitting at 24:16. No question about it: Schaefer is the Islanders\u2019 most valuable player. More notably, perhaps, he\u2019s the top rookie in the NHL.<\/p>\n These three have separated from the pack \u2013 but good luck taking the crown away from Schaefer.<\/p>\n CHECK OUT OFF THE ROSTER \u2013 NEW EPISODES EVERY WEEKDAY<\/p>\n Off The Roster is Toronto sports. Hosted by Cabbie Richards, Lindsay Dunn, and Dan Riccio, this is the go-to morning conversation for everything happening in the 6ix \u2013 Hockey, Baseball, Basketball and everything in between. From breakout performances and questionable trades to throwback jerseys, viral moments, and the stories fans are actually talking about \u2013 it\u2019s smart, sharp, and never scripted. Live weekday mornings on the Nation Network YouTube channel<\/a> and available wherever you stream podcasts, the show delivers real opinions, real chemistry, and real Toronto energy. Missed an episode? Catch up anytime. Off The Roster\u2014The new sound of the 6ix.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We have just more than a month to go in the NHL\u2019s 2025-26 regular season. And it\u2019s clear:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-526980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773153607_750_image.webp\"\/)
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