{"id":540577,"date":"2026-03-16T17:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/540577\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T17:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:53:12","slug":"islanders-schaefer-expecting-huge-support-in-toronto-vs-maple-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/540577\/","title":{"rendered":"Islanders&#8217; Schaefer expecting huge support in Toronto vs. Maple Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/hockey\/nhl\/teams\/new-york-islanders\/\" class=\"sn-team-post-link\" target=\"_self\" data-team=\"new-york-islanders\" data-league=\"nhl\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">New York Islanders<\/a> rookie defenceman expects to have a lot of familiar faces in the stands for his first NHL homecoming on Tuesday in Toronto against the Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n<p>When asked on Monday by NHL.com&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/stefen_rosner\/status\/2033594763731992642\" rel=\"nofollow\">Stefen Rosner<\/a> how many fans he expects to have at Scotiabank Arena, the Hamilton, Ont., native said: &#8220;Could be very close to 1,000.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Schaefer said his family has a box &#8220;for a lot of people that I&#8217;m super close with.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The first-overall pick in last year&#8217;s NHL Draft, Schaefer is the front-runner for Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.<\/p>\n<p>The 18-year-old has 20 goals and 28 assists and is a plus-14 in 67 games this season for an Islanders team in the third and final playoff spot in the Metropolitan Division.<\/p>\n<p>Schaefer played his junior hockey with the Erie Otters in the OHL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Islanders rookie defenceman expects to have a lot of familiar faces in the stands for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-540577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540577","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=540577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}