Forever Blue Shirts · Nov 8, 2025
Why Rangers rivalry with Islanders may return ‘after years … going stale’
At one time, the New York Rangers and their suburban counterparts, the New York Islanders, owned, perhaps, the most intense rivalry in the NHL. Though that’s not been the case for quite a while, there are reasons to believe that a new era for this New York-New York rivalry is beginning to take root.
Fueling the fire for a rivalry revival is a kid who just turned 18 years old, yet is turning heads in the hockey world for his brilliant play, maturity, confident demeanor, and willingness to speak his mind. That would be Matthew Schaeffer, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, who is the center of the Islanders universe these days.