Isles Day-to-Day: Practice Updates Nov. 6, 2026

The New York Islanders returned to Northwell Health Ice Center on Friday, Nov. 6 ahead of their matchup against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.  

Mathew Barzal, Ryan Pulock and Matias Maccelli skated with the team in non-contact jerseys for the third straight day.  

Head Coach Pete DeBoer shuffled his lines at Friday’s practice. Here's how the Isles lined up during practice.

LINES

Emil Heineman – Bo Horvat – Kyle Palmieri
Ondřej Palát – Brayden Schenn – Victor Eklund
Simon Holmström – JG Pageau – Anthony Duclair  
Kyle MacLean – Casey Cizikas – Mitchell Chaffee 

Logan Stanley – Matthew Schaefer
Adam Pelech – Tony DeAngelo
Ben Hutton – Matt Kessel 
Scott Mayfield 

Non Contact: Mathew Barzal, Matias Maccelli, Ryan Pulock  

Ilya Sorokin
Semyon Varlamov

DEBOER TALKS LINE CHANGES

DeBoer mixed up the lines during Friday's practice. Emil Heineman skated alongside Bo Horvat and Kyle Palmieri. Heineman has recorded an assist in five of his last seven games.

Ondřej Palát moved to a line with Brayden Schenn and Victor Eklund. Simon Holmström took Palát's spot with JG Pageau and Anthony Duclair.  

DeBoer said Thursday’s 5-3 loss to Carolina, was “the first time I felt a little bit of frustration with the group” and the line changes on Friday reflect that sentiment.  

"Just moving some things around," DeBoer said of the changes. "That's going to be a normal thing here. Not looking for wholesale changes, but tweaks. I think to try and get a little bit more out of individual groups." 

DeBoer also made an adjust to the power play units, swapping Eklund and Palmieri. Eklund has recorded two points (1G, 1A) this season on the power play, most recently a goal against the Kings on Oct. 22. 

"He's a good player," DeBoer said of Eklund. "He's good at puck support, he's quick to pucks, he's heavy on pucks. I don't think we're looking to make him the answer to our power play problems." 

DeBoer emphasized the need to be a strong four-line team, something they accomplished on Thursday with Mitchell Chaffee’s first goal as an Islander.  

"I use the word tilting the ice, but they got in, they forechecked; they did tilt the ice," DeBoer said of the fourth line's performance against the Hurricanes. "They created some offensive opportunities, and they defended hard, and I think they go hand in hand."

HUTTON'S FIRST PRACTICE AFTER SIGNING WITH ISLES

Defenseman Ben Hutton signed a one-year deal on Thursday with the Islanders after being signed to a PTO on Monday. 

Read more on Hutton here. 

Hutton skated with Matt Kessel during practice, but DeBoer didn’t commit to him being in the lineup on Saturday against New Jersey.  

"If he's ready to play, he'll play. I think that's where we're at," DeBoer said of Hutton. "He went to training camp with Ottawa... and he's been skating, but not in a team environment and not at this pace. We wanted to get him in at least three full practices, which we did this week. Today was a third, and then I'll talk to him and see how he feels and make those decisions tomorrow morning.” 

Signing with the Isles was a good feeling for Hutton.  

"To get it official was nice,” Hutton said. “It was good to get my foot in the door, but then to make it official was a good feeling for sure. The guys are great in here; they made me feel at home even on the PTO, so it was good.” 

Hutton got to celebrate his signing over the phone on FaceTime with his wife and daughter.  

“It was a good phone call with my wife, my daughter, she's only one, so I don't know if she truly understood, but we were teaching her how to clap, so she was clapping. That was a cool moment," Hutton said. "It's been a stressful few months here, but to put pen to paper, put that in the past, and I'll just work on helping the Islanders win some games here.” 

Hutton – who played for DeBoer for one season with the Vegas Golden Knights – has been reacclimating himself to DeBoer's systems in his three days with the team.  

“It's similar, but also there's little changes,” Hutton said of DeBoer’s system. “I feel like it's just slightly more aggressive, especially in the D-zone so that can only that can only help to translate to the odd man rushes and to the offense. I'm excited to play a game and just see what it's like in real life.”