Schaefer's Toronto homecoming with Islanders going to be 'surreal'

TORONTO -- Long before he was the rookie NHL phenom he is today, Matthew Schaefer was just another hockey-crazed kid in southern Ontario, sitting in the seats at Scotiabank Arena, cheering on the local team with chants of “Go Leafs Go!”

“I still have a video of him doing that,” Todd Schaefer, Matthew’s dad, told NHL.com on Monday. “And now he’s going to be playing in that same building as an NHLer for the first time, against that same team, the Toronto Maple Leafs. To say it’s surreal would be an understatement.

“I don’t think he’s going to need any extra motivation when he looks up and he’s on the blue line at Scotiabank.”

Schaefer, in fact, will be doing exactly that when his New York Islanders meet the Maple Leafs on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; TSN4, MSGSN) in what will be the 18-year-old defenseman's first game in Toronto.

And when he does look up, like his father said, there will be hundreds of familiar faces in those same stands that he once occupied as a boy.

“It’ll be pretty close to 1,000,” Schaefer said after practice on Monday. “It’s nuts.”

Those closest to him will watch the game from a private box. As for the other 950 or so, well ...

“Other people will get their own tickets and things like that, that are coming," Schaefer said. "But I mean, a lot of people are texting my dad.”

So much so that Todd estimates he’s received 600-700 requests from those wanting to attend the game.

For Matthew’s part, he can understand why. After all, he’s giddy enough himself to be playing there.

“Just being able to be in Toronto, where I grew up a little bit, just being able to play there ... obviously, I’ve been there to watch a lot of games so, yeah, it’ll be awesome," he said.

“It’s going to be so exciting, just getting out for warmups and things like that. I mean, it’s St. Patty’s Day, so (the Maple Leafs) are going to be wearing the green and stuff like that, which will be pretty cool.

“I’m excited.”

So is his dad, not to mention Johnny Schaefer, his older brother.

“Johnny said to me recently, 'I can’t believe he’s going to be playing in Toronto,'” Todd said. “It’s awesome. I mean, we’re going to Scotiabank Arena to see him.

“Look, whether we’re in different arenas or watching on TV, we say all the time that we can’t believe we’re watching our son/brother playing in the NHL. But this is different. It’s a different level of excitement, playing against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.”

Schaefer, who grew up about 50 miles southwest of Toronto in the Hamilton, Ontario, area, has exceeded all expectations since being selected by the Islanders with the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft last summer. He has 48 points (20 goals, 28 assists) while averaging 24:21 of ice time in 67 games, making him the frontrunner for the Calder Trophy as the League's rookie of the year.

Among his impressive performances so far this season, perhaps none was bigger than the two goals he scored, including the overtime winner with 49 seconds remaining, in a 4-3 victory against the Maple Leafs on Jan. 3, his first NHL game against Toronto.

“That was amazing,” Todd said. “But this, being in Toronto, it’s just so huge for so many reasons.”

One of the most important being the presence his wheelchair-bound grandmother, Marianne, who has never seen Matthew play an NHL game. She will in the building on Tuesday.

So, too, will members of the Brantford 99ers U12 AAA minor hockey team, including goalie Brady Scriven, who is the younger brother of Matthew’s pal, Ryan Scriven. Matthew took time out during the Olympic break last month to be an honorary coach for those kids in a game that Brantford won 7-3 against Kitchener.

The one missing piece, though, the one person Matthew would give anything to have at the rink, is the one who can’t be there: his mom Jennifer, who passed away from breast cancer in February 2024.

Jennifer was Matthew’s inspiration. Still is. And, according to Todd, Matthew thinks she’ll be watching him.

“He’s just of the belief that, 'My mom is up there. She sees everything. She sees every shift. When I need that extra motivation, she’s right there. She’s not suffering. I don’t want her suffering. And she’s got a front-row seat,'" Todd said.

If anyone knows the influence that Jennifer had on Matthew, it’s Jim Nyhuus, one of his former minor hockey coaches and close mentors who will be at the Islanders' morning skate on Tuesday.

Nyhuus coached Schaefer when he was a 15-year-old playing for the Halton Hurricanes of the South Central Triple A U16 league in 2022-23. That season, he had 32 points (12 goals, 20 assists) in 25 regular-season games and 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in five playoff games. “Jimbo,” as Schaefer calls him, would go on to be a reliable and embraced member of Matthew’s support system when his mom was sick.

To this day, Matthew and Jimbo exchange weekly texts.

“At that time, when his mom was sick, I was always getting emotional with him about it, trying to stay strong,” Nyhuus recalled. “But he always had that strength.

“Right now, he is living up to his mother's expectations of him, not as a hockey player, but as a human being, because he's a better person than he is a hockey player, and that’s saying a lot.”

A person whose humanity, Nyhuus said, is a trait Jennifer exuded, as he found out firsthand.

On Aug. 25, 2023, Nyhuus, his wife, Baillie, and stepdaughter, Maddie, were driving back from dinner in Muskoka, Ontario, located about 120 miles north of Toronto, when their vehicle was slammed into by another driver.

“We all suffered serious injuries, but Baillie’s were the worst," he recalled. "She sustained eight broken ribs, a collapsed lung, four fractures to her vertebrae, a massive concussion. ... She still has a broken back."

About three weeks later, with Baillie in intensive care and Jim and Maddie recovering at home, a gift basket with food and other items was dropped off at their door by Todd, Jennifer and Johnny Schaefer.

“You get emotional just thinking about it,” Nyhuus said, trying to hold back tears. “I mean, here’s Jennifer. At the time she’s dying. She's got cancer. She's going to die early the next year. And this family, not thinking about themselves, not thinking about woe is me, is there looking to help my family.”

He paused to collect himself.

“Such a humble family,” he said. “It’s no secret where Matthew gets it from.

“I can’t wait to see him.”

For this, Matthew’s NHL homecoming, there will be no shortage of supporters saying the same thing.

NHL.com independent correspondent Stefen Rosner contributed to this report