Winnipeg Jets coach Scott Arniel saw untapped potential when his squad took on Matthew Schaefer and his New York Islanders on Monday afternoon.
Arniel likened the 2025 first-overall pick to one of the best defensemen in the league after he added yet another assist to his hot start to his 2025-26 rookie campaign.
“I just made the comment to management that I'm glad he's in the East,” Arniel told reporters on Monday via Stefen Rosner. “The kid is dynamic. Boy, can he skate […] There's a guy in Colorado that kind of has that same kind of poise and ability to move.”
That guy in Colorado? Only Cale Makar.
Makar won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman twice in his seven-year NHL career. He only finished outside of the Top 3 in voting once — when he only finished ninth as a rookie in the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season.
After being selected fourth in the 2017 NHL draft and making his arrival two years later, Makar has scored at or near a point-per-game clip in every season he has played. His lone season under a point-per-game clip was when he scored 12 goals and 50 points in 57 games as a rookie.
The Boston University product has hit the 90-point mark in each of the past two seasons, racking up a career high 30 goals and 92 points in 80 games in 2024-25 en route to his second Norris Trophy. He won his first in 2021-22, when he scored 28 goals and 86 points in 77 games.
With all of that being said, being compared to Makar is one of the highest praises a young defenseman can get.
Schaefer has shown a lot of poise at the NHL level after tallying a goal and two assists in three NHL games — and his plus/minus of plus-1 is perhaps even more impressive with how the 0-3-0 Islanders have been playing around him.
He had lofty expectations when New York made him the No. 1 pick in the draft, but Schaefer is already turning heads early in his career.
