NY Islanders’ Kyle Palmieri reveals the grueling road back from ACL surgery

Kyle Palmieri's road back to the Islanders didn't begin on the ice. For a while, it mostly involved a swimming pool, some ugly-looking exercises and walks through the Long Island snow carrying a wet bathing suit.

Nearly 10 months after tearing his ACL against the Philadelphia Flyers on Nov. 28, 2025, Palmieri is finally back where he wanted to be.

"The idea of kind of being back in a team structure, and I've obviously been skating with my teammates for the last couple weeks here, but to do it with some structure and for real; I've missed it," Palmieri told NewYorkIslanders.com. "It's been a long time."

Getting there wasn't easy.

For the first 12 weeks following surgery, Palmieri said he was in the pool five or six days a week, using swimming as a way to maintain his conditioning while his knee recovered.

He even learned how to properly swim along the way.

"It was more time swimming," Palmieri told NewYorkIslanders.com. "I learned how to swim properly and do a couple things in the water that may have looked like I was a 90-year-old in a jazzercise class."

Palmieri laughed about it now, admitting "it certainly wasn't pretty," but there wasn't much funny about the daily grind required to get his career moving again.

Not even a Long Island winter provided an excuse.

Palmieri would walk to the Nassau County Aquatic Center through snowstorms, do his work and make the trip back with his wet gear.

"It wasn't fun walking over there in the middle of winter and walking back with a wet bathing suit on," he told NewYorkIslanders.com.

Palmieri tried to approach the rehabilitation one day at a time, checking off milestones as the months passed.

Now comes the milestone he wanted most.

He's no longer rehabilitating to become a hockey player again.

He's back being one.

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