NY Islanders may have found another way to unleash Matthew Schaefer

Peter DeBoer seems to be getting more comfortable with an idea that would have sounded a little unconventional a few months ago, And that's Matthew Schaefer playing the right side.

Schaefer is a left-shot defenseman, and normally that would make the discussion pretty straightforward. Put him on the left, let him play his natural side and move on.

Except Schaefer isn’t exactly a normal defenseman.

DeBoer told TSN that the more film he watched from last season, the more he noticed just how often Schaefer naturally drifted to the opposite side of the ice anyway.

“The other part of that is, he is such a rover,” DeBoer said in an interview with TSN. “We've been talking about maybe playing him on the right side this year.”

What really caught DeBoer’s attention was how frequently Schaefer ended up there without being assigned there. “He ended up on the right side, you know, probably 30% of the time last year, starting on the left, just because of how he was playing the game and where he was jumping into and the spots he ended up in.”

That’s really the key.

With Schaefer, “left defense” and “right defense” might matter a lot less than it does with most players. His game is built around movement, attacking space and jumping into plays whenever an opening appears.

He isn’t just sitting on one half of the ice waiting for the puck to come to him.

So if the Islanders believe moving Schaefer to the right side creates better pairings or gives DeBoer more lineup flexibility, there may not be much downside.

“I don't think it's a big transition for a guy like that to switch sides either,” DeBoer said.

And after watching the tape, it sounds like DeBoer believes Schaefer has already been doing it anyway.

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