Kyle Palmieri lost for season with ACL injury

The worst-case scenario has come true after Kyle Palmieri limped off the ice — while assisting on a goal! — during the Islanders’ shootout loss to the Flyers on Friday. The winger tore his ACL requiring surgery, meaning he’s out for six to eight months.

That puts him out for the regular season and it would take a double-miracle scenario (long playoff run, faster healing) to see him again in 2025-26. At age 34 he was having a standard Palmieri season — six goals and 18 points through 25 games through some streaky runs and dry spells, and adapting each time Patrick Roy mixed up lines.

The last we’ll see of him for quite some time is a memorable one:

For the Isles, that’s two primary if not top-role players now out for the season in Palmieri and defenseman Alex Romanov. (Pierre Engvall is also out for the year, though his season never really started and it didn’t seem he was in primary plans.)

This will test their depth and deployment, as they likely slot a left-shooter in on the right side and also have J-G Pageau out week to week.

Even before Palmieri’s injury, Kyle MacLean was back in the lineup Friday in favor of the scratched Max Tsyplakov, who continues to struggle to gain footing. Max Shabanov took a maintenance day Saturday (so did Mat Barzal), so his health bears monitoring. In the prospect pipeline, Calum Ritchie has already been called up and looks to be a fixture, previously pushing MacLean from the lineup.