Matthew Schaefer Wins 2026 Calder Trophy as NHL's Best Rookie, Full Voting Results Revealed

New York Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer is being celebrated as the NHL's top rookie after a record-breaking first NHL season.

Schaefer has been honored with the Calder Memorial Trophy over the Montreal Canadiens' Ivan Demidov and Anaheim Ducks' Beckett Sennecke, the NHL announced Wednesday.

Schaefer was surprised with the trophy during his Wednesday segment on Good Morning America.

The Calder Trophy is awarded to the NHL's "most proficient" rookie as voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association.

Schaefer was a unanimous winner, receiving all 198 first-place votes from PHWA. Second-place votes were split between Demidov (120), Sennecke (41) and Canadiens goaltender Jakub Dobeš (32).

Schaefer followed up his selection at the top of the 2025 NHL draft by breaking multiple league records.

His 23 goals in 82 games tied Brian Leetch's single-season goalscoring record for a rookie blueliner, while his 59 points broke Phil Housley's record for the most by an 18-year-old defenseman.

Schaefer closed out the season as the youngest defenseman to hit 20 goals and 50 points in the same season, per Islanders PR.

He is also the youngest NHL player to score an overtime goal, the youngest defenseman to record a point in his debut and the youngest defenseman to hit 50 points in a season.

That historic season from Schaefer, who doesn't turn 19 until September, was enough to keep the Islanders in the playoff race until a slump late in the regular season ended the team's postseason hopes.

Although this marked the Islanders' second straight season without a playoff bid, the team will hope to build a contender in the near future around a potential franchise defenseman in Schaefer and Vezina Trophy finalist in Ilya Sorokin.

Schaefer is the youngest Calder Trophy winner in NHL history, beating out Nathan MacKinnon in 2014. He is also the first Islanders player since Mathew Barzal in 2018 to take home the award.

Demidov finished as runner-up after leading all rookies with 62 points, while Sennecke earned a spot among the finalists by tying Schaefer for the rookie lead with 23 goals.