Islanders’ Alexander Romanov to miss 6-8 months with torn ACL
The New York Islanders took a major hit to their blue line on Tuesday night when Alexander Romanov exited their game against their nearby rival New York Rangers, and the news got worse on Wednesday.
The Islanders announced that Romanov suffered a torn ACL as a result of a collision with Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad, and he will be out for the next six to eight months as he recovers from surgery to repair the ligament in his right knee.
Romanov was getting started on his fifth season as a member of the Islanders, and in three games, he posted a plus-2 rating while skating an average of 16:34 of time on ice per game, a mark brought down by his early exit Tueday.
This marks the second year in a row in which Romanov has seen his season drastically cut short by a serious injury, as he skated in just 15 contests last year as a result of an injury to and subsequent surgery on his shoulder.
After spending the first two seasons of his career with the Montreal Canadiens, Romanov was dealt to New York, where he eventually signed a long-term, eight-year contract extension that comes with a salary cap hit of $6.25 million. This is the second campaign of that eight-year pact.
The Islanders already felt that they needed depth on the left side of their defense, as evidenced by their recent signing of Logan Stanley, who remained available as an unrestricted free agent even after the regular season began. New York’s blue line is led by super star Matthew Schaefer, who is joined by veterans Ryan Pulock, Adam Pelech and Tony DeAngelo, along with Stanley.
Among head coach Peter DeBoer’s options to add to the lineup are Scott Mayfield and Matthew Kessel, both of whom are already on the team’s roster. Other players with NHL experience currently on the AHL roster include Isaiah George, Ethan Bear and Long Island native Marshall Warren.
New York is off to a 1-2-0 start to its 2026-27 season, and they’ll have an opportunity to get back to .500 on Thursday night at UBS Arena when they take on the Chicago Blackhawks.