Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov suffers torn ACL, expected to miss 6-8 months

Alexander Romanov’s season with the New York Islanders has already hit a serious derailment. The club announced that the defenseman tore the ACL in his right knee during a game against the New York Rangers on Tuesday night, a blow that comes only days after he returned from shoulder surgery.

According to the team’s announcement relayed by Yahoo Sports, Romanov had been back in the lineup for three games. He will undergo surgery to repair the injury, and the Islanders indicated he is expected to miss 6 to 8 months. For a defensive player, an ACL tear is not simply a short absence, it typically affects skating mechanics, acceleration, and the ability to play with the same intensity until late in the rehabilitation cycle.

The timing compounds the impact. Early in an NHL season, teams tend to still be locking in defensive pairings and special-teams roles, sorting out matchups, and trying to establish rhythm line to line. Removing a regular-caliber defender after just a brief return increases the urgency for the Islanders to fill minutes immediately with other options, while also protecting the players asked to step in.

For the Islanders, the immediate consequence is roster and deployment pressure. When a top-four type defenseman goes down, coaches usually have to shorten the leash on who plays in the toughest situations, alter ice-time distribution, and adjust matchups across the defensive zone. Over a full campaign, that can also ripple into power-play and penalty-kill strategy, because it changes personnel available for clearing, zone entries, and shot-blocking lanes.

There is also a practical recovery window to watch. With an estimated 6 to 8 month absence, Romanov’s return would fall into the mid-to-late portion of the regular season or potentially the early stretch of the playoffs, depending on the team’s exact calendar and his rehabilitation progress. The Islanders will likely be mindful of how his conditioning and confidence build, especially after a shoulder surgery followed by an ACL injury.

The bigger question for New York will be how quickly the group can stabilize defensively without Romanov. Defense in the NHL is cumulative, built on pair comfort, communication, and habits formed through repetition. Even when replacements are talented, it can take time to regain the same cohesion, particularly against teams that challenge the blue line with speed and cycling pressure.

As the Islanders move forward, the focus will shift to who absorbs Romanov’s role during his absence and how the team manages its defensive matchups while keeping players healthy through the grind. Romanov’s recovery will remain the central storyline, but the season-long issue for the Islanders is ensuring the defensive structure holds up long enough for the group to contend for positioning in the standings.