Adam Pelech played in all 82 games for the New York Islanders this season, marking the first time in his 11-year National Hockey League career that he has completed a full slate of games. The team announced on May 20 that Pelech’s achievement provided a consistent and stabilizing presence to the Islanders’ blue line.
The accomplishment is notable because staying healthy for an entire season is rare among NHL players, given the physical demands of the sport. “I just felt lucky to be healthy,” Pelech said. “Definitely worked very hard at staying healthy, keeping myself in shape, and doing everything I could to avoid injury. But sometimes, you just get bad luck and hit in the face with a puck or whatever. I’m fortunate to have been healthy all year.”
Pelech was one of four Islanders—alongside Matthew Schaefer, Emil Heineman, and Anders Lee—to play every game this season. In previous years, injuries had limited his playing time despite his reputation as a hard-nosed defender. Teammate Scott Mayfield said: “It’s huge, it’s hard to play in every game. Things come up during the year, like injuries, sickness, stuff like that. It’s pretty cool when someone can do it. Every year it’s a couple of guys, never the whole team or anything like that because it’s hard to do.”
Statistically, Pelech ranked second on the team with 124 blocked shots and recorded 66 hits—second among defensemen—and averaged over 20 minutes per game for the seventh consecutive season. His contributions included two game-winning goals against Colorado on Dec. 4 and New Jersey on Dec. 23 as well as significant minutes on special teams.
“He was one of our key pieces back there the entire year,” Bo Horvat said about Pelech’s impact on both ends of the ice.”He did a lot of great things and shut down some tough opponents.We needed him in the lineup every single night and he was a difference-maker on a lot of those nights.We’re happy to have him for all 82.”
Looking ahead to next season,Pelech remains focused on building from this strong campaign now that he enters another offseason fully healthy.Tony DeAngelo summed up his value by saying,”He had a great year.He played big minutes for us ,played a ton on penalty kill,and blocked a lot of shots.He did everything we needed ,he went above and beyond.”
