EAST MEADOW, N.Y. (AP) — Matthew Schaefer and Peter DeBoer have just spent one practice together, and the young face of the New York Islanders already understands a couple of very important things about one of the best defensive minds in hockey who just took over as the team's coach.
“I know he loves winning,” Schaefer said. “I know he knows how to coach a team."
DeBoer took the ice Monday with a daunting immediate task of trying to push the Islanders into the playoffs following the firing of Patrick Roy roughly 24 hours earlier. They may need to win all four games left to get in after losing their past four and seven of 10 to fall out of a spot, but the move to bring in an accomplished leader with a record of success is as much about the future as salvaging this season.
“This is not only about this year,” general manager Mathieu Darche said. “If it’s truly only about four games left when you don’t fully control your destiny, it’s not a desperate move about this year.”
No, it's more about jumping the line on other NHL teams to get one of the top coaching candidates available before they start making moves in the coming weeks. Los Angeles and Columbus currently have interim coaches, Toronto is looking for a new GM and could also change coaches — and that's just the beginning.
“Guys like Pete DeBoer don’t stay on the market very long,” Darche said. “At this time, I think it’s what we need moving forward. It’s like grabbing the No. 1 free agent on the market. Pete’s an outstanding coach.”
Taking responsibility for Roy's firing, which surprised them, players seemed to get the gist.
“Darchy, he saw us not playing well, he saw Pete being a really good coach and obviously it’s a long-term play with this organization where you get a great coach that has done a lot of good things in this league,” said veteran forward Brayden Schenn, who won the Stanley Cup in 2019 St. Louis after a midseason coaching change that happened much earlier. "It’s not just a four-game stint. I think these four games, we can use it to push ourselves to give us a chance to get in the playoffs and moving forward after that.”
DeBoer has taken a team to the third round in six of the past seven seasons: San Jose in 2019, Vegas in 2020 and ‘21 and Dallas in ’23, ‘24 and ’25. He has two trips to the Stanley Cup Final on his resume: New Jersey in ‘12 and San Jose in ’16.
Set to turn 58 on June 13, DeBoer almost certainly would have had options for next season and beyond. He could have waited to see what materialized, but after a whirlwind of conversations with Darche over the weekend he decided Long Island was the right fit.
“When I first picked up the phone, my initial reaction was probably exactly (that): ‘We’re two weeks away from offseason, what’s the rush?’” DeBoer said. "He sold me on the organization and the vision and the direction and their ownership. ... After speaking with him at length, this quickly became a priority for me.”
Coaching in the New York area from 2011-14 with the Devils and having familiar assistant Bob Boughner already on staff were factors. DeBoer joked that the easier travel compared to the Western Conference was a selling point, too.
And, of course, there is Schaefer, who at 18 is already among the sport's best defensemen, thriving at a position that usually has a steep learning curve.
“He's special,” said DeBoer, who watched Schaefer closely as an assistant on Canada's Olympic staff. “I honestly couldn’t believe my eyes the first half of the year, what I was seeing from an 18-year-old: the maturity in his game, how dynamic he was.”
DeBoer also called Ilya Sorokin one of the best goaltenders in the league. Sorokin's play largely kept the Islanders afloat through rough stretches, but even he could not save Roy's job.
“The last little bit here, we weren’t as sharp or we didn’t get away with as much as we did before because, let’s face it, we got away with some stuff during the year where our goaltender’s been outstanding,” Darche said.
After four losses in four games over a six-day span, Sorokin and his teammates don't play again until Thursday. That gives DeBoer a longer runway than most midseason replacements to tweak and adjust, but Darche cautioned there won't be a full-blown system change because there simply isn't time for that.
Time is running out to make the playoffs, but after spending the vast majority of a season out of the NHL for the first time in nearly two decades, DeBoer wants players to cherish being in the thick of a race down the stretch.
“(This is) a chance to be playing in the playoffs in less than two weeks, and don’t take that for granted,” DeBoer said. "You get in the grind of the wins and the losses and the travel. You sometimes forget about how exciting this time of year is in this kind of position.”
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FILE - Dallas Stars head coach Peter DeBoer looks on during the third period in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals in the NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoffs, Friday, May 23, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
New York Islanders new head coach Peter DeBoer, right, speaks with the media following NHL hockey practice, Monday, April 6, 2026, in East Meadow, N.Y. (AP Photo/Stephen Whyno)
New York Islanders new head coach Peter DeBoer speaks with the media following NHL hockey practice, Monday, Paril 6, 2026, in East Meadow, N.Y. (AP Photo/Stephen Whyno)
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday expanded his threat against Iran to include all power plants and bridges as his ultimatum to make a deal ticked closer, after Tehran rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end to the war.
“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said. He suggested that his Tuesday 8 p.m. ET deadline was final, saying he'd already given Iran enough extensions.
The U.S. has told Iran to open the crucial Strait of Hormuz to all shipping traffic or see power plants and bridges wiped out, sparking warnings about possible war crimes.
Israel piled on pressure by attacking a major petrochemical plant and killing the intelligence chief for the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Tehran with its rejection conveyed its own, 10-point plant to end the fighting through Pakistan, a key mediator, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said.
“We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press. He said Iran no longer trusts the Trump administration after the U.S. bombed the Islamic Republic twice during previous rounds of talks.
A regional official involved in talks said efforts had not collapsed. “We are still talking to both sides,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.
And even Trump said negotiations with Iran continued.
Trump has issued ultimatums to Iran before, only to find ways to back off. But he was more explicit this time on plans to follow through.
“Every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night,” he said, and all power plants will be “burning, exploding and never to be used again.”
Asked if he was concerned about accusations of war crimes, Trump responded, “No, not at all." He suggested that Iranians want the U.S. to carry out its threats because it could lead to the end of their current leadership.
Iranian citizens are “willing to suffer," he said, "in order to have freedom.” But there has been no sign of an uprising in Iran as residents shelter from bombardment.
International warnings piled up against expanded strikes. “Any attack on civilian infrastructure is a violation of international law and a very clear one,” United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric later told journalists.
Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators had sent Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff a proposal calling for the ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, two Mideast officials told the AP. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private negotiations.
Iranian and Omani officials also were working on a mechanism for administrating the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped in peacetime. Iran’s grip on it has shaken the world economy.
Tehran has refused to let U.S. and Israeli vessels through after they started the war on Feb. 28.
Israel struck a key petrochemical plant in the South Pars natural gas field, saying it was aimed at eliminating a major source of revenue for Iran. The field, the world’s largest, is shared with Qatar and is Iran’s biggest source of domestic energy for its 93 million people.
The strike appeared to be separate from Trump’s threats. An earlier Israeli attack there in March prompted Iran to target energy infrastructure in other Middle East countries, a major escalation.
Israel also killed the head of intelligence for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi, according to Iranian state media. And Israel said it killed the leader of the Revolutionary Guard’s undercover unit in its expeditionary Quds Force, Asghar Bakeri.
“We will continue to hunt them down one by one,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said of top Iranian officials.
New Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who still has not been seen or heard in public, issued a rare statement expressing condolences over Khademi. Israeli strikes have killed dozens of top Iranian leaders, including Khamenei’s father.
Israel’s military also said it struck three Tehran airports overnight — Bahram, Mehrabad and Azmayesh — hitting dozens of helicopters and aircraft it said belonged to the Iranian Air Force.
A Tehran resident said “constantly there is the sound of bombs, air defenses, drones,” speaking on condition of anonymity for her safety. Another detailed taking sleeping pills to get through nightly bombardments, and said people worry about power, gas and water cuts.
Smoke rose near Tehran’s Azadi Square after an airstrike hit the grounds of the Sharif University of Technology. Multiple countries have sanctioned the university for its work with the military, particularly on Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Authorities and Iranian state media reported at least 29 people killed across the country by strikes.
In Lebanon, where Israel has launched air attacks and a ground invasion that it says target the Iran-linked Hezbollah militia, an airstrike hit an apartment in Ain Saadeh, a predominately Christian town east of Beirut. It killed an official in the Lebanese Forces, a Christian political party strongly opposed to Hezbollah, his wife and another woman.
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but the government has not updated the toll for days.
More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.
In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.
Weissert reported from Washington, Magdy from Cairo and Gambrell from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Isabel DeBre in Ain Saadeh, Lebanon, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Amir-Hussein Radjy in Cairo and Josh Boak and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this story.
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
People drive their motorbikes past a billboard that shows a graphic depicting Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Nadine Naameh reacts as she looks at the damage to her home following an Israeli strike in the village of Ain Saadeh in the mountains east of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A man works at the site of Sunday's Israeli strike on a building in Beirut's Jnah neighborhood, Lebanon, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Rescue workers and military personnel carry a body of a victim from the rubble of a residential building a day after it was struck by an Iranian missile in Haifa, Israel, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Pedestrians look at a destroyed building within the Grand Hosseiniyeh, with the mosque visible in the background, which officials at the site say was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes Tuesday, in Zanjan, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A man sits beside an Iranian flag banner during a government-sponsored protest attended by medical workers against the U.S.-Israeli military campaign outside Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran, Iran, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Medical workers attend a government-sponsored protest against the U.S.-Israeli military campaign outside Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran, Iran, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Workers remove debris at Tehran's Sharif University of Technology complex that Iranian authorities say was hit early Monday by a U.S.-Israeli strike, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Israeli rescue teams search for missing people amid the rubble of a residential building a day after it was struck by an Iranian missile in Haifa, Israel, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
A truck loaded with logs and other vehicles drive along a road toward Tehran near the Turkish border on the outskirts of Razi, northwestern Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Rescue workers search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a crowded neighbourhood south of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Yemeni soldiers patrol the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Yemen, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)
Israeli rescue teams search for missing people amid the rubble of a residential building a day after it was struck by an Iranian missile in Haifa, Israel, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
