General manager/executive vice president Mathieu Darche made official on Monday what both he and Matthew Schaefer strongly desired from the moment the Islanders selected him first overall in the NHL Draft in Los Angeles on June 27.

The 18-year-old defenseman has made the team out of training camp. He’ll be in the lineup when the Islanders open the regular season on Thursday night in Pittsburgh.

“He had a great camp,” Darche said on a Zoom teleconference shortly after the Islanders released their roster ahead of the NHL’s Monday afternoon deadline. “You saw it all. His skating abilities. He got better as camp went on. So he’s proven that he deserves to be in the lineup on Thursday in Pittsburgh. We’ll go from there.

“You’ve seen teams having young guys. They keep them up and they manag

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