RALEIGH, N.C. — By the time the Islanders fly back home Friday evening, they and everyone else will have a much better idea of what kind of team they are.

Through their first nine games, perhaps the only thing you can say for certain is that Matthew Schaefer will get a 10th game Thursday in Carolina, and thus use up the first year of his entry-level contract.

Schaefer’s ascendence into not just a surefire No. 1 pick but a player who looks like he can be for the Islanders of today what Denis Potvin was for the Islanders of yesteryear has colored all of the discourse about this team so far, and rightly so. It has also overshadowed a meandering 4-4-1 start over which the Islanders have shown that they are entertaining, but not quite that they are a good team.

If things looked trending in t

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