In his Toronto debut, Islanders’ Matt Schaefer is the hottest ticket in town

TORONTO — To understand what Tuesday was like for Matthew Schaefer, don’t start with the scene at his stall after morning skate, with Toronto media packed around him, but 20 minutes later in a corner of Scotiabank Arena.

It’s always a bit of a mess here in Toronto, with so many players hailing from the area. Schaefer, though, was being pulled in 12 different directions for 20 different photos ahead of his first game in the closest NHL city to his hometown. There would be close to 1,000 people coming later to see him, he said, and only a fraction of that number were there in the morning. Still, he was the eye of the storm.

The eventual 3-1 Islanders win in which Schaeffer recorded an assist was the only time all season they were scheduled to come to Toronto. So of course, everyone wanted a piece of him.

“I think just with people that I grew up with and things like that, teachers and family and stuff like that, it could be close to [1,000],” Schaefer said. “Might be pushing that a little bit, but yeah, there’s gonna be so many people here.”

To clarify, Schaefer didn’t personally arrange tickets for more than 5 percent of the building’s capacity; the number is an educated guess that includes people from Stoney Creek, Ontario, who bought tickets themselves and drove the 45 minutes. Still, this is a huge deal here in Toronto, where a local kid — and at 18, Schaefer still is very much a kid — rolled into town Tuesday as one of the biggest things in the sport.

“It’s pretty remarkable,” said the Maple Leafs’ John Tavares, who knows what this must be like better than most. “He’s doing things only a handful of players have done. It’s extremely, extremely impressive. He’s not just a franchise player, but he’s certainly put himself in the conversation of a generational type of talent.