Emil Heineman
Heineman is coming off a breakout 22-goal, 31-point season on Long Island and enters 2026-27 as a name to watch, but the most recent training camp practice groupings have him skating a notch lower in the lineup than where he produced last year.
Role
Per NHL.com's camp reporting and a Fox Sports Radio New Jersey writeup of Islanders training camp day three (both dated around September 21, 2026), Heineman practiced on a third line centered by Victor Eklund with Jean-Gabriel Pageau, while Bo Horvat, the wing he played most of last season, skated on a line with Simon Holmstrom and Kyle Palmieri instead. No power-play unit assignment for Heineman has been reported in current coverage, so his special-teams usage is unconfirmed. This is a camp practice snapshot, not a settled opening-night lineup, and no exhibition-game usage for Heineman has been found to corroborate or update it.
Optimists point to last season, when Heineman scored his first career 20-goal campaign (22 goals, 9 assists, 31 points) largely on Bo Horvat's wing, with a Hockey News preview (about a month old) noting he scored 12 of those 22 goals between October and December, evidence of a real shooting talent who can still land in a top-six role if the coaching staff goes back to that pairing.
Skeptics note that his production faded after the calendar turned and that camp has already moved him off Horvat's line and down to a third line with Eklund and Pageau, a site (eyesonisles, roughly a week old) framing his season as a test of whether he becomes a top-line contributor or settles into a checking role with scoring flair as an impending restricted free agent.
Where analysts split
The concrete question is whether Heineman's early camp assignment away from Horvat signals a real depth-chart demotion for opening night, or is just a temporary practice grouping before the staff reunites him with Horvat once games start; current reporting does not resolve this either way.
Research confidence: reported. Outlooks are grounded in web search over current reporting and refreshed through the season.
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