"The Islanders' season is all but over and now Doug Weight's officially is. His career, he hopes, is not.

The 39-year-old team captain announced yesterday that he will have surgery to repair the torn rotator cuff and labrum in his left shoulder that he has been playing with for the past two months.

And although Weight won't be back on the ice this year, he said he intends to return next year.

"It's a pretty intrusive surgery, but I'm going into it with aspirations of still playing hockey," Weight said before the Isles hosted the Devils at the Coliseum last night, adding that he's shooting to be 100 percent by September. "I still have the fire in my stomach. My legs feel very strong. The rest will be written in the summer. . . . But if Thursday was my last game, I'll have no regrets."

Weight's play clearly was impacted by the injury. He had just one goal and 16 assists after opting to rehab the shoulder instead of getting surgery immediately.

"Any other player probably would have had surgery back in January," Isles coach Scott Gordon said. "He was very unselfish about it. He could have just packed it in and he didn't.""