New York Islanders choose Erie defenseman Matthew Schaefer with No. 1 pick in NHL draft

By Canadian Press on June 27, 2025.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The New York Islanders selected defenseman Matthew Schaefer with the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft Friday night.

The Islanders surprised nobody by using their first No. 1 selection since 2009 on the 17-year-old Schaefer, a 6-foot-2 blueliner from Hamilton, Ontario, who spent the past two seasons with the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters. He played only 17 games last season before breaking his collarbone in December, but Schaefer’s acumen on both ends of the ice still propelled him to the top of nearly all draft boards.

Schaefer is just the fifth defenseman drafted No. 1 overall in the NHL draft since 2000, and the first since Owen Power went to Buffalo in 2021.

Schaefer persevered through tragedy to reach this milestone. Schaefer’s mother, Jennifer, died of cancer 16 months ago, and he also endured the recent deaths of the Otters’ owner, Jim Waters, and the mother of his billet family.

When Schaefer pulled on his Islanders sweater for the first time, he kissed the pink ribbon patch on the chest representing breast cancer awareness before breaking into tears.

The San Jose Sharks pick second, and the Chicago Blackhawks go third in the newly decentralized draft held at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

The Islanders won the lottery to pick first in a draft that is packed with talent — while missing a few staples of recent drafts.

There was no absolute lock of a No. 1 pick in this field, although Schaefer clearly came out on top, and the draft also lacked the centralized structure that has long been a staple of this annual exercise. The 32 teams’ various executives are mostly at home, not strewn across the draft floor at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

Greg Beacham, The Associated Press