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The 2025 NHL Draft marks the introduction to the league for a fresh batch of young prospects from North America and around the world. It's a lifelong dream achieved by players seeking to reach the top professional hockey league in the world.
The New York Islanders made the first pick, selecting 17-year-old Matthew Schaefer from Hamilton, Canada.
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Matthew Schaefer selected by New York Islanders with first pick in 2025 NHL Draft
It's a low-key gathering for the Edmonton Oilers this weekend as management and scouts are gathered in the team's hall of fame room in the Edmonton arena. The Oilers don't have a pick Friday — it was dealt to the Philadelphia Flyers at last year's draft to move into the first round and nab Sam O'Reilly — and aren't scheduled to make their first selection until the third round. They have just four choices in total, Nos. 83, 117, 191 and 223.
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That one moment, seeing Matthew Schaefer cry as he meets the Islanders organization after being drafted, completely justified the idea of showing these interactions by the league. Wow.
A very, very emotional moment for Matthew Schaefer, who had tears in his eyes before he even stood, and broke down when he saw the pink breast cancer awareness ribbon on the Islanders jersey he was handed.
Players tend to be ranked higher based on two key elements: an elite ceiling and a likelihood of reaching that level sooner than later. So the more Matthew Schaefer became the consensus first overall pick, between rankings here at The Athletic and throughout the hockey sphere, the better bet he appeared to be here. There are two especially noteworthy elements to his game, according to our Scott Wheeler: his elite skating ability that translates on both ends of the ice and his maturity, despite being on the younger side of this draft class.
A team’s draft strategy should be selecting the best player available, not need. So Schaefer should have been the pick here, regardless of the Islanders' needs. But after today’s Noah Dobson trade, this happens to check both boxes; he projects to grow into a top-pair caliber defenseman who can drive play on the backend, and that fills an important need on the backend.
The New York Islanders have selected 17-year-old Erie Otters (OHL) LHD Matthew Schaefer with the first pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
Schaefer was tremendous, when healthy, this season. The No. 1 pick in his OHL Draft, Schaefer was arguably the best player at the Hlinka Gretzky and the CHL/U.S. NTDP series. He was also Canada's best player at the World Juniors up until he broke his clavicle. Schaefer missed time at the start of the season due to mono as well. His main asset is his skating. He’s a powerful, effortless skater who will be able to close gaps and transition up ice at a clear NHL level. He uses his feet to attack often, leading and supporting rushes very well. Schaefer is a very intelligent defenseman with legit offensive skills. He creates a lot of chances due to his skating, but he can also break down opponents one-on-one with his hands, and finds a lot of seams to make plays. He closes on checks at a high level due to his athleticism, but Schaefer is also a great competitor. He uses his size to make stops, gives a great effort every shift and projects to be able to stop top players in the NHL. He's a great talent, who has already overcome tremendous personal adversity in his life. He projects as a star No. 1 defenseman in the NHL.
I thought Gary Bettman asking the prospects in attendance to stand was a nice touch in his opening remarks.
Otherwise, it can't be clearer that this isn't what is usually is in here — outside of the commissioner's normal welcome of boos from the audience,
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NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is giving a long introduction to the 2025 NHL Draft on stage at the Peacock Theatre, despite boos from the crowd.
He explained the decentralized draft format and took a moment for the 100 prospects present to receive a standing ovation from those in attendance before officially opening the draft.
The New York Islanders are on the clock…
Gary Bettman was booed when opening NHL draft.
He walked onto the stage with arms extended, as if he were a WWE heel soaking in the jeers.
He said he loves when fans shower him in boos. I used to not believe him, as if he was leaning into it as some sort of psychological protection.
Nope, he genuinely loves it.
Has any draft city not welcomed Bettman with boos? A few that have franchises because of his stubbornness probably should have gone easy on the commish.
The Blues have opened the doors to season-ticket holders for tonight’s NHL Draft, and they were picking up newly released merchandise with the club’s new colors and secondary logos on their way into the arena.
Coach Jim Montgomery will speak to the fans, and comedian Nikki Glaser, a native St. Louisan, will announce the Blues’ selection. That pick will be No. 19 in the first round.
Who will general manager Doug Armstrong and the amateur staff add to the organization, and more importantly, will the GM make any additions to the NHL roster? Jordan Kyrou’s name has surfaced in trade speculation, which was expected because of his full no-trade clause kicking in on July 1.
The Blues were involved in talks with the New York Islanders regarding defenseman Noah Dobson, according to The Athletic’s Chris Johnston.
It would make sense that Kyrou was involved in that discussion, but Dobson was dealt later in the day to the Montreal Canadiens.
In my estimation, the Blues won't trade Kyrou just to trade him, but will certainly consider it if the right deal comes around.
Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson was attached to his draft picks early into his rebuild. As he's made more and more picks, he's gotten less attached to them.
Heading into this year's draft, he came with a different mentality.
"I am very open to moving," Davidson said at the scouting combine. "Normally you'll move back to accumulate picks. I don't necessarily know if we need to do that. We’ve got our fair share. I guess it's always a possibility, to move for players or prospects or move up. That's always something we're thinking about. Moving back and accumulating more picks."
Being open and being able to move picks are two different things, though. So far, there hasn't been any action. And while Blackhawks fans got excited about the idea that Davidson might move the third-overall pick to acquire a proven player, nothing has materialized. Shortly before the draft was set to begin on Friday, it was confirmed the Blackhawks were almost certainly going to be making that pick.
Let the fun begin…
The 2025 NHL Draft is moments away from commencing. Tonight many of the sport's top prospects will find out where they will begin their NHL careers, realizing a lifelong dream while providing hope for fans and organizations across the league.
The New York Islanders hold the first pick.
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This one’s kind of fun, since the Lightning built one of the better rosters in the league largely through the draft, both by hitting on top picks such as Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman and by finding later-round gems such as Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point. If any team would be immune from putting together an all-bust squad, it would be them. And yet …
Yeah, that’s an interesting group. Koekkoek has been open about his struggles, while Drouin has fashioned a solid comeback story in recent years. Meanwhile, Helenius is among the highest goaltenders picked in the cap era, and his NHL career lasted only one game. Luckily for Tampa, that experience didn’t scare them off from taking goalies in round one.
There are scenarios in play where Russian goalie Semyon Frolov could go in the first round tonight. There is significant interest in the league in him.
The two teams to watch tonight are the Islanders and the Penguins.
Though Isles GM Mathieu Darche already made a big splash today with the Noah Dobson trade, they're going to try to make a push into the 4-7 range with their eyes on local boy James Hagens. A deal with the Mammoth, who've been talking to everybody about everything for weeks, would secure Schaefer and Hagens for the Islanders. That's not an easy move to make, but the Islanders have the assets if they can find somebody to play ball.
And don't be surprised if they Penguins, who hold picks No. 11 and No. 12, move into the top-10 tonight.
Roger McQueen is a major variable today due to his back injury. There are trades in the pipeline contingent on him going in the top ten or not.
Jonathan A.: How far does Henry Brzustewicz fall? Would Sharks not consider him at 30, or wait for him at 33?
Rodas: If Elklund is available at 11 the Penguins will grab him. He’s a Dubas player if ever there was one.
Colin B.: The thing is, if the Islanders want to get back into the top 10, and the team they are trading with knows it’s because they want Hagens (as every single team in the top 10 will), the other team holds all of the leverage in that scenario.
Dan H.: If Martone fell to 8, I hope the Blackhawks would be calling. He's one of the few players I believe that they should be trying to move up to get if they fall.
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The approximately 1,500 Flyers fans in attendance at the team’s draft party in Atlantic City welcomed a special visitor on Friday, just hours before the first round was set to begin.
Trevor Zegras (and his mother, Julie) made the two-and-a-half hour drive south from the family home in New York to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino to hob nob with Flyers faithful, and, of course, formally meet the many team officials at the club’s 2025 draft headquarters.
“The closer we got, it’s like — this is pretty cool,” Zegras said. “Draft night. Somebody is getting fired up tonight.”
Zegras detailed a bit his experience on Monday, when the trade with Anaheim went through. He was at the gym, he said, before he saw a couple of text messages on his phone, “and raced out of there.” Later, he reached out to his good friends Cam York and Jamie Drysdale to let them know he was now their teammate.
“I definitely texted Cam and Jamie first, and called those guys,” Zegras said. “Jamie doesn’t show a ton of emotion, but he was pretty happy.”
Trevor and Julie Zegras plan on spending Saturday in Philadelphia, touring the city. He’ll return to the area in early September, ahead of training camp.
Our cap-era cutoff helps the Blue Jackets a bit here, as they avoid top-10 picks such as Pascal Leclaire and Alexandre Picard. That doesn’t mean they can’t put together a decent roster, though. And unlike some other teams we’ve seen, we can find some high picks here that a team really can’t afford to miss on.
Missing on a pair of sixth-overall picks, especially just a few years apart, set the franchise back in a big way. The defense was the tricky part here; Ceulemans is still in the organization and is only 22, but his stock seems to be plummeting, even getting the dreaded “prospect I was wrong about” treatment from Pronman. But if you wanted to, you could swap him out for David Jiricek, who’s already been traded, or even Ryan Murray, who had a decent NHL career that was impacted by injuries but never came close to living up to the hype of being picked second. Maybe they should have taken that Islanders offer.
The Sens have a reputation as a team that drafts and develops well, and a look at their history mostly bears that out. They’ve had their share of misses, though.
Given all their hits, I think you can handle this list if you’re a Sens fan, especially if you’re old enough to remember the days of Alexandre Daigle. The one that hurts most is Lee; the Senators lucked into a top-10 pick in the 2005 league-wide lottery, then took him two picks ahead of Anze Kopitar. Tyler Boucher may earn a spot on this team in a year or two. But this isn’t a bad group, and we may even need to put an asterisk on the two 2019 picks — Sogaard is at least still in the organization, while Thomson just re-signed in Ottawa on a two-way deal after returning from Europe.
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