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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
Pick grade: B-
Thoughts on the pick: I struggled with the Jekyll and Hyde nature of Frondell’s season. If you saw his best games or stretches, he absolutely belonged in this conversation at 3. But I saw too many games where he wasn’t highly effective and wondered about his offensive potential. The No. 3 pick is a tad too high for me with Frondell, but I still like the player a lot, and could see him as a quality second-line center in the NHL who provides a hard element. He has the best shot in the draft, and I could see Chicago line him up opposite Connor Bedard on its two power-play flanks.
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We are about 45 minutes into the draft broadcast and we’ve only had three players chosen so far.
Pick grade: A-
Thoughts on the pick: There was no guarantee this was going to be the pick for the Sharks. I think they seriously discussed Misa versus a couple of alternatives. Their GM Mike Grier wants to build a talented team, but one that is highly competitive and hard to play against, and there were players that fit that description better than Misa. While Misa isn’t physical, he’s a competitive two-way forward, and was the most talented, and overall best, player available at 2. Misa, Will Smith, Sam Dickinson and Macklin Celebrini are four foundational building blocks for the Sharks. The Sharks now have options on Misa and Smith on who can be the second-line center of the future, although between the two of them, I would bet it ends up being Misa with Smith flexing to the wing.
With the first two selections going as most expected, the Blackhawks became the team to really set the path for the top-10 picks. Would they go with Anton Frondell, Caleb Desnoyers, Porter Martone, someone else? Almost none of them would have been a surprise.
The Blackhawks ended up taking Frondell, a 6-foot-1 and 205-pound forward who they envision as another top-six piece to their rebuild puzzle. With Frondell’s size and two-way game, the Blackhawks think he can perfectly complement what they already have in their forward roster pool, especially the likes of Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar, two undersized centers.
Frondell took off in his draft year while playing in HockeyAllsvenskan, Sweden’s second division. Frondell’s 25 points in that league were he most by an under-18 player since William Nylander produced 27 points during the 2013-14 season.
Pick grade: A-
Thoughts on the pick: For most teams, this would have been a routine decision to pick Schaefer as the top selection, but there was an unusual amount of pressure on the Islanders to go off the board to select James Hagens, who’s from Long Island. Schaefer is the clear best prospect in the draft. He’s a dynamic two-way defenseman who dominated routinely this season when healthy, and he’s on the fringe of being eligible for the 2026 NHL Draft. He projects as a star No. 1 defenseman for them.
Marcus Krüger got his wish.
The Chicago Blackhawks drafted Anton Frondell, Krüger’s Djurgården teammate in Sweden, with the No. 3 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft on Friday.
What went into that decision?
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Why the Blackhawks selected Anton Frondell with 2025 NHL Draft’s No. 3 pick
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The Chicago Blackhawks have selected 18-year-old Djurgarden C Anton Frondell with the third pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
Frondell's season started off slow, in part due to injury, but he was very good versus men in the Allsvenskan in the second half of the season. Frondell has a ton of skill and a real smooth element when he's around the puck. He makes difficult plays with consistency and can do so on the move. Frondell skates well and competes hard, often outmuscling others bigger than him. Despite his average size, he has a translatable style of play to the NHL that appeals to scouts. Frondell is a good playmaker but he’s also a very dangerous shooter with a bullet shot that projects to beat NHL goalies from range. He's not a dynamic offensive player, though, and had a few too many quiet games at the international level this season. He has the potential to be a very good all-around top-six center even if he's often played wing this season.
Michael Misa was selected with the No. 2 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft by the San Jose Sharks.
Chris Lazary still remembers what he was thinking during that first practice, as he stood against the wall watching Michael Misa navigate his way around the ice — and through and past his new teammates.
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For Sharks’ Michael Misa, OHL exceptional status and the 2025 NHL Draft are just the start
The San Jose Sharks have selected 18-year-old Saginaw C Michael Misa with the second pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
Misa was given exceptional status to play in the OHL as a 15-year-old. He looked very impressive in his first two seasons, but he took off in his draft season, becoming one of the best players in the OHL. He’s a high-end skater with clear NHL edge work and top speed. He's highly skilled and creative with tremendous vision. His ability to improvise in tight areas and on the move is elite and makes it easy to envision him scoring in major numbers in the NHL. Despite his huge goal-scoring numbers this season, I don't view him as a sniper. Rather, he generated a lot of goals off timing and getting to the net. Misa won't run guys over, but he competes well and is diligent without the puck. He projects as a star No. 1 center in the NHL that you can build a winning team around.
The first round of the 2025 NHL Draft is here, and, as expected, Matthew Schaefer was selected by the New York Islanders with the first pick.
Follow along here as every pick is announced tonight to see scouting reports of every player and analysis of their selection. The pick grade reflects my thoughts on perceived value gained from the pick relative to the draft slot, plus any secondary variables a team may have had to deal with.
See what scouts really have to say about the best prospects in Corey Pronman’s NHL Draft Confidential and Scott Wheeler’s NHL scouts survey.
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NHL Draft 2025 grades for every first-round pick: Islanders get high marks for Schaefer
The New York Islanders selected defenseman Matthew Schaefer with the No. 1 pick of the 2025 NHL Entry Draft on Friday night.
As expected, the selection of Schaefer kicked off the league’s decentralized draft, with many prospects and fans on hand at the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live but with general managers and other team personnel stationed in their home cities.
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Matthew Schaefer selected by New York Islanders with first pick in 2025 NHL Draft
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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.
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 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.
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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,
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.
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