We’re used to seeing emotions overflow at the NHL Draft. Being selected into the world’s top league is a massive moment for these young players and hugs don’t get more hearty than when they’re shared with family members moments after the culmination of a lifelong dream.
That said, there was more eye-dabbing done than usual at the 2025 NHL Draft thanks to the event’s headliner. When the New York Islanders called Matthew Schaefer’s name first overall, they were selecting a young man with serious on-ice promise who’s been through some grave things in his life.
The tears flowed as Matthew hugged his dad, Todd, and brother, Johnny, all of them surely thinking about Jennifer — the mother Matthew and Johnny lost to breast cancer about 16 months ago — in the moment Matthew’s hockey career reached a new level.
“Lots of tears as, everyone can see,” Schaefer told Sportsnet’s Ailish Forfar shortly after the Isles took him. “More happy tears than sad. Wish my mom could be here, know she’s here in spirit.”
It was a touching way to kick off a night Schaefer’s new team factored into in a big way, having acquired to additional first-round picks earlier in the day by sending defenceman Noah Dobson to the Montreal Canadiens.
While the Islanders were certainly major players on Day 1 of the draft weekend in Los Angeles, they were far from the only team making noise. Here, then, is a look at some winners and losers with Round 1 in the books.
Winners
If James Hagens fell below pick No. 5, it was a lock the team that took him was going to land in the ‘winner’ category. As it turns out, that team was the Bruins at No. 7.
Hagens entered this past season atop many mock drafts, only to see his stock slip a little following his freshman year at Boston College. The centre had a good, but not outstanding, point-per-game season at BC, and when you throw in his average size at five-foot-10 and 177 pounds, it just felt like Hagens was prone to dings while the stock of some other players rose around him.
Don’t get it twisted, though; this kid possesses elite vision and playmaking ability, and he’s played with a bit of an edge ever since he was battling his big brother, Michael, for space on the backyard rink at their home on Long Island.
The B’s pipeline is desperate for a talent infusion, and the organization may have just landed a guy who could blossom into a point-per-game player in the NHL. If Hagens returns to BC for a sophomore year and lights it up, Bruins fans are going to be thrilled about what their team landed picking in the top 10 for the first time since 2011.
To top it off, Happy Gilmore — AKA Adam Sandler — made the pick on behalf of the Bruins, welcoming Hagens to the franchise with a “Congratulations homie!”
New York Islanders
How do you rebuild a blueline on the day you trade Dobson? By selecting Schaefer — an incredibly mobile, all-situations defender — first overall, then getting bruising Kashawn Aitcheson with one of the picks you acquired from Montreal. As for the other selection New York got from the Habs, that was spent on Swedish winger Victor Eklund at No. 16. Eklund may only be 163 pounds, but he’s got a great shot and doesn’t take a backward step on the ice.
Anton Frondell, Eklund’s Djurgardens teammate in Sweden, sang his buddies’ praises at the NHL Scouting Combine a few weeks back.
“Victor is easy to play with,” said Frondell, the third-overall selection by the Chicago Blackhawks. “I don’t think I’ve played with a player with so much energy. He wins every battle, even when we played against men, Victor wins all the puck battles. It’s easy for me to find an open spot, most of the time I get the puck right on the blade, right on the tape.”
While his size may give some pause, Eklund is a fierce competitor.
“I feel like it really doesn’t matter, your size,” he said at the combine. “It’s just how you think and what confidence you come into the battles with. I’m playing against people who weigh 30 pounds more than me, but I’m always getting to the puck battles knowing ‘I’m going to win this puck.’ I just know I’m going to win the puck.”
Let’s just add, the Isles made a great touch by including a Hockey Fights Cancer ribbon on Schaefer’s new Islanders jersey, which had his mom’s initials embroidered on the inside of the collar.
What a day for the Schaefer family.
If you’ve been following the work of Sportsnet’s in-house scout Jason Bukala, you know he absolutely loved centre Caleb Desnoyers. Bukala even thought there was a chance Desnoyers could be picked as high as No. 2 by the San Jose Sharks, right after Schaefer came off the board.
The Mammoth wound up taking the nearly six-foot-two pivot, who plays a complete game, at No. 4. Recall, Utah moved up 10 spots in the draft lottery to land at No. 4. In doing so, Utah was able to snag the type of do-everything centre who could form a great 1-2 punch down the middle with Logan Cooley, maybe sooner rather than later.
Throw in the acquisition of young, scoring winger J.J. Peterka earlier in the week, and it’s been a nice few days for Utah.
Something just feels right about the Flyers getting back to their bruising identity and that certainly feels like the idea when you draft Porter Martone and Jack Nesbitt.
Martone is a power winger who is regularly compared to prime Corey Perry and the Tkachuk brothers.
Martone — at six-foot-two, 208 pounds — can truly play it any way you like when he’s out there wearing the ‘C’ for the Brampton Steelheads.
“He can play a skill game, he can play a physical game, he can play a nasty game, he can open it up,” said an executive from a rival OHL team. “Some of the goals he scored 1-on-1 or on penalty shots are highlight reel goals. When we play against him it’s one of those things; damn, I hate playing against this guy, but I really enjoy watching him.”
The Flyers followed up that selection by taking Nesbitt, a nearly 6-foot-5 centre, at No. 12, swinging a deal with the Penguins to do so. Trying to take two points out of Philly is going to be a lot less fun in a year or two.
Losers
Slotting a team in the ‘loser’ category on draft day is never about the kids they select. Nobody needs a reminder that the draft is a crapshoot and it takes years to know how things will play out. The Jackets may have landed a beauty in six-foot-four Jackson Smith, a defenceman who skates well for his size.
That said, Columbus was known to have both their first-round picks in play and were rumoured to be chasing Dobson before he went to Montreal.
Six slots after taking Jackson at No. 14, the Jackets went way off the board with goalie Pyotr Andreyanov at No. 20. If skaters take a while to show you who they are, goalies can take a half-decade to realize their potential. Today is not the day we decide whether Andreyanov will or won’t be a good NHL stopper.
However, as Bukala pointed out on the broadcast, he’s surely a guy Columbus could have snagged on Day 2, so it’s easy to question the value of taking him 20th overall.
Everyone who thought the NHL Draft would instantly become the NFL Draft
Many of us are crusty, change-averse types. Given that, the NHL was probably up against it a bit doing its first NFL-style decentralized draft. Still, there’s no denying things felt a little disjointed, with just-drafted players speaking virtually to the suits who just selected them on giant screens with sometimes-shaky connections.
There’s no shame in trying something new, but this may be a one-and-done format.
