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

Hamilton Spectator

7 hours ago

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The New York Islanders selected defenseman Matthew Schaefer with the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft Friday night.
High-scoring forward Michael Misa
went second overall to the San Jose Sharks, and the Chicago Blackhawks took Swedish forward Anton Frondell third at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles.
Center Caleb Desnoyers went fourth to the Utah Mammoth, who moved up 10 spots in the draft lottery. The Nashville Predators grabbed physical forward Brady Martin with the fifth pick.
The Philadelphia Flyers also made two early picks, grabbing forward Porter Martone sixth overall before trading up for the 12th selection to get forward Jack Nesbitt.
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 picked 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 a pink ribbon patch on the chest representing breast cancer awareness before breaking into tears.
'I appreciate you taking a chance on me,' Schaefer said in a video conference call with the Islanders' front office. 'I promise I won't disappoint, but especially I just want to say to my mom and all my family and friends, thanks for everything.'
The Islanders added the patch specifically for Schaefer, along with his mother's initials.
'Seeing the ribbon on my jersey, and I saw a picture, it has J.S. on my back here,' Schaefer said. 'You can see just how high-class the organization is. It really means a lot. I wish my mom could be here today. Obviously, she's with me here in spirit. ... Cancer sucks, and it's not fun. She didn't feel the best, but she was always the happiest in the family. She would do anything for us.'
The Pittsburgh Penguins created the first two big surprises of the draft, first by choosing Calgary Hitmen center Benjamin Kindel with the 11th pick — much higher than many prognosticators expected.
Pittsburgh then traded the 12th pick, which originally belonged to the New York Rangers, to Philadelphia in exchange for the 22nd and 31st picks. The Flyers wanted the 6-foot-4 Nesbitt, a fast-rising center from the OHL's Windsor Spitfires last season.
Misa tore up the OHL last season as the captain of the Saginaw Spirit, scoring 62 goals and 134 points in just 65 games. He joins a struggling Sharks organization that chose Will Smith fourth overall in 2023 and got center Macklin Celebrini with the first overall pick a year ago.
'We just thought it was a perfect fit with what we already have here,' Sharks general manager Mike Grier said. 'Another guy to step in and be a nightmare matchup for people.'
Frondell excelled as a 17-year-old forward last season with Djurgården in Sweden's second division, showing off a two-way game that allowed him to push Misa on some draft boards. At 6-2, he could provide a large complement to Connor Bedard.
Frondell is the eighth Swedish player to be a top-three selection, joining elite company including Victor Hedman, Mats Sundin and the Sedin twins.
Martin skipped the draft, instead staying home on his family farm in Ontario.
The Boston Bruins used the seventh overall pick on Boston College center James Hagens, the consensus top prospect for this draft a year ago.
Hagens, a Long Island native coveted by many Islanders fans, slid down the board just enough to reach the Bruins, whose pick was announced by a video of Adam Sandler in character as Happy Gilmore, complete with his signature Bruins jersey.
'I'm so excited to be back in Boston, and to have Adam Sandler make the pick, that was special,' said Hagens, who cites 'Happy Gilmore' as his favorite movie. 'I love to win, and I'm really glad that I'm in Boston.'
The Seattle Kraken chose playmaking forward Jake O'Brien eighth overall.
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.
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