Islanders draft Matthew Schaefer with the No. 1 Draft pick in the 2025 NHL Draft

Watch Islanders draft Matthew Schaefer with the No. 1 Draft pick in the 2025 NHL Draft - New York Post on Dailymotion

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00:00As expected, the Islanders took Matthew Schaefer with the first overall pick on Friday night.

00:05Left-handed defenseman who played last season in Erie, a native of Stony Creek, Ontario, which is a Toronto suburb.

00:12I would say from pretty much the combine onwards, maybe a little before, Schaefer was the clubhouse leader to go first.

00:21Great skater, a great puck mover, by far the best defenseman in this class,

00:26although Michael Misa certainly was in the conversation and, you know, is a great forward who will also go very high tonight.

00:39Schaefer, I think, impressed pretty much everybody he talked to during this process from teams to reporters to other people around hockey.

00:49Just a genuinely really impressive person to interact with.

00:54You know, everybody kind of knows his backstory now.

00:59You know, his mom, Jennifer, and his billet mom both died tragically last year.

01:05And the way he kind of responded to that obviously says a lot about the kind of character and the kind of person he is.

01:15And, you know, if you haven't seen him talking about his mom, you will soon.

01:22It's, it really leaves you with quite an impression of who this kid is.

01:28It's not clear yet whether he's going to start next season in the NHL with the Islanders, but that probably is the expectation right now.

01:37You know, we'll see what happens at development camp, which starts Monday for the Islanders.

01:42We'll see what happens at training camp in September.

01:44Number one overall picks generally make the roster and the expectation is that he'll at least be given every chance to do so.