Matthew Schaefer News: First pick overall at draft

Schaefer was the first overall pick by the Islanders in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft on Friday.

Schaefer is a thoroughbred on skates. His skating is sublime -- he controls transitions, leads the rush and then gets back in order to defend. Schaefer also closes gaps quickly, and he's both smart and mature. And he can play with an edge. Schaefer may have missed a lot of time this season with mononucleosis and a broken collarbone, but his progress in just 17 games played kept him at the top of this draft class and put him into the NHL record book -- he played the fewest games in his draft year of any No. 1 overall pick in modern NHL history. Throw out the Cale Makar comparables -- Makar is generational, but Schaefer will be a fantasy cornerstone if he can land somewhere in the triangle between Roman Josi, Miro Heiskanen and Rasmus Dahlin.