By GREG BEACHAM AP Sports Writer
LOS ANGELES — The New York Islanders selected defenseman Matthew Schaefer with the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft on 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 L.A. Live’s Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles.
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 drafted 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.”
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-foot-2, he could provide a large complement to Connor Bedard.
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.
More to come on this story.