LOS ANGELES -- Matthew Schaefer is not a member of the New York Islanders organization just yet, but all signs are pointing to that with the 2025 NHL Draft just a day away.
While Schaefer has never been to Long Island — he did attend a Morgan Wallen concert in the city — he does have some familiarity with the organization.
His agent, Pat Morris, represents Islanders forward Bo Horvat, Casey Cizikas, and the recently retired Matt Martin.
The Hockey News asked Schaefer what it's been like to get to know Horvat.
"Yeah, it'd be awesome. He's with my agency," Schaefer said. "He's been a great guy. I've heard so many great things about him, and I heard he's a great leader. To have that guy in your corner is amazing."
The 17-year-old defenseman is training under the tutelage of former NHLer Mark Giordano and will also be skating with Islanders defenseman Adam Pelech this summer.
"Yeah, he's a great defenseman," Schaefer said. "I honestly haven't gone into that much depth with him, but I mean, he's told me a lot of great things. He’s a great player, so it's pretty easy for him."
What else does Schaefer know about the Islanders organization?
"I've heard a lot about the team. Bo Horvat. I know really well," Schaefer said. "I honestly don't watch hockey that much, to be honest. For me, I love being at the rink. It's all hockey. When I'm away from it, it's going out for dinner with your teammates, doing a lot of things away from the rink, so you can get that mental refresh, be a kid. I, honestly, don't watch hockey that much or sports in general. I like playing it more than watching it."
Potential No. 1 pick Matthew Schaefer on what #Isles will be getting: pic.twitter.com/KPupdA67Li
— Stefen Rosner (@stefen_rosner) June 26, 2025
While Schaefer hasn't met Islanders head coach Patrick Roy, he mentioned that he was at the Upper Deck event and saw a lot of Roy-autographed things.
As for general manager Mathieu Darche, Schaefer loved meeting him.
"It was really cool. He is a great guy," Schaefer said. "I read a lot of great things about him. And obviously, he met all the talk about him. So I'm really happy that he got the GM job. I'm happy for him. And, yeah, a lot of, a lot of great stuff coming for the organization."
The 2025 NHL Draft begins on Friday night at 7 PM ET.
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Victor Eklund is the #2 ranked European skater in this year's NHL Draft, just sliding in behind his Djurgårdens IF teammate, Anton Frondell. The 18 year old, two-way center looks to be a top 10 draft pick on Friday after spending the entirety of his junior and burgeoning professional career in Sweden where he shines brightly in league and international play. He looks to join the NHL ranks along with his brother, William Eklund, who has just completed his second full season with the San Jose Sharks.
This past season, Eklund posted 19 goals and 12 assists in 42 regular season games for Djurgårdens IF, a club in HockeyAllsvenskan, which is the second highest tier of professional hockey in Sweden after the SHL. Eklund and Djurgårdens IF won the HockeyAllsvenskan league championship and will be promoted to the top Sweden tier, SHL for the 2025-26 campaign. If Eklund doesn't crack the NHL roster immediately, he will most likely have a chance to develop further in the SHL.
The NHL club that selects Eklund will hope that he can bring his intensity and skills to their team in working order and that the translation from his game in Sweden to the NHL will be swift.
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NHL Draft - What Could the Future Hold for the Kraken's 8th Overall Pick? - Community PostWith the 2025 NHL Draft only a week away, the Seattle Kraken currently hold the 8th overall pick. Let's take a look at how the past ten players who were picked 8th overall are doing.
Eklund featured photo by - via tv4.se
Eklund hero photo by - via hockey news.se
While the Nashville Predators aren't the oldest franchise in the NHL, they have a lot of history of picking in the first round of the NHL Draft.
In its 27-year history, the Predators have selected 25 times in the first round. Amongst those first-round selections, some have had massive success in Nashville, others have found it elsewhere, and a few have been busts.
With the Predators picking fifth, 23rd and 26th overall in this year's draft, we take a look back at every first-round pick by Nashville.
MORE: Analyzing every Nashville Predators first round NHL Draft pick: 1998-2002
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MORE: Analyzing every Nashville Predators first round NHL Draft Pick: 2009-2016
This is the lowest the Predators have ever selected in the first round, and for good reason. 2017 was arguably Nashville's best season in franchise history, as the team made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, eventually falling to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games.
When the draft came around, the Predators selected Finnish forward Eeli Tolvanen with the 30th overall pick. In his draft year season with the Sioux City Musketeers (USHL), Tolvanen netted 54 points in 52 games and had a plus/minus of 18.
He'd spend the bulk of the 2017-18 season with Jokerit Helsinki in the KHL, scoring 36 points in 49 games. Tolvanen made his Predators debut that season, playing in three games but recording no points.
From 2018 to 2020, Tolvanen played primarily in Milwaukee, with a few games also in Nashville. During the 2020-21 season, Tolvanen came into a regular role with the Predators, scoring 22 points in 40 games.
He also played for Finland at the 2018 Winter Olympics, recording nine points in five games.
The most games he played in Nashville were in the 2021-22 season, where he recorded 23 points in 75 games. In the middle of the 2022-23 season, Tolvanen was placed on waivers after recording four points in 13 games.
He was picked up by the Seattle Kraken, where he has played for the last three seasons. He's finished with at least 35 points in the last two seasons, showing that he's found his fit in Seattle.
After trading their 2018 first-round pick, Victor Ejdsell and a fourth-round pick to the Chicago Blackhawks for Ryan Hartman and a fifth-round pick, Nashville was back on the board in the first round in 2019.
It used its 24th overall pick to select forward Philip Tomasino. With the Niagara Ice Dogs, he scored an impressive 72 points in 67 games, with a plus/minus of 37 and 32 penalty minutes, billing himself as a physical and productive forward.
He'd spend two more seasons in the OHL before transitioning over to the AHL with the Chicago Wolves for the 2020-21 season. In his first professional season, Tomasino had 32 points in 29 games, earning a full-season call-up from Nashville for the 2021-22 campaign.
This would be the only full season Tomasino would play with Nashville, recording 32 points in 76 games. Over the next two and a half seasons, Tomasino would split time between Nashville and Milwaukee, putting up steady scoring numbers on both rosters.
After a slow start to the 2024-25 season, recording a point in 11 games, Tomasino was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a fourth-round pick in the 2027 draft. In 50 games with the Penguins, Tomasino scored 23 points.
Drafting goalies in the first round hasn't gone historically well for the Predators.
Chet Pickard (2008, 18th) never played a game for the Predators, and Brian Finley (1999, 6th) played less than five games with the Predators before getting traded to the Bruins and retiring.
However, with Pekka Rinne nearing the end of his career, the Predators were looking for the next franchise starter and selected Yaroslav Askarov with the 11th overall pick.
Askarov spent the majority of his draft year with Neva SKA in Russia's junior league, posting a 12-3-3 record, 2.45 goals against average and a .920 save percentage. He'd bounce around St. Petersburg SKA's system for three years before finally making his professional debut in 2023.
He played one game, allowing four goals on 35 shots in a 4-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. Askarov spent the bulk of the 2023 and 2024 seasons in Milwaukee, posting identical .911 save percentages in 92 combined games.
He was called up to Nashville for two games during the 2023-24 season, allowing two goals on 35 shots. In the offseason, Askarov was traded to the San Jose Sharks and has spent the bulk of his time with the San Jose Barracuda.
Nashville did get a little bit more out of Askarov than it did with Pickard or Finley, but it is still struggling to draft the right goalie in the first round.
The Predators used the 19th overall pick in the 2021 draft to select a second straight Russian prospect in center Fedor Svechkov.
In his draft year, Svechkov played in two different leagues with Tolyatti Lada. In the junior hockey league, he scored 15 points in 15 games before being promoted to the All-Russia Hockey League, where he had 15 points in 38 games.
Svechkov stayed in Russia for a few more seasons, moving into the KHL with St. Petersburg SKA and Moscow Spartak before coming to North America to play in Milwaukee.
In his first AHL season, Svechkov scored 39 points in 57 games with the Admirals, leading to him splitting time in Nashville the next season.
During the 2024-25 season, Svechkov played 52 games with the Predators, scoring eight goals and nine assists for 17 points. In Milwaukee, he played 13 games, scoring 10 points.
It took some time for Svechkov to make the jump over the pond to North America, but he has shown a lot of promise in his short time in the NHL.
For the first time since 2008, the Predators had multiple picks in the first round of the 2021 draft. They traded their second-round pick to the Carolina Hurricanes to jump up to the 27th overall spot.
With the newfound pick, Nashville selected forward Zachary L'Heureux from the Halifax Mooseheads.
In his sophomore year in the QMJHL, L'Heureux scored 20 points in 33 games, complemented by 47 penalty minutes. He spent two more seasons in Halifax and stayed on trend as a physical and productive forward.
L'Heureux joined the Admirals for the 2023-24 season, scoring 48 points in 66 games and logging a massive 197 penalty minutes. He was clutch in the Admirals' playoff run to the Central Division Finals, scoring 15 points in 15 games.
This past season, he spent the bulk of the year in Nashville, scoring five goals and recording 10 assists in 62 games, while also accumulating 63 penalty minutes.
Expect to see a lot more of L'Heureux in Nashville, as he has shown significant growth and, at just 22 years old, could be a major part of the future.
The San Jose Sharks announced longtime veteran Marc-Edouard Vlasic is on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a buyout.
Vlasic, 38, would have entered the final year of an eight-year contract with a $7 million average annual value. However, he will be a UFA if no team claims him and that contract off waivers.
Despite the opportunity for the veteran defenseman to play his 20th season with the Sharks in 2025-26, GM Mike Grier decided to free up a roster spot and increase their league-leading salary cap space.
"This was a difficult decision to make today, with how much Marc has meant to the San Jose organization for 19 years,” Grier said in a statement.
For the 2025-26 campaign, Vlasic was set to receive $3.5 million in base salary, according to PuckPedia. Two-thirds of that money will be spread across two seasons on the salary cap as a buyout cost, equalling to $1,166,667 per year.
With this buyout, the Sharks save about $2.33 million in cap space for next season but will pay the remaining buyout cost the following year.
They now have just over $44 million in cap space and must add nearly $19.2 million to the team’s cap hit this off-season to reach the $70.6-million cap floor.
The Sharks have two pending UFAs and six pending RFAs, including 23-year-old defenseman Jack Thompson.
"I was fortunate enough to be here with Marc for his first season with the Sharks, and knew he would become a great defenseman,” Grier said. “With over 1,300 games in the NHL, he brought immense expertise and experience to the organization daily and was selected to represent his country on multiple occasions at the highest level.
"We want to thank him for his dedication and commitment to the organization and wish him all the best."
San Jose drafted Vlasic 35th overall in the 2005 NHL draft. Since then, he’s played 19 seasons and 1,323 games for the team, recording 295 assists and 379 points while averaging 20:41 in ice time. The Sharks never won a Stanley Cup, but he was part of the core that visited the Cup final in 2016, as well as three additional Western Conference final appearances.
Vlasic also played a role in earning a gold medal with Team Canada at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
On June 21, the Chicago Blackhawks executed the first buyout of the off-season on defenseman TJ Brodie.
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