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

LOS ANGELES — There was one straightforward decision for Mathieu Darche this weekend.Amid what has become a hugely consequential weekend for the Islanders, the club’s biggest decision was their easiest.The Islanders selected defenseman Matthew Schaefer with the first overall pick at Friday night’s draft here in downtown Los Angeles, making official what’s been the expectation for weeks.Schaefer, who doesn’t turn 18 until September, is just the second defenseman the Islanders have ever drafted first overall, with Denis Potvin being the first in 1973.

The club held the first pick this year for the first time since 2009, when they selected John Tavares.“It’d mean a lot,” Schaefer said Thursday of going first overall.“I want to get drafted, but I also want to be the best player.

[It’s] a thing that comes to your mind, obviously, you can’t really control anything right now.”The Stoney Creek, Ontario native played just 17 games last season with the OHL’s Erie Otters and two more with Team Canada at the World Juniors, where he was Canada’s best defenseman before crashing into the net and breaking his clavicle, an injury that kept him out for the rest of the season.Schaefer confirmed on Thursday that he’s since been fully cleared and will be on the ice for development camp starting Monday.Despite limited playing time, Schaefer rose to the top of draft boards this season thanks to the way he dominated when he was on the ice.Scouting reports and experts say he is a superlative skater and puck-mover who can play both ways and on both specialty teams.His character also proved a decisive factor throughout the process.

Schaefer’s mother, Jennifer, died of cancer last year just two months after his billet mom, Emily Matson, died of suicide.Schaefer has told the story again and again throughout the weeks and months leading up to the draft, showing astonishing maturity in the face of unimaginable tragedy.“My mom’s gonna go right into my head w...