With the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft, the Islanders selected Erie Otters (OHL) defenseman Matthew Schaefer to help stabilize their back end for years to come. Schaefer registered seven goals and 15 assists to go along with a +21 rating in just 17 games this past season after dealing with a collarbone injury.

As Schaefer’s NHL prospects rose in 2023 while he was playing for the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League, his billet mom, Emily Matson, died by an apparent suicide. Months later, his mother, Jennifer, died following a two-year battle with breast cancer. The following December, Otters owner Jim Waters died unexpectedly of a heart attack.