Top 2025 NHL Draft pick Matthew Schaefer makes Islanders’ opening-night roster
The top prospect coming out of this year’s draft will start the new year in the big leagues.
On Monday, the New York Islanders released their opening-night roster for the 2025-26 season. Among the names on the 23-man unit is rookie defenseman Matthew Schaefer.
Unsurprisingly, Schaefer was taken by the Islanders with the first overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. Despite missing a good chunk of the season after suffering an injury at the IIHF World Junior Championship, the youngster turned enough heads while a member of the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters. In just 17 games, he scored seven goals and 15 assists for 22 points, showing his stuff during the inaugural CHL USA Prospects Challenge.
In two seasons with the Otters, the Hamilton, Ont. native scored 10 goals and 29 assists for 39 points in 73 games, with another three points coming in six playoff games in 2024. Along with his junior experience, Schaefer has won hardware on the international stage, helping Canada win gold at the 2024 IIHF Under-18 Men’s World Championship and 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, along with taking home the title with Canada White at the 2023 Under-17 World Hockey Challenge.
Schaefer will certainly bring a little bit of youth to seasoned D-corps in New York. He’ll have the chance to gain quality firsthand experience from the likes of Adam Pelech, Ryan Pulock and Scott Mayfield.
Among the other roster news on Long Island, goaltender Semyon Varlamov wasn’t on the roster, as David Rittich and Ilya Sorokin will be the tandem between the pipes to start the new campaign. Varlamov has been skating on his own, but there’s no timeline for his return, and he is on injured reserve. Forward Pierre Engvall, who has been recovering from offseason hip surgery, has also been skating and will have a follow-up with doctors next week. Forward Calum Ritchie, who suffered a lower-body injury in a preseason game against the Philadelphia Flyers, should be back on the ice on his own in a couple of days.
The Islanders kick off the new season on Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins.