Top Takeaways From Round 1 Of The 2025 NHL Draft

Perhaps it would have been impossible for any sequel to measure up to the spectacle that the NHL delivered for its 2024 Draft a year ago at the Sphere in Las Vegas. In a new format with teams working out of their home markets and the show at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, Round 1 of the 2025 NHL Draft on Friday felt bumpy at times but delivered some heartfelt emotion and a strong showing from Canadian Hockey League prospects.

Despite missing the second half of his season after breaking his collarbone at the 2025 world junior championship, Erie Otters defense prospect Matthew Schaefer demonstrated the strong character that helped him remain the strong consensus No. 1 pick despite missing so much action. He also went through the physical testing and interview process earlier this month at the NHL’s scouting combine.

In addition to keeping a positive attitude despite his injury, Schaefer also went through the draft process just one year after losing his mother, Jennifer, to breast cancer in 2024. The tears were flowing from father Todd and brother Jonathon as they heard NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announce Matthew’s name as the first overall selection by the New York Islandersjust 36 days after Mathieu Darche took over as the team’s new general manager.

When Schaefer took to the stage to shake Bettman’s hand and don the Islanders jersey, he kissed the purple cancer awareness ribbon that was affixed to the breast of the sweater, then pointed to the sky to honor his mother. From there, it became difficult for him to regain his composure as he was ushered into the ‘NHL Draft House’ to speak virtually with Darche and his colleagues via videoconference — an inauspicious start for the new format that the league’s general managers had voted to adopt this season.

And while the early part of the draft definitely draws the most attention, the presentation dragged. Friday’s first round ultimately clocked in at more than four hours. It took 40 minutes to get through the first three picks.

The video interactions between players and teams were also repetitive and uncomfortable. Tongue-tied players did their best to express their gratitude while caught up in one of the biggest moments of their lives, while GMs attempted to offer elevator-pitch scouting reports on the players’ attributes.

In the past, those conversations have felt much more organic when a reporter can snag a GM off the draft floor.

Perhaps the decentralized format served the general managers’ objectives of keeping their targets and conversations away from their rivals. But the entertainment value suffered, and the proceedings dragged on just as we saw previously with the virtual drafts conduced by necessity as a result of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

There weren’t any blockbuster trades during Round 1 itself, just some small swaps as teams moved up or down by a few positions. The format is not to blame for that outcome — the same was true in 2024.

One big trade did come down in earlier in the day, and was announced during the draft proceedings: the Islanders trading 25-year-old defenseman Noah Dobson to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for the 16th and 17th picks, plus forward Emil Heineman.

There was talk that the Islanders could try to package those picks in order to trade up and snag James Hagens, the shifty Long Island-born center who has starred with the U.S. National Team Development Program and was a point-per-game freshman with Boston College in 2024-25. But Hagens was snapped up by the Boston Bruins with the seventh pick. The Islanders went with super-skilled Swedish winger Victor Eklund at No. 16 and big, gregarious two-way defenseman Kashawn Aitcheson at No. 17 — boosting their prospect pool dramatically over just a couple of hours.

Arguably the biggest surprise of Day 1 came well into the fourth hour, when the Chicago Blackhawks traded up to select 6-foot-7 center Mason West out of high school hockey in Edina, Minnesota at No. 29.

West rose from No. 50 to No. 27 in the rankings of North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting over the course of the season. But he’s a two-sport athlete who also plays quarterback, and who made it clear that he plans to play football this fall in hopes of winning a state championship before moving on to the USHL. There’s a risk for the Blackhawks because, while West says he’s committed to hockey, a successful season on the gridiron could tempt him to stick with football.

After his team missed the playoffs for five straight seasons and finished second-last in the league standings in 2024-25, GM Kyle Davidson determined that was a risk worth taking. The Blackhawks already have a deep prospect pool and also added to it on Friday with Swedish phenom Anton Frondell at No. 3 and hulking Czech winger Vaclav Nestrasil at No. 25.

When the dust settled, 21 of the 32 picks in the first round came from the Canadian Hockey League — which will likely lean into its development roots more than ever starting next season, now that its older players have become eligible to move to the NCAA.

Nine first-rounders came from the OHL including the top two picks, Schaefer and forward Michael Misa (San Jose Sharks). Nine also came from the WHL, led by big Czech defenseman Radim Mrtka at No. 9 (Buffalo Sabres). And after landing no first-round picks last year, the QMJHL rebounded with three in 2025. After finishing seventh among North American skaters in NHL Central Scouting’s final rankings, center Caleb Desnoyers of the Moncton Wildcats rose to fourth overall, selected by the Utah Mammoth after their draft-lottery win.

The other eleven picks came from Sweden (two, led by Frondell at No. 3), the NCAA (five, led by Hagens at No. 7), Russia (goalie Pyotr Andreyanov to the Columbus Blue Jackets at No. 20), high school hockey (West, at No. 28) and the USHL (two, led by Nestrasil at No. 25).

All told, 20 Canadians were drafted in Round 1, followed by six Americans, two Swedes, two Czechs, one Russian and one Finn. Positionally, there were 14 centers, eight wingers, eight defensemen and two goalies.

With the first 32 picks now in the books, there’s plenty more draft action ahead. Day 2 of the 2025 NHL Draft kicks off Saturday at noon ET (NHL Network, ESPN+, Sportnet One).