It could have been much worse, considering that the New York Islanders weren’t one of the fortunate teams to make a deep run last playoffs. But now armed with the 1st overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, it does seem that fortune favors the bold after all, as the team now sets its eyes on the future and hopefully comes up with a promising selection that would help them become competitive in the coming years.

Nothing has been easy for the Islanders over the past few years. The last five years have seen them struggle to stay relevant on the playoff stage. To start, the team has yet to win a single playoff series in that span. They lost to the Tampa Lightning in seven games back in 2021, then missed out on the following year. New York would then go on to lose back-to-back playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes in 2023 and 2024.

This year? Perhaps another disappointing stretch as they missed out on another playoff campaign, so there’s that. But maybe this time would be a different run as they hope to present themselves with the best chance, armed with the 1st overall pick in the draft.

Hauling in the Future

The Islanders are expected to select Matthew Schaefer with the first overall pick. Coming from the Ontario Hockey League, the defenseman is ranked 1st in the scouting reports and remains the consensus no. 1 selection had the pick gone to another team in the league. So far, it seems that the Islanders will waste no time in bringing him in too, which says a lot about the expectations for the team moving forward.

However, it is worth noting that the 17-year-old prospect only played a total of 17 games in the previous season. He had to endure a fractured clavicle back in December 2024 when he played for Team Canada in the IIHF World Junior Championship. Those circumstances, however, don’t seem to affect his draft value.

"We're extremely excited about putting together a team that gets younger and faster and exciting," Islanders co-owner Jon Ledecky said. "I think the fan base wants to see that, and this is the first step. It's going to be a new day in that respect and I think (GM) Mathieu (Lamoriello) supports that, which is the most important thing. You need to have the support of your hockey operations people in that regard and Mathieu understands how that works."

The Excitement of the Draft

It is clear that the Islanders will not be trading the no. 1 pick (I mean, who would even do that?). That paves the way for a Draft Party set by the Islanders at the UBS Arena and would also feature current players such as Ryan Pulock, Casey Cizikas, Jean-Gabriel Pagea, and Scott Mayfield. All of the hype is leading up to the 1st pick being delivered is showing hope for the team at this point.

The future is now for the Islanders, and it seems that they will need to grind hard if they want to make the most of their chances and see how they can fuel their winning chances for the next campaign.

Who knows, maybe this is going to be a wonder season for New York, and we are coming along for the ride towards greatness in the NHL.