Schaefer, 2025 NHL Draft prospects enjoy 'cool opportunity' to attend Stanley Cup Final

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Brad Marchand burst into the dining room at the Florida Panthers practice facility Monday morning in a hat, T-shirt and shorts. The 37-year-old forward noticed four teenagers sitting together quietly in suits.

"You guys look good!" Marchand shouted.

A few minutes later, Marchand sat down for breakfast with Matthew Schaefer, Michael Misa, James Hagens and Jake O’Brien, the top four in NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of North American skaters for the 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft, respectively.

The Panthers were preparing to play the Edmonton Oilers in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, later that night (8 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC). The best-of-7 series was tied 1-1.

Still, Marchand -- who scored three goals in the first two games, including the winner in double overtime in Game 2 -- chose to spend a lot of time with the prospects, joking, smiling and laughing.

"He's a character," Schaefer said. "Really, really classy guy. It makes you feel more comfortable going into it as a young kid, and to have him sit with us and chat and kind of be one of us, it's pretty cool."

This has been a cool tradition since 1993. The NHL brings top prospects to a game during the Cup Final so they can peek behind the scenes and see the end goal up close.

Eleven players in this series once did it themselves: Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, Seth Jones, Sam Reinhart and Matthew Tkachuk of the Panthers, and Evan Bouchard, Leon Draisaitl, Evander Kane, Connor McDavid, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Darnell Nurse of the Oilers.

Ekblad, Reinhart, Draisaitl and Bennett did it together in 2014, before the Panthers, the Buffalo Sabres, the Oilers and the Calgary Flames selected them with the first four picks in the draft, respectively.

"Everything is so new when you’re 18, when you're stepping into all these arenas and the media and the buzz around it," Draisaitl said. "That's a really cool time. It helps you kind of get an understanding of what it's all about and what it takes."

Led by David Keon, NHL senior manager of event communications and player development, the prospects gathered in the lower lobby of their hotel about 8:45 a.m. and piled into a black Honda Odyssey minivan.

They arrived at Baptist Health IcePlex, Florida's new, state-of-the-art practice facility, about 9 a.m. When they walked into the dining room, it might have felt awkward at first, as if they were intruding in the Panthers' private space on a huge game day.

But then they met Ekblad, Tkachuk and coach Paul Maurice, who made small talk and gave advice.

"Did you guys eat breakfast?" Maurice asked.

The prospects hadn't. They seemed hesitant to help themselves out of respect.

"You don't have a choice," Maurice told them. "Come on. Let's go."

Maurice led them to the counter. They put in their orders so they could eat after the players, and they sat down. Jones, Aleksander Barkov and general manager Bill Zito stopped by. After Marchand sat down with them, Bennett stopped by too.

"Dude," Bennett chirped the 5-foot-9 Marchand, "these guys are all bigger than you."

Everyone laughed. The room cleared out, but Marchand, who wasn't participating in the optional morning skate, stayed.

"When you have a guy like that pull up a chair, sit down and talk, it's special," said Hagens, an 18-year-old Boston College forward. "He's a special person. He's so nice. We had a great convo, so it was just a cool moment."

The Panthers gave the prospects a tour of the facility. Then they piled back into the Odyssey for the 30-minute ride to Amerant Bank Arena for the Oilers optional morning skate.

They walked in about 10:45 a.m. and hung out in the hallway outside the Edmonton locker room. They met president Jeff Jackson, GM Stan Bowman and assistant Paul Coffey, the Hall of Fame defenseman. One after the other, McDavid and Draisaitl leaned against the wall and gave them a few minutes.

"You guys excited?" Draisaitl asked.

Uh, yeah.

"It's cool,” said O’Brien, a 17-year-old forward with Brantford of the Ontario Hockey League. "Obviously I wanted to meet them growing up, and it was always a dream."

Coach Kris Knoblauch came over and paid special attention to Schaefer, a 17-year-old defenseman for Erie of the OHL. He once coached McDavid and Oilers forward Connor Brown with Erie.

Nurse said hello. As the other three prospects talked to Corey Perry, Misa spoke with defenseman Evan Bouchard as Bouchard rode a stationary bike. He and Bouchard train together during the offseason.

"Seeing what he's accomplished so far in his career is pretty awesome," said Misa, an 18-year-old forward with Saginaw of the OHL. "Being able to come down to the [Cup Final] and see him before a game, it's awesome. It's something I won't forget."

The prospects met Kane and watched the Oilers skate. But they still weren't done. Back in the hallway afterward, they bumped into forward Zach Hyman, who happens to own O'Brien's junior team. They met Nugent-Hopkins, defensemen Mattias Ekholm and Brett Kulak, and goalie Stuart Skinner.

"I thought maybe they'd kind of just want to get back and get ready for the game and not really want to talk to us, but they were so good to us," O'Brien said. "It was great talking to them."

Maybe one day the prospects will play in the Cup Final themselves and pay it forward by meeting another crop of top prospects. The first round of the draft will be at L.A. Live's Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on June 27 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS). Rounds 2-7 will be there June 28 (Noon ET; NHLN, ESPN+, NHLN, SN, SN1).

"Obviously it's such a cool opportunity," Hagens said. "It's my first ever Cup game, so just soaking in the moment. It only happens once for us. It's just a really cool time. Being able to hear all the names that have done this in the past, it's just an honor to be here."