Schaefer's talent, maturity make him likely No. 1 pick of 2025 NHL Draft

The 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft will be held June 27-28 at L.A. Live's Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The first round will be held June 27 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS), with rounds 2-7 on June 28 (Noon ET; NHLN, ESPN+, SN, SN1). NHL.com is counting down to the draft with in-depth profiles on top prospects, podcasts and other features. Today, a look at defenseman Matthew Schaefer of Erie in the Ontario Hockey League. Full draft coverage can be found here.

Matthew Schaefer has been dealt more than his share of heartache at a young age.

While adversity has followed the 17-year-old defenseman with Erie of the Ontario Hockey League, it has strengthened him as a person and pushed him to succeed not only on the ice, but in life.

How else can you explain the positive vibe he seems to always carry despite the tragedy, illness and injuries he's endured the past two years.

"His interaction with people is very different than most," Philadelphia Flyers general manager Daniel Briere said. "It feels like you're talking to a 30-year-old already. It's his energy. After you talk to him, you come away feeling good."

Schaefer lost his mother, Jennifer, to breast cancer in February 2024, two months after his billet mother, Emily Matson, died in an apparent suicide.

He missed the opening nine games of the 2024-25 season because of mononucleosis and then Dec. 13, he had to deal with the death of Erie Otters owner, mentor and friend Jim Waters.

Then Schaefer's season ended Dec. 27 because of a broken clavicle sustained while playing for Canada at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship in Ottawa.

It's enough to make anyone wave the white flag. Anyone but Schaefer.

How does he do it?

"I get asked that a lot," said Todd Schaefer, Matthew's father. "I think it's just who he is. When his billet mom passed and then my wife got sick, I didn't know how he was going to handle it. I didn't know whether he was going to cave and want to be home with me all the time. There were times I laid in bed with him and we talked all night. I wanted his feelings and emotions to come to the surface; I didn't want him burying anything.

"After winning a gold medal at the 2024 Under-18 World Championship with Canada, two months after his mom passed, there he was on national news smiling ear-to-ear, talking about his mom, talking about her having a front row seat in heaven. We're in the other room listening to this crying our eyes out, but he just goes to a happy place, and it comes naturally to him."

Erie general manager David Brown recognized that gift the moment he was introduced to Schaefer.

"I've worked with a lot of very highly elite players, whether that be Connor McDavid, Alex Pietrangelo, Dougie Hamilton, Dylan Strome or Alex DeBrincat," he said. "Schaefer ... he's got an aura about him that I've never seen before. He'll meet you for one time and know everything about you. It's an elite trait he has, and for a kid to go through the setbacks he's had, it hasn't changed him. If anything, it's made him better.

"I have no doubt he's a No. 1 defenseman in the National Hockey League. I know he needs to gain weight and muscle, but the other tools he has are unique. When you put it together with who he is as a person, it's generational."

Schaefer (6-foot-2, 186 pounds) had 22 points (seven goals, 15 assists) and a plus-21 rating in 17 games with Erie this season. His average of 1.29 points per game was third among OHL defensemen to play at least 15 games.

Not many players -- none in this century, in fact -- have held the No. 1 spot on NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of North American skaters having played fewer than 20 games in a season. He provided all the evidence needed in the games he played.

"Drew [Doughty] and Scott [Niedermayer] were great players with a capital 'G' ... they were never what you would consider to be elite offensive players but they were elite, great players because they controlled the game no matter what the situation," said Craig Button, TSN director of scouting and a former NHL general manager. "They control it from a defensive point of view, a transition point of view, from playing against other team's best players, from initiating when they need to initiate. If Doughty and Niedermayer wanted to be 85-point players, they could have been.

"How many true No. 1 defensemen are there in the NHL? We know there's not 32. Is it 16, 25? I'll never say no to a player with the potential to be a No. 1 defenseman. I usually go top pair, but I literally have no doubt in my mind that Matthew Schaefer is a No. 1 defenseman. I don't know where you find them."

Scouting Schaefer

Since 2000, four defensemen have been chosen with the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft: Owen Power (2021, Buffalo Sabres), Rasmus Dahlin (2018, Sabres), Aaron Ekblad (2014, Florida Panthers) and Erik Johnson (2006, St. Louis Blues).

How is it that Schaefer can play 17 regular-season games with Erie during his draft-eligible season yet still be considered the best of the best for the 2025 draft? He even was voted winner of the Canadian Hockey League Top Prospect Award, the second Erie player to win it after McDavid (2015).

But scouts had a history with Schaefer from when he was healthy and thriving before this season, giving them the confidence to declare he is the best player available.

That includes his success at the 2024 World Under-18s, when he had five points (one goal, four assists) in seven games and won a gold medal, and at the 2024 Under-17 World Hockey Challenge, when he was Canada's captain and won another gold medal after he had four points (one goal, three assists) in eight games.

"I'm not going to say knowing a player that has been out for most of the season while watching others play really well doesn't have somewhat of an influence," Central Scouting associate director David Gregory said. "But as I consistently watched and went around, talking with people in the decision-making positions, asking them if they needed to see anything more from Schaefer, the unanimous answer was, 'No.'"

If you combine the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup in August, his OHL games, two games at the CHL USA Prospects Challenge in November, and the 2025 World Juniors, Schaefer played 26 games this season.

At the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, he helped Canada win the gold medal with six points (two goals, four assists) in five games as Canada's captain.

Possibly his most memorable moment came during the second period of the CHL USA Prospects Challenge at Canada Life Place in London, Ontario, on Nov. 26.

After losing his stick and then his right glove while killing a penalty, Schaefer somehow had the wherewithal to block a shot at 2:10 of the second period with the CHL holding a 2-0 lead. He'd later say he had to do something because he needed a line change.

At 5:21, Schaefer picked up a puck behind his net and began skating down the right side before beating the defenseman in the right circle, driving the net and scoring to make it 3-0 at 5:31.

"Matthew’s play at the start of the season continued to display the high projections that he brought into the season and all it did while watching him make many exceptional plays, including those in the CHL USA prospects game, was expand the potential on what he would bring to an NHL team and enhance his status as the top pick in the 2025 draft," Central Scouting director Dan Marr said.

Jim Nyhuus coached Schaefer when he was a 15-year-old starring for the Halton Hurricanes of the South-Central Triple A Under-16 league in 2022-23. He had 32 points (12 goals, 20 assists) in 25 regular-season games and 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in five playoff games.

"He was a defenseman, but I'm pretty sure if you put pads on the guy he would be an exceptional goalie ... it's his intelligence," Nyhuus said. "I've never coached anyone who sees the game like Matt sees the game. I think it's that perspective he has, watching the play as it's developing. If he decides to rush, he knows where the holes are. He's a step ahead of you. He's going to beat you and he's going to take advantage of that opportunity because of what he sees from the back end."

In the 2023 Canada Winter Games, Schaefer had six points (three goals, three assists) in six games, and scored at 7:59 of double overtime to give Team Ontario a 3-2 win against Team Saskatchewan in the gold-medal game.

"That was my first time feeling what it was like to play on a bigger stage coming from minor hockey," Schaefer said. "It was pretty cool, feeling what it was like to win a gold and then it kept going to U-17, Hlinka, U-18 and World Juniors, so I felt like it kept building and made me want to win gold more."

Matthew's brother, Johnny Schaefer, knows very well the determination of his brother.

"At both ends of the ice, he's reliable," Johnny said. "If you need a goal, you could put him out on the ice. If you need to save a goal, you could put him out there. What I find very interesting, and I think he only does this because he knew that I took pride in it, was the penalty kill and blocking shots. In the prospects game, he has no glove and is blocking a shot and then laughing during the postgame interview at the fact he did it because in my day, I was a golden-shin-pad shot-blocker.

"The fact Matt's an offensive guy, you don't see many like that, selling out to block a shot for their team. But you could feel confident putting him in any of those situations."

Overcoming loss

Schaefer loves talking about his family, about his mother, father and brother. How important and how integral they've been in shaping him into the person he is today.

"My mom battled cancer for two years and I obviously miss her so much," he said. "She's one of the strongest people I know, because she had to go through so much. You never want to see your mom go through that, but I know she's going to be here with me every day, no matter what I'm doing. She's always right by my side, giving me her strength. She fought the cancer off for as long as she could to be with her family.

"Now I'm going to do all I can to make her proud."

He scored two goals and earned first star of the game in a 6-3 win against Sault Ste. Marie, his mom's hometown team, on her birthday in an emotional contest in Erie on Nov. 22. He said afterward he was playing for his mom and knew she was with him every stride he took on the ice.

"He's just very positive and believes what he believes, that she can hear him and she's with him," Todd Schaefer said. "I don't know if I believe that, but the fact he does makes it so much easier as a parent."

Todd and Johnny played a big part in bolstering Matthew's confidence, instilling that competitiveness in him going back to when he was 4 years old and finally could hold a hockey stick back home in Stoney Creek, Ontario.

Johnny, who is nine years older than Matthew, was a defenseman with Niagara of the OHL for five seasons (2014-19) before playing at Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario (2019-23). He's now working in sales in Mississauga, Ontario.

"We would go out every single night whenever I'd get home from school and we put on full equipment, roller blades to shin pads, elbow pads, shoulder pads, all the way up to the helmet," Johnny said. "We'd go into our little garage, and I would make sure that it was closed because I would dump the puck in and he would go chase after it, not thinking anything of it, and I would just run him through the door. That's when my dad came in screaming that he didn't want to spend thousands of dollars on garage repairs, but we still did it anyway. Maybe that's where his toughness came from. He'd shed a few tears here and there, or give me a slash, but he'd be right back up and we'd be doing it again just because we love spending time with each other and because we loved playing hockey."

Said Todd: "Johnny would be rough with him, and we'd be yelling, 'Johnny leave him alone.' But it wasn't too long after we were yelling, 'Matthew, leave Johnny alone,' so Johnny created an animal. They loved to wrestle and Matthew wanted to go hard and body check. It was from a young age they were going hard with each other and they had some great times. But there was a lot of broken stuff and holes in walls, and it was always the others' fault."

It was during this time when Matthew learned as much about life as he did hockey, and how they complement each other.

"The biggest thing my mom and dad wanted me and my brother to be is just good people," Matthew said. "Whether we're at Tim Hortons holding the door that extra second for people or asking 'How's your day going?' I think the biggest thing is just the way you carry yourself and the person you are."

Said Johnny: "Not many people understand that Matt might be highly rated, and despite all the noise on social media he stays level-headed and humble. I think that's why so many people root for him. Family, friends and anybody else are in his corner because he's such a good person."

One of Matthew's big goals is to help enhance the work being done by Smilezone Foundation, in honor of his mother. Smilezone Foundation's mission is to make tough days a little brighter for kids receiving treatment in hospitals and health care facilities.

He's also a spokesperson on grief awareness, making it a point to talk to those who have lost a loved one. He even missed his high school graduation ceremony to visit the Western New York Compassion Connection grief center during a break at the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo on June 2.

He has a special way with people. Take this example in a note to Todd Schaefer from one of Matthew's old elementary-school teachers he received this year:

"There's been a lot of tragedies in my life, and it's made me a lot stronger," Matthew said. "If love could've saved them, they would have lived forever, but everything happens for a reason in life. A lot of people are going through hard times and people don't realize how important grief centers are. I want to try to put their minds at ease in any way and get them talking about their feelings ... you can't keep it burning inside."

Matthew's agent, Pat Morris of Newport Sports Management, Inc., coordinated a meeting between Schaefer and two of his clients, Nick Foligno of the Chicago Blackhawks and Marcus Foligno of the Minnesota Wild.

The Foligno's lost their mother, Janis, on July 27, 2009. She died a month after Marcus was chosen by the Sabres in the fourth round (No. 104) of the 2009 NHL Draft.

"When I lost my mother I was in my draft year, just turning 18," Marcus Foligno told NHL.com. "The message was to just play for her and know that she's done so much for you, like my mother has for me and Nick. I think when you're at that age, looking back at it, you don't really know how to cope with it. You're 18, you think you're the biggest person in the world, the NHL draft is coming up, and then you get hit from the blind side with your mother passing.

"He needs to understand there's going to be dark days, tough moments, and he's never going to get over it, and that's OK. Use it as fuel for your love and passion in the game. Your mother, like my mother, was probably most happy when she saw you playing on the ice, so realize that. He's got a lot on his plate, and going through it without your mother is tough. I know what it's like, so it's just good to talk about and get off your chest."

The conversation was helpful and therapeutic.

"I lost mom at 16 so it was tough," Schaefer said. "Marcus and Nick were at a similar age to me when they lost their mom so I can really talk to them and connect with things they went through and how they handled it. Cancer is a very scary thing, and to see your mom go through that is something you don't want to see.

"I got to spend a couple of days with her in the hospital while she was battling to stay there with us and then she passed away and I'm still recovering, but it's just great to play for my mom and family now."

When Waters, who became Erie's owner in 2015, died unexpectedly in December, Schaefer knew how to cope.

"He was really good for our group when we lost [Waters] because he had gone through those times and could help other guys understand how to grieve," Brown said. "I hope most kids his age don't go through that, but he did, and I think it just added to his maturity."

Moments with McDavid

Schaefer was injured at 4:25 of the first period of Canada's stunning 3-2 shootout loss against Latvia on Dec. 27, during its second game of the 2025 WJC. He lost his balance chasing a puck in the offensive zone and crashed into the right goal post with his left shoulder.

He had scored an empty-net goal and had an assist in Canada's 4-0 victory against Finland in its tournament opener Dec. 26. He was the second-youngest player on Canada's World Junior roster, three months older than forward Gavin McKenna, the leading candidate to be the first pick of the 2026 NHL Draft.

Chris Lazary, an assistant coach with Canada at World Juniors and who serves as coach of Saginaw (OHL), said Schaefer was missed when forced to exit the tournament. Canada lost in the quarterfinals and finished fifth.

"We missed him big time ... his skating, his playmaking, everything he does," Lazary said. "I noticed it in the [OHL] too, from coaching against him. He's so special. Even more than I thought, to be honest. He's the best defenseman in this draft class, no question."

Schaefer was named Best Skater in the league's Western Conference in this season's OHL coaches' poll.

He had an opportunity to speak with McDavid about his injury when the Edmonton Oilers captain had his No. 97 retired by Erie at Erie Insurance Arena on Jan. 10. McDavid had sustained a broken collarbone 13 games into his NHL rookie season in 2015-16 and missed three months.

"On McDavid's jersey retirement night, which wasn't too long after I broke my collarbone, I got to talk to him about everything because I knew he broke his collarbone his rookie season," Schaefer said. "He filled me in and told me to take my time and make sure it heals fully first and just do lots of physiotherapy."

Johnny Schaefer was proud watching his brother manage rehabilitation.

"He was doing rehab, physio, every single day," he said. "He'd get a list of things he needed to do with certain shoulder rotations, and he'd do them when he was at the clinic and then again when he returned home in the evening. This is what he loves to do, and to me that's what I'm most proud about. Not many 17-year-old kids have that drive for the less pretty moments, but he really dug deep and was very responsible. He looked like a 25-year-old with what he was doing to get himself better."

Lottery lessons

When the New York Islanders won the NHL Draft Lottery on May 5 and the chance to pick No. 1 at the 2025 draft, Brown probably was having flashbacks to March 2023.

Erie had finished 19th of 20 teams in the OHL standings in 2022-23. That gave them the second-best odds at winning the lottery that would set the order for the first four picks of the 2023 OHL priority selection draft. They won it with just a 30-percent chance.

"It was an exciting day but I stood by myself while the lottery was going on," Brown said. "Our scout in Toronto started jumping up and down, and when he confirmed we had won it, we were all jumping. We probably looked a little foolish at the time ... grown men being so excited."

Erie officially announced its third all-time No. 1 pick April 20, 2023, during a special introductory press conference welcoming Schaefer and his family. The pick was made formally the following evening.

Brown was asked if he had a certain player in mind immediately after the lottery.

"Between the assistant GM, our area guys and head scout, there was zero debate ... it was going to be Schaefer," he said. "We won and knew exactly who we were going to pick. I remember leaving Rink 1 at Scotiabank Pond, walking into the lobby and making eye contact with Pat Morris as if this is it. I think at that point we had met Matthew a few times and knew how he carried himself on the ice, and what he did for his hockey team. It was pretty unique."

Brown's advice to Islanders management?

"I've been in the OHL since 2003, been in junior hockey since 1997, and I've never met anybody like Matthew Schaefer," he said. "When you build an organization, you're looking to have a guy that can carry it in a manner that you want it to be carried. Not that there aren't other players capable of doing that, but nobody is a better brand ambassador, at least in my time, than Matthew. We're getting to the point now where it's so important in sport that the people are billboard-like ... they're a marketing tool. You couldn't market anybody any better than Matthew and he's going to embrace it.

"He's the type of guy who meets the owner for the first time, and the owner is thinking he works for him. He makes every single person that he comes in contact with feel like they're the most important person."

After interviewing Schaefer at the NHL Scouting Combine, one NHL executive from a Western Conference team said, "Forget hockey, NHL Combine, that was one of the most impressive conversations I've ever sat in on. Not sure there will be something any other player can do to ever top that. Honestly, I had chills in the best way throughout the interview."

(Forever) young at heart

Schaefer always will be a big kid, wanting to keep things light-hearted and fun on and off the ice.

"It's hard enough sometimes to even realize that he's going to potentially be drafted to the NHL because he still seems like a 13-year-old kid when he's at home," Johnny said. "He loves tobogganing, riding his bike, rollerblading, doing the things we've always done. One of the most exciting moments was when he came back from World Juniors after the injury ... he went downstairs to our shooting pad and was replicating what he was doing in warm-ups.

"He'd skate around and pretend to throw a puck over to a fan and then get down on his knees and start stretching, but that's just him. As mature as he is and good as he is and for what he's gone through, he's still just a kid off the ice."

During rehabilitation, Schaefer on occasion was recruited to read the starting lineup in the locker room, including the one for his division at the Connor McDavid OHL Top Prospects Game at Brantford Civic Centre in Brantford, Ontario, on Jan. 15.

"Since I couldn't be on the ice with my team in the prospects game, I wanted to do anything I could to help out the team," he said. "Getting the boys fired up before the game with the lineup reading was a lot of fun. I'll do anything to get the boys going."

Schaefer could become the first player from Erie to go No. 1 in the NHL draft since McDavid to the Oilers in 2015.

"I remember [then-Erie GM] Sherry Bassin talking about McDavid in an interview, and it was almost similar to what we're saying now about Schaefer ... he had the ability to make plays before the plays even happened," Brown said. "He knew where pucks were going, knew what he was going to do once he got to that puck. His instinctual vision, hockey IQ and awareness were off the charts."

McDavid also is the most recent OHL player to be taken with the first pick in the NHL draft.

"I just think that Schaefer's someone who can take over a game from the back end and recognize what skill he needs to use to do that," Gregory said. "He sizes up opponents as good as anyone I've seen because you can see him adapt his game as it goes on. He's not going to stop when he sees an opportunity to get to the net.

"If by the middle of the second period the opposing coach is doing something different to neutralize him, Matthew will say, 'OK, watch this.' Instead of rushing with it, he'll hit the guy who's open on wing now and that's what is so translatable to the NHL ... that hockey sense, compete and skating. That ability is so tough to pass up."

There’s expected to be five immediate family members and 25 relatives and friends of Schaefer attending the 2025 draft. How special will it be to hear Matthew's name called?

"That would be quite possibly one of the greatest days of my life," said Johnny, who hesitated before being overcome by emotion, "... Sorry, I get choked up talking about it.

"He's an unbelievable individual. He works his absolute heart out everywhere he goes. He's a good person and there's nobody more deserving than him. That would be the proudest brother moment of my life."