Barely a month into his new role overseeing the New York Islanders, Mathieu Darche understands there isn’t much he can take credit for yet in placing his stamp on the franchise.
The 48-year-old first-time general manager was still employed by the Tampa Bay Lightning in early May when the NHL lottery balls bounced the Islanders’ way, vaulting them 10 spots in the order to land the first pick of this year’s draft.
“I can’t even say it was the Darche luck,” he said with a laugh earlier this week.
The hard work of turning around a team that has missed the playoffs twice in the past four years — and has not won a postseason series since reaching the 2021 semifinals — starts Friday in Los Angeles, where the Islanders are expected to select defenseman Matthew Schaefer with the first pick of the draft.
Though Darche won’t disclose his plans for No. 1, what is clear is the Islanders have the opportunity to add a young, NHL-ready cornerstone to a team that was just two points out contention before collapsing down the stretch with a 3-7-4 finish.
“I’m going to get a great player that’s going to push our organization forward and a player that hopefully plays for us for 15, 20 years,” he said, before being asked specifically about Schaefer.
“He’s an impressive young man,” Darche said of the two-way defenseman for the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters who has shown poise and perseverance amid challenges that include the death of his mother, who had cancer. “He’s a hell of a player. He’s a great person. But having said that, there’s a lot of other kids at the draft that we met that are very impressive.”
The San Jose Sharks hold the second pick and are poised to add to a developing young core, which includes 2024 No. 1 pick Macklin Celebrini.
“It’s been some tough seasons for our fans, as well, to kind of get through. But I think we’re starting to turn the corner,” Sharks GM Mike Grier said of a team that has finished 29th or worse in four of the past six years since most recently reaching the playoffs.
Grier declined to speculate on who might go first, but he noted the Sharks are in good spot to land an impact player at No. 2.
If Schaefer goes first, San Jose will have several options at center, with Michael Misa of the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit and Sweden’s Anton Frondell among the candidates.
The Chicago Blackhawks are set to pick third, followed by the Utah Mammoth, who also jumped 10 spots in the order via the draft lottery. At No. 5 are the Nashville Predators, followed by the Philadelphia Flyers — two teams that will have considerable influence on the selection process with three picks apiece in the opening round of a draft that concludes with the second through seventh rounds Saturday.
“There’s definitely a lot of ammo to try to do different things, and not necessarily moving up or down, but it could be acquiring for the future,” Flyers GM Danny Brier said.
The top-ranked U.S.-born prospect is Boston College center James Hagens, who is from Hauppauge, a hamlet on New York’s Long Island.
The consensus is the pool of top-tier-rated prospects goes seven deep, though there’s a debate over how teams rank players beyond Schaefer, Misa and Frondell. That means the intrigue at the draft is anticipated to start with Utah at No. 4.
Mammoth GM Bill Armstrong doesn’t buy it.
“It’s interesting because there’s so many things that can move, right?” said Armstrong, who added a top-line forward in acquiring JJ Peterka in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday without sacrificing Utah’s draft position. “We’re in that process of exploring what’s going to come to us at 4, and I like what’s there.”
It’s teams like the Sabres, owners of the ninth pick, that are weighing their options to see how the first round unfolds.
“The intrigue and nervousness will be how we view the top six-seven and will one of those be there at nine for us?” Buffalo assistant GM Jerry Forton said.
This year’s draft pool is regarded as strong, but it lacks a high-caliber star such as Celebrini or a prospect quite like Canadian forward Gavin McKenna, long tabbed as the No. 1 pick for 2026.
Forwards are expected to dominate the top 10 selections beyond Schaefer, who is listed at 6-foot-2 and 186 pounds and considered an elite skater and a reliable defender with playmaking upside.
Schaefer, who is from Hamilton, Ontario, has the chance to be the first OHL player to go No. 1 in the NHL draft since 2015, when Erie star Connor McDavid was selected first by the Edmonton Oilers.
“Nothing’s really kicked in too much right now because I don’t think about it too much,” Schaefer said Thursday. “I guarantee you tomorrow night, though, it for sure will.”
The Islanders have previously picked No. 1 four times, with John Tavares their most recent such selection in 2009. The last time they took a defenseman atop the draft was 1973, and Denis Potvin helped them win the Stanley Cup four times in a row from 1980-83 on his way to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
New York, however, has lagged in first-round picks in recent years as a result of trades. This marks just the second time in six years the Islanders have a first-round pick after selecting Cole Eiserman at No. 20 last year under Darche’s predecessor, Lou Lamoriello.
“Regardless of who we pick on Friday,” Darche said, “we’ll get a special player that’s going to help the New York Islanders fairly quickly.”