Matthew Schaefer, a defenseman who was picked first in the NHL draft two months ago despite being injured for a lot of his draft year, is the newest member of the Prague Sparta franchise.
After Peter Ott’s club won the draft lottery to move from 4th to 1st in the draft order, the GM quickly ran to the stage, knocking over a crew member in the process, to get to the microphone and podium to announce his selection. Reports are that Ott saw Lisbon GM Bryan Camara talking to Sepp Blatter, the league’s Director of Player Safety and Discipline, and was afraid the pick order would somehow magically change in the next minute.
Schaefer, who played for Erie in the OHL, is particularly adept at skating with the puck up ice and setting up his forwards. He projects to be a great powerplay quarterback.
If you look at Prague’s needs, Schaefer seems like the perfect pick. Miro Heiskanen will be the main man on defense for a while – if Prague signs him to a hefty long-term contract a season from now. And Alexander Romanov is in place to be that steady defensive defenseman all coaches love. But after them, it’s all prospects and sometimes those don’t pan out. It all depends on how the player’s NHL team uses him for the first 30 or 40 games. Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman and Bryan Rust are examples of high quality NHLers who are nothings in the EURO League thanks to their NHL debuts.
But every team – not just Prague – will be picking prospects this draft and Schaefer is the best bet to succeed.
And sometimes, prospects do even better than expected. Recently, defensemen like Brock Faber, Thomas Harley, Luke Hughes and others went from prospects to 89PO or better players. Schaefer has a chance to be up there with Moritz Seider, Rasmus Dahlin and some others in above 90PO territory.
Madrid takes forward Misa
Speedy forward Michael Misa will take the Spanish he learned in school in Oakville, Ontario, and become a Madrid Royal. “Estoy feliz de estar aquí” will be what he says once he has his first press appearance with Mikko Mantykoski’s club. Lots of M’s in Madrid, eh? Misa was captain of his OHL team last season and he scored 62 goals as his point total nearly doubled from the season before. In Madrid, he will be linemates with Macklin Celebrini, just as they will be with the San Jose Sharks. Celebrini was great as a rookie and has a 94PO rating in Websim. Mantykoski and Royals fans would love to see Misa be in that neighborhood.
Athens takes American Hagens
The Philosophers used pick number 3 in the draft to take smooth-skating American forward James Hagen, who scored a point per game as a freshman at Boston College. The franchise leaned toward defense in the last draft and Hagens will join Mason McTavish, Petteri Puhakka, Ty Dellandrea and Peyton Krebs to form the nucleus for long-term success up front.
Big winger Martone goes to Scotland
Porter Martone, who many scouts see as a Tom Wilson kind of player, was selected 4th overall by the Edinburgh Capitals. He is now the youngest and biggest of the team’s 10 listed prospects and once he gets some training games in with the Philadelphia Flyers, Edinburgh will get a power forward who can contribute with points (98 in 57 games for Brampton in the OHL).
Gothenburg goes with a Swede
The Frolunda are really stocked with forward prospects and their newest comes to them from the Stockholm area. Anton Frondell has size, skill and he plays a smart game. He joins Brad Lambert, Jett Luchanko and Berkley Catton on the team’s teen depth chart at center. All four of them are expected to crack big league lineups and the team also boasts a number of tantalizing wing prospects. Frondell was taken 3rd overall in the NHL draft by Chicago.
Creative Desnoyers picked by Lisbon
Lisbon H.C. loves what Mathew Barzal has done with the franchise and they might have just drafted a younger version. Caleb Desnoyers of Quebec was taken with the 6th pick of the draft, a pick obtained in a trade last year with Amsterdam. Desnoyers can move well and he sees the ice really well. He probably won’t wheel and deal with the pace Barzal does, but he’ll collect points. The Utah Mammoth in the NHL will give him his first taste of pro hockey. They picked him 4th overall.
Liverpool takes OHL center O’Brien
Another playmaking forward with good hockey sense comes off the board as Jake O’Brien of the Brantford Bulldogs in the OHL goes to Liverpool. He is the fourth OHLer in seven picks this draft. The 6-2 center has an assist per game plus 32 goals in 66 last season and he finished 9th in scoring just behind Porter Martone, who was taken by Edinburgh four picks earlier. He and Martone figure to remain relatively close to each other – at least geographically – because after some training with the Seattle Kraken, O’Brien will make the trip to Merseyside to become a Boss Scouser.
Roger, meet Roger in London
You could see this pick coming from a kilometer away. London GM Roger Bowmoore drafted a guy with the same first name as his and as a bonus the Monarchs get a guy with Queen in his last name. At 6-6, Roger McQueen is a tower of a center. Maybe his middle name is Big Ben. At any rate, he’s a western Canada boy who will enter the NCAA and play for Providence this fall after being drafted 10th two months ago by the Anaheim Ducks. McQueen and Pittsburgh Penguin Brayden Yager are the most likely candidates to try to fill the big skates of Nardo Nagtzaam and Dominik Lakatos a handful of years from now in the Monarchs lineup.
First player with attributes taken
Zurich GM Dennis Sullo said an 83PO rating is better than gambling at this point in the draft and he snatched up Jackson Blake, the hard-driving Carolina Hurricanes forward who scored 17 goals and 17 assists as a 20-year-old full-timer. That performance translates to an 83 PO rating in Websim and his 70 OV rating and sub-$1 million salary give him a real chance to crack the Lions lineup this season. As it turns out, Blake has a higher Potential Rating than new teammate and former #2 NHL draftee Quinton Byfield has.
Martin’s wait ends with Tallinn pick
While OHL centers were all the rage early in the draft, one highly thought of OHL center sat and watched anxiously. In the NHL draft, Brady Martin went 5th overall to Nashville, but he had to wait until pick No. 10 to hear his name called in the EURO draft. And that was after enduring a 2-hour video that was shown to the draft day audience to unveil Tallinn’s uniforms, although the footage almost entirely featured GM Ronnie Martin and included the entire “Happy Birthday” song that was sung by relatives at his 10th birthday party in Estonia. Martin is seen as a two-way forward who plays a physical game. Management hopes he will someday compete with Dylan Cozens for ice time at center for the Vikings.
Lisbon adds goalie Dobes
Robin Lehner is still an excellent goalie but at age 36, he is on the verge of fading fast. When that happens, Joel Hofer, 24, could go from Lisbon’s backup to its starter and when that happens, he’s going to need a backup of his own. General Manager Bryan Camara checked that off the checklist in the draft by taking Jakub Dobes, a 6-4 Czech who has already done well in that role for the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens. Dobes will be working toward eventually earning the top spot. He has been able to keep his save percentage between .906 and .934 at four different levels over the past five seasons.
Milan gets a dynamic playmaker
Right winger Benjamin Kindel seems to have qualities similar to Mitch Marner: creativity, smarts, playmaking ability and puck handling prowess. He might not have Marner’s speed but scouts say his feet never stop moving. We’ll see how Pittsburgh Penguins GM Kyle Dubas (formerly Marner’s GM in Toronto) uses him in the NHL, but that will go a long way in determining how shiny of a gem Milan unearthed with their pick at No. 12. The Guerriero already have two good young RWs in Seth Jarvis and J.J. Peterka, but the picture could look different by the time Kindel gets his Milan sweater.
Dublin doublin’ up on players with attributes
Gambling is discouraged in parts of Ireland, particularly in the office of Guinness Chugger General Manager Dennis Lee. The GM took no chances on prospects and in back-to-back picks took two players who already have their attributes and who should help keep Dublin’s goals against numbers from going up. Wyatt Kaiser is a defenseman with excellent defensive instincts. The 22-year-old’s 80 defense rating already has him among the Top 6 Chuggers under contract in that column. Toughness is not his thing, but discipline is. He refuses to commit penalties out there. Right after taking Kaiser, Lee selected forward Cole Koepke, a 26-year-old American who is a bit of a puck hound and a guy who hits hard and often. But like Kaiser, Koepke doesn’t take penalties so with them in the lineup, Dublin’s penalty killers should not get overworked.
Munich takes a Canadian? That’s unusual
Munich GM Eugene Wilkinson surprised longtime supporters and local media by calling a Canadian’s name when he went to the podium for pick No. 15 in the draft. Red Bull people have gotten used to seeing a European player has their first choice on draft day. For the last nine drafts, Munich selected a European first. This year, though, Wilkinson went with Jack Nesbitt, another OHL center who saw his production numbers skyrocket last season from 18 to 64 with the Windsor Spitfires. He can do more than just move the puck around the offensive zone, though. Nesbitt is said to have good defensive awareness and at 6-4, is considered a physical presence. By the way, the last Canadian Munich picked first in a draft was a defenseman named Cale Makar.
Everyone in Stockholm loves their pick
Stockholm H.C. General Manager Delwin Yung made everyone in the city very happy when he selected hometown boy Victor Eklund. The only knock on Eklund is that he’s not big. But that has not stopped him from having success against men in the country’s Allsvenkan league with Djurgardens IF. Scouts say the winger seems to be everywhere and he has great speed. And he’s determined to succeed, most agree. Expect him to work on his game with the New York Islanders in the NHL for two or more years before getting his attributes. Stockholm has plenty of young wingers but they need one to come through with a high PO rating.
Hard-charging Bear becomes a Smurf
Carter Bear, a versatile forward from western Canada, saw all his numbers go up by a lot last season in Juniors and that showing paid off with his selection as the newest Berlin Smurf. Bear thrives in traffic and he usually gets the puck and makes something happen with it. Berlin has had luck with prospects lately (Jake Sanderson and Luke Evangelista) and GM Guybrush Threepwood is sure to monitor the progress Bear has with the Detroit Red Wings in the NHL for the next couple of years.
Big playmaker scooped up by Oslo
Justin Carbonneau is a bit beefier than the stereotypical playmaker at 6-2, 205, and scouts say he uses his size and strength to give himself the space and time to make passes and take shots. His point production went from 59 to 89 in the Quebec league last year and he was drafted 19th overall two months ago by the St. Louis Blues. Carbonneau would have joined Matt Savoie at the top of the Oslo prospect list, but thanks to a blockbuster trade that sent Connor McDavid to Helsinki, they will also be teammates with Dmitri Simashev and Nate Danielson. Look for an infusion of talent soon in Norway.
Bratislava digs deep to pick 19-year-old
Like his big brother Aliaksei, Ilya Protas has been a late bloomer. The Belarusian center didn’t get picked by the Washington Capitals until Round 3 of the 2024 draft and in the EURO League, no one took him. But if you look at last season’s OHL scoring list, there he is, just behind scoring champ Michael Misa and ahead of higher draft picks like Porter Martone, Jake O’Brien, Brady Martin and Jack Nesbitt (from this draft) and Liam Greentree, Beckett Sennecke, Easton Cowan and Colby Barlow (from previous drafts). The 19-year-old scored 50 goals for Windsor last season. Plus, he has great size at 6-5, 201.
Giants fans hope this defenseman pans out
With the drafting of defenseman Jackson Smith, Belfast fans are hoping their luck of the Irish (Northern version) changes. In four of the previous 17 seasons, the Giants drafted defensemen with their first picks (some were in lower rounds) and not one has emerged as a player. Those four – Jacob Larsson, Cal Foote, Ryan O’Rourke and Scott Morrow – played a total of 35 games. Smith, a 6-4 two-way player from western Canada, will play at Penn State University this season and he is in the Columbus Blue Jackets system. He skates well and shows a lot of poise with the puck.
Tridents go for constant motion in Cootes
Scouts seem to all agree Braeden Cootes will make the NHL as at least a middle six forward but Copenhagen’s hope is that the Vancouver Canucks manage him well enough to have him become a top-line center or right wing. Cootes’ most obvious attribute is energy. He goes full speed every second he’s out there. And there are other positive signs: last season, in the WHL, Cootes’ points went up from 35 to 63 and he was named captain of his team.
Bern stays in Canadian west to pick Reschny
The Bears made it three western Canadians in a row taken in the draft when they took Cole Reschny, who is a member of the Calgary Flames organization. Reschny can play center and left wing and he showed he can be a playmaker last season with 66 assists. That was more than all the points he scored the season before for the Victoria Royals in the WHL.
Oslo takes a chance on Buffalo pick Mrtka
Teams seemed to shy away from Radim Mrtka even though he was picked 7th overall by Buffalo in the NHL draft. He was still there when Oslo GM Carl Choiniere, wearing his trademark teal tuxedo with rhinestones, came to the podium to make pick No. 23 and he took the big stay-at-home defenseman. Choiniere has a sudden rebuild going on in Norway and Mrtka will figure into it if Buffalo doesn’t rush him into their lineup, but that’s danger because everyone in Buffalo has lost their patience with the Sabres.
Tallinn ends round with its second pick
Bill Zonnon joins Brady Martin in Tallinn rookie camp and they could have more company soon because the Vikings have the second pick in the second round. But the Zonnon pick ends Round 1. The Montreal native is said to be a good teammate on the ice and does all the little things coaches like their players to do. If he ends up working with Martin, his chief role will be to get the puck wherever it is on the ice and funnel it up to his center. In the Quebec league last season, Zonnon scored more than a point per game and that includes his work in the playoffs.
There will be no draft updates in the second or third rounds.
