The 2025 NHL Combine was expected to have a lot more news-worthy tidbits than normal. That part of it certainly did not disappoint.
This year’s Combine also came with its share of rumors. With all 32 teams together in one place at one time for a week, the talking was none stop. Now it’s our job to try to figure out what’s what.
Welcome to our annual emptying out the NHL Combine notebook. In this space, we recap important information and takeaways from our two days in Buffalo. We’ll talk about everything from what the top prospects said to what might come next for some of them. We’ll even sprinkle in some what we heard and give our take on each situation.
Let’s start by talking about the player who most think will go first overall at the 2025 NHL Draft.
Schaefer Shines Bright
All eyes were on Matthew Schaefer this week. After deeming himself fully healed from a broken collarbone, he went out and completed most of the fitness testing on Saturday. He said he wasn’t doing the bench press or pull ups.
How did Schaefer do? He placed in the top-25 in the VO2 Max, Agility Right, Mean Power Output, Peak Power Output and Left & Right Hand Grip. That’s pretty good considering he hasn’t played in a game since leaving the World Junior Championships.
While Schaefer’s performance on the fitness testing was good, what he said to the media on Saturday shined like his personality. He’s a self-admitted talker. He loves to meet new people and always has something interesting to say.
Schaefer spent time in Buffalo at the Grief Awareness Center. It was important for him to spend time there. He was asked to reflect on that given everything he’s been through.
“It means a lot. I want to help people,” Schaefer said. “I’ve been through a lot. A lot of people may not know. I lost my billet mom due to suicide. I lost my mom two months after due to cancer. She battled for two years and I lost my owner when I was at the World Juniors. So a lot of tragedies in my life. Obviously, it makes me a lot stronger. If love could have saved them, they would have lived forever. That’s a good saying I go by. Everything happens for a reason in life…But I want to help people. A lot of people are going through this. People don’t realize how important grief centers are.”
“So for me to take time out of my schedule. My grad ceremony was that night but I would go to the grief center 10 times out of 10 over my grad or anything because it means a lot to me to be able to help people. There’s young kids that are going through tough times. A lot of people love to keep it in. I want to try to put their minds at ease in anyway and hopefully, they can come out and talk a bit more and help get their feelings off their chest because when they keep it in, they’re burning inside.”
Mature beyond their years is a phrase you hear used to describe certain prospects. Schaefer takes that to a whole new level. The New York Islanders have the chance to draft him first overall. A great defensive talent. A future captain. Much more. It would be stunning to see him passed over given everything he brings to the table.
The Sharks
The San Jose Sharks would love to draft Schaefer since they have a lot of young talent up front. However, the only way they can make that happen is if the Islanders pass on him or they complete a trade with the Islanders up to number one.
The James Hagens being drafted by his hometown team would be a great story. However, that doesn’t seem like the likely outcome. If Schaefer goes to the Islanders as many expect, the Sharks have a tough decision to make.
GM Mike Grier would consider moving the second pick if they get an overwhelming return. That’s an interesting tidbit. It suggests that there are enough similar players in that range in which one isn’t head and shoulders above the rest.
Related: 2025 NHL Draft Guide
If the Sharks keep the pick, they’ll get a great player. Michael Misa could easily be the pick. Both Schaefer and Misa’s best friend Malcolm Spence want to see it. Hagens, Porter Martone and others could conceivably go here.
The key here is the separation from Schaefer to the best best defensive prospect. Most believe that’s Radim Mrtka. He could be available several spots later.
The question we need to consider is at what point do the Sharks separate making the pick at two versus trading it? Teams will have to pony up. But unlike in most years, it’s not out of the question to see top draft picks get dealt. Still, enough people think Misa to the Sharks second is a reasonable outcome if they keep the pick.
Blackhawks Locked Down
Good luck trying to figure out what the Chicago Blackhawks are thinking. Holders of the third pick, there are a variety of opinions I’ve heard about their potential course of action.
One important question to consider with them. Are they set at center right now given who they do have? Is their 1-2 combo down the middle Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar? If the answer is yes, then the top wingers come into play. If not, then anything’s possible.
One player who had glowing things to say about the Blackhawks was Martone. Here’s what he had to say when asked about them.
“I felt like I had a really good meeting with them,” Martone said. “They got a great thing going there. I’d be honored to be selected by the Blackhawks. You see the young core there. It’s gonna be something special in 5-10 years down the road. You really see them win the Stanley Cup.”
Martone played at the Men’s World Championships with the likes of Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon and many others. He called that “pretty special.”
“Not every 18-year old kid gets to say they can do that,” Martone said. “You get to be around Sidney Crosby for a month straight. You can’t put a price tag on that. I got to learn so much. I think I got a little bit of a one up. I was around NHL players for a month. Going into training camp, I definitely know what to expect.”
Martone says he tries to model himself after Corey Perry and Matthew Tkachuk. If that’s the kind of player he becomes, it would make perfect sense for the Blackhawks to take him third. Only time will tell if they agree with that assessment or not.
Utah Might Steal Show
Here’s where things get very interesting. The Utah Mammoth were one of the biggest topics going around the NHL Combine. They took many top prospects to dinner. But then at the same time, their pick fourth overall may be available too.
The Mammoth want to take the next step. They are very interested in adding now help to their roster after many years of building through the draft.
Given who the owners are and the desire to make a huge splash, the Mammoth are perhaps the the team to watch as we count down to Los Angeles. If they elect to make the pick, here’s the other major story that played out at the Combine.
This is perhaps where we could see someone like Brady Martin drafted.
Martin had dinner with four teams. They happen to be the teams holding picks 4-7. The Mammoth, the Nashville Predators, Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins all treated him. There is overwhelming evidence he’ll be the player to potentially crash the top-5 party.
The Mammoth are set to steal the show by making a huge move or making a woah pick. Whatever it ends up being, don’t expect it to be boring.
Emptying the Notebook
From here on out, we’ll go rapid fire with different things that appeared in my notebook.
- Swedish forward Milton Gastrin will be a potential first rounder to watch. He spoke to 28 teams at the Combine. He was one of several prospects that got the which animal would you be on and off the ice question from the Montreal Canadiens. He has a cat at home named Mojito, like the drink. He said “cat” and then “tiger” for his animals.
- Speaking of Combine questions/situations, the Rangers gave prospects a 10 X 10 board numbered randomly 1-100. A number would be called out and the prospects had to find it as quickly as possible. Interesting test.
- The Senators asked some prospects to tell them a joke with no notice. Sometimes, you have to react to the unexpected when it arises.
- One interesting theme came out at the Combine. Loyalty. Some prospects stated they would remain with their current teams despite having other options due to loyalty. Everett’s Carter Bear said he would stay due to loyalty. Cameron Reid loves it in Kitchener and said he’d stay with the Rangers as well. Don’t discount the loyalty factor for some. It’s a bit of a lost art but it’s still around.
- Don’t be surprised if you see Hagens and Roger McQueen slip a little bit. It’s possible Hagens slips out of the top-3. Meanwhile, teams will be concerned about McQueen’s back. He did the fitness testing and fared well. Someone’s going to take a chance at some point. At what point does the risk equal the reward?
- Everyone loves a good prank. How about a prank a day? Martone revealed that his World Championship roommate Adam Fantilli was the recipient of pranks from goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. “He sowed a cuff on the bottom of his pants together. He couldn’t put his pants on after the game. So that was pretty funny.” Fleury’s agent Allan Walsh then revealed what led to this.
What happened was Fantilli asked Flower for a stick and offered to be pranked in exchange. So Flower pulled a different prank on him every day. https://t.co/IHkQFqgYFZ
— Allan Walsh🏒 (@walsha) June 7, 2025
- Speaking of the Blue Jackets. A lot of talk about drafting a goalie with one of their two first-round picks. I went into this weekend think they’d speak to every top goalie and defensemen around their range. That was true. Not only did the Blue Jackets have a meeting with Joshua Ravensbergen, he revealed that goalie coach Brad Thiessen met with him on multiple occasions during the season. From my past experience, when this happens, there’s genuine interest.
- Now with that said, the Blue Jackets we know are open to trading one or both of their picks. They own the 14th and 20th picks upcoming. We don’t know what will happen between now and the draft. But if they make at least one of those picks, we cannot rule out a goalie. They’ve kept tabs on Ravensbergen all season. We’ll see if that’s enough to take him. They also met with Mans Goos and Jack Ivankovic as well. It’s not as cut and dried as to who they’re targeting like it was last season when they eventually chose Cayden Lindstrom fourth overall.
- One name to watch for teams looking for a defenseman in the first round. Blake Fiddler. He’s the son of former NHL’er Vern Fiddler. He’s up to 6-foot-4.5 and 220 pounds as a right-shot defenseman. He met with 28 teams. He admitted meeting with the Blue Jackets during the season and going to lunch with them. The Blue Jackets were also his first meeting of the week. If they keep both of their picks…?
- One forward to watch for later. William Horcoff. He’s up to almost 6-foot-5 and is over 200 pounds. He’s trending to be an attractive early Day 2 pick if not sooner. He’s a center at the University of Michigan and is the son of former NHL’er Shawn Horcoff.
- Malcolm Spence. When asked how many teams he met with, he said “Quite a bit. I honestly forget the number. But most teams, so I was pretty happy with that.” Teams wanted to know what went into his decision to jump to Michigan. “I explained a lot has to do with physical attributes. For the NHL, I’m going to have to play at a heavier weight. So for me to go to Michigan, I think it made more sense for me. I’m just trying to do what’s best for my career. I really enjoyed my time in Erie from management down. I had some great coaches and I made the calls throughout and said this is the plan for me. I wanted them to hear it from me, more of a decision-making process just what I think is the best thing for my career going forward.”
- As for what attached Spence to Michigan, “I looked up the stats the other day. They have the most NHL’ers that played from college. So for me to be the best, you gotta be with the best and train with the best. They have some really good players going in and I’m pretty pumped to be a part of that culture.”
- Spence spoke about the late Jim Waters: “Just an amazing human. A lot of owners I think come down for the games when it’s big wins. Jim’s there on a Tuesday when it’s the toughest practice of the week. That showed his character. He was just a great human. He was a great mentor for me. He really made me a part of the Otters family and the Waters family, the two of them. And when I made the decision to go to Erie, the first call I made was to Ellie Waters his daughter. I felt that was the relationship we had and she gave me her blessing and was really happy that I let them know I made that decision.”
- Spence on what he’ll remember about Erie: “Just the people and the fanbase. I had amazing billets. My billets were phenomenal. They let me in at 15 and I can say now I wasn’t as mature as I am now for sure. Some of the times they had to put up with me and Matthew laughing all night. They supported us even if we lost 7-0 or won 8-0. Just really blessed for the people that were there.”
- Justin Carbonneau revealed he is considering three options for next season. Return to the Armada. Go to Boston College. Go to Boston University. From those I spoke to at the Combine, if he leaves the Q, the expectation is Boston College. We’ll see.
- There was a lot of chatter about Gavin McKenna and Penn State. It’s premature to make any conclusions at this time.
- Braeden Cootes said his only dinner of the week was with the Vancouver Canucks.
- Don’t be surprised if the Seattle Kraken try to make a big splash. Several at the Combine believe they will do something.
- Niagara Icedogs Ethan Czata when asked about where he’d play next season: “It’s just all OHL. Thought about going to school. As of right now, it’s probably Niagara again.” After hiring a new GM in Frank Evola, there’s optimism about the team’s direction. Teams wanted to know about the culture in Niagara. “I loved it there. I loved the staff. We’ve had some ups and downs as a team but overall, I love playing there. I think in the next couple of years, our core guys have a big role to play in the culture. Make sure we show people that our team is really trying to be better and trying to be a winning team.”
- We’ll see where it all goes. But there is belief that Montreal will host a draft in the near future when it’s centralized again. Nothing official from the league as of now, but many people believe this will happen.
