It was a weekend to remember for the 224 young hockey players who were selected during the 2025 NHL Draft in Los Angeles.
The selected players ranged from Matthew Schaefer, taken by the New York Islanders with the No. 1 pick and regarded as a future star, to Ygor Midlak, a goaltender who was the 224th and final selection by the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
But not all the weekend news was directly related to the draft. Two of the biggest unrestricted free agents, Sam Bennett and John Tavares, decided to stay with their current teams rather than enter the market that opens Tuesday at noon ET.
Perhaps more important for the future of the sport, the League and the NHL Players Association decided that labor peace is better for business than the battles of previous years and reached agreement on an extension of the Collective Bargaining Agreement that will carry through 2030.
Here are five of the biggest storylines coming out of draft weekend.
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Islanders retooling starts with trade and 3 first-rounders, including No. 1 pick
Mathieu Darche wasted no time making an impact in his first draft weekend as general manager of the Islanders.
Darche caught a break when the Islanders defied the odds and won the draft lottery last month despite having just a 3.5 percent chance of getting the No. 1 overall pick. Darche didn’t overthink things, opting to select the consensus No. 1 pick – Schaefer, a defenseman from Erie of the Ontario Hockey League. Even the lowest projections see the 17-year-old as a top-pair D-man who can handle lots of ice time and play in all situations.
But Darche and the Islanders didn’t stop there. Noah Dobson, arguably New York’s best defenseman, was a restricted free agent and reportedly wanted a long-term, big-money deal despite coming off a poor season. When they two sides couldn’t agree, Darche opted to trade the 25-year-old to the Montreal Canadiens for 23-year-old forward Emil Heineman and two first-round picks, Nos. 16 and 17.
The Isles kept both picks and got raves from many draft gurus for their selections of Swedish forward Victor Eklund with the 16th pick and defenseman Kashawn Aitcheson from Barrie of the OHL at No. 17. Combine these three with Boston University forward Cole Eiserman, their top pick last year, and Calum Ritchie, a 2023 first-rounder obtained from the Colorado Avalanche in the Brock Nelson deal in March, and the Islanders have a core of young talent the likes of which they haven’t had in years.
Canadiens going for it
Calder Trophy winner Lane Hutson was a key to Montreal’s return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2021 this past season. But merely ending a postseason drought isn’t nearly enough in Montreal, where the championship parades that used to be common in springtime haven’t taken place since 1993.
Executive vice president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton felt his team was ready to move to the next level, and he took a big swing not only by acquiring Dobson from the Islanders but signing him to an eight-year, $76 million contract ($9.5 million average annual value), as well. Dobson could have become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Adding Dobson to a defense corps that already included Hutson, who’s just 21, and 23-year-old Kaiden Guhle gives the Canadiens a solid base on the blue line – something they haven’t had in years. Gorton will have to do some juggling to get under the salary cap by opening night, but the Canadiens talent base is vastly improved from what it was entering the weekend.
UFAs Sam Bennett, John Tavares won’t test open market
Two of the biggest potential unrestricted free-agent centers decided hours before the draft that they didn’t want to move.
Conn Smythe Trophy winner Sam Bennett, whose 15 goals helped the Florida Panthers repeat as Stanley Cup champions, opted to stay in South Florida. He might have been able to get more than the eight-year, $64 million ($8 million AAV) deal he received from the Panthers – but he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to chase a third straight championship if he’d moved on. Bennett had said he wanted to stay with Florida and wasted little time making it happen.
John Tavares opted to sign as a free agent with the Toronto Maple Leafs when free agency began in July 2018, and the Toronto-area native wanted to stay with his hometown team badly enough to take a major salary reduction. Tavares, who will turn 35 a couple of weeks before next season begins, signed a four-year contract with an AAV of $4.38 million — down from an $11 million AAV in his previous contract. He’s coming off a 38-goal, 74-point season and is six goals away from 500 in his career, a number he should reach while wearing blue and white. Retaining Tavares as their No. 2 center behind Auston Matthews should help stabilize the Maple Leafs down the middle.
Joel Hofer, a restricted free agent goaltender who was rumored to be a possibility for an offer sheet, removed that possibility Saturday when he re-signed with the St. Louis Blues. The two-year deal has an AAV of $3.4 million. The Calgary Flames also took RFA defenseman Kevin Bahl off the market by signing him to a six-year contract with an AAV of $5.35 million.
Red Wings add John Gibson to stabilize goaltending
The Detroit Red Wings have missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for nine consecutive seasons. GM Steve Yzerman hopes the acquisition of veteran goaltender John Gibson from the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday will help end that streak.
One reason for the playoff drought has been finding a top-level goalie. Gibson used to be one – he was good enough to earn a long-term, big-money contract (eight years, $6.4 million AAV, according to PuckPedia) in 2019. But he’s never lived up to that deal, partly because of injuries, partly because the Ducks deteriorated as a team. His 2.77 goals-against average and .912 save percentage in 2024-25 were his best numbers since the late 2010s. But he played just 28 games – partly because of injuries and partly because Lukas Dostal took the No. 1 job and ran with it.
Gibson is still just 31, and the Red Wings hope last season’s numbers are a sign of better things to come. They would like him to become the No. 1, with soon-to-be 38-year-old Cam Talbot backing him up.
The price – veteran journeyman goalie Petr Mrazek and two mid-round picks – wasn’t much. But the stakes are high for Yzerman; the “Yzerplan” has gone six seasons without generating a postseason berth, and another miss could cost even a Detroit legend like Stevie Y his job.
NHL, Players Association extend CBA through 2030
Hockey fans can relax. There will be at least five more years of labor peace.
Hours before the draft began, the NHL, led by Commissioner Gary Bettman, and the Players Association announced a four-year extension of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, which has one season remaining. Both sides still must formally approve the deal.
Extending the CBA more than 14 months before the expiration of the current agreement is a big change from years past. Lockouts wiped out the 2004-05 season completely and reduced the 1994-95 and 2012-13 seasons to 48 games each. But with business booming in the past few years, cooperation rather than confrontation appeared to be the order of the day.
The new CBA does not include any substantial changes to the financial structure the League has been operating with since 2013, when the two sides agreed to a 50-50 split of Hockey Related Revenue, with the salary cap determined by that revenue split. It reportedly does include expanding the regular season to 84 games, allowing each team to face all of its division opponents four times apiece, while cutting the preseason from six to four games.
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