Islanders GM and EVP Mathieu Darche Addressed Media After Round One of the 2025 NHL Draft

Islanders GM and EVP Mathieu Darche Addressed Media After Round One of the 2025 NHL Draft

hey Matthew how you doing
hey Andrew
um how do you sum up today there there was a lot going on for you i mean was I know you said you wanted to resign Noah what What was the breaking point there where you felt you had to make the move and how did that snowball into everything else that happened today you’re correct it was a busy day i guess that’s why they pay me but uh listen we tried to sign Noah and we couldn’t agree on a contract which is you know it happens in sports uh and honestly the whole negotiation was very amicable and once we couldn’t get to an agreement we decided to to work together and find uh a spot for him that he uh he’d be comfortable going for me to get the best return possible for the New York Islanders that’s it there’s honestly there’s no uh like I said when we talked previously I you know I my job to evaluate where I think the contract should be and we just didn’t agree on a on a contract but there was no uh you know nobody’s mad at anybody we just made the best of a situation and he did what was best for him i did what was best for the New York Islanders it’s as simple as that
go to Andrew obviously you’ll talk about Schaefer the first pick but when you got those two picks from Montreal what was the intention there i mean did you think you’d be picking at 16 or 17 or or did you want to get higher up in the draft
uh once we got those picks uh I was either trading those picks for players that are in the NHL right now i’ve had I did I made calls around the league on targets i tried we we did try to trade up at one point um actually a couple times uh during the first round we couldn’t get a deal done and then you know sometimes everything happens for a reason cuz the guys that we drafted at 16 and 17 we had them much higher in our list and were beyond excited that it were still available at that uh at those spots so uh you know like like I said before when you have a draft pick it’s a way of getting a player whether you use that pick to draft a player or whether you use it to acquire a player so we looked at different options uh all day and but we weren’t going to make a decision uh uh transaction just to make a transaction had to make sense for us so we tried a bunch of things and at the end of the day nothing was uh makes sense made sense for us and sometimes it takes two to tangle right you can propose things to the other team and if the other team is not interested and there’s a reason those guys uh got drafted and uh in the top 10 and we couldn’t move up because they’re good players and those teams they wanted them also so it’s one thing to give them two picks but they were they were excited to get the players so and but you know what everything happens for a reason we got two outstanding gentlemen in Victor and Kashan with the 16 and 17 pick
ethan Sears New York Post uh hey Matthew uh thanks for doing this um just first of all um was when you were looking to potentially trade up was the idea you had in mind to to trade up for Hagens well in the in the few spot he was definitely one of the guys we were looking at we had him high on our list uh so at one point when there was a few picks that we felt it would be great value to to get the player there so we we attempted a few things but hey he’s a good player so that’s why the teams picked him so uh it is what it is and uh like I said before we’re really excited about Victor and Kon and just with Schaer um what excited you you most about him and and when did you kind of know that that he was going to be that guy at at number one well it was pretty quick when I started i mean when we spent the week at the combine with him the interview and then we took him out to dinner one night as we did with the other kids that were outstanding also but the kid first and foremost were drafting because he’s an unbelievable hockey player so he could have been obviously the human being is exceptional a 17-year-old to have that resilience maturity uh with everything that he’s gone through is beyond impressive honestly I haven’t met many 17-year-old kids that act and and that act like him by the end of the day we’re drafting him he’s a hell of a hockey player like this is a nice story and everything but he’s a hell of a hockey player that hopefully be will hopefully will be a long time on the island and will be a key player in this organization because he’s a unique uh and uh exciting player for us so uh I can’t I mean it’s it’s been a little while at one point that but you never know you do your due diligence till the end but we we’ve zeroed in on him and we kept doing our due diligence calling around character references and all these things and it’s it’s unbelievable the overwhelming uh positivity we got from anybody we talked to about Matthew Schaefer
Brian Compton NHL.com hey Matthew um two questions uh first off you were you were here in the arena you got to speak to the fans at this event uh talking about how you want this team to play what your vision is and then you get to make three picks in the first round what talk a little bit about what a moment it is for you to kind of put your stamp on the team and and kind of launch this new era of Islanders hockey in a night like this
well it’s awesome and like I said we’re not going to a rebuild either like we just the opportunity we had today in this job you have to be nimble and adjust to what’s coming so uh like I said we tried to sign everybody we couldn’t but then we got three outstanding young men that you know the biggest thing like I I’ve told I’ve said before in my press conference I said I said it last week when we when we all met by Zoom like this I said high character individual tend to overachieve and the three kids we got today are extremely high character uh I mean we all know about Matthew the player he is but Victor and Kashan are unbelievable competitors and those are that that’s how you win if you look at the teams that won the last few years the compete level is off the charts and those three kids today we got have that and and they’re they’re they’re good offensive players too you look at even Keshan you’ll notice all his hits online and he’ll fight but look at him he’s almost a point a game guy in juniors and Victor our scouts were telling me at the combine and tonight I said “You got to be careful with him because he’s small but he competes so much i he goes into the boards he goes into the traffic and he gets he gets hurt because he competes so much.” So that’s the type of individual I want on the team so uh again we’re extremely excited it’s it’s it was a great night for the uh Islanders
great and the other thing was that I mean it’s not the first first round that we’ve experienced where there’s a lot of hype coming into it about big trades and everything that’s going to happen and then nothing really happens but I was wondering for you in particular tonight do you think the fact that we were decentralized this year impacted the number of trades that that maybe we didn’t see tonight i’m not sure may maybe maybe it’s a factor because you’re not face to face with your counterparts on the floor i think part of it too is maybe the cap going up every year you have trades and I’ I’ve lived in in Tampa because of the situation that Tampa was in with the salary cap that you have to move players because of the salary cap but now teams the salary cap is jumping so they have more room so they they don’t need to move as many players u as maybe in previous years so it probably um it holds off some trades so I mean there were trades during the week i mean we had a big one today it just uh uh I guess it leaked earlier than it was announced but uh so there was still that trade and uh who knows sometimes day two I remember uh last year there were two three big trades on day two so we’ll see what happens tomorrow
compton NHL.com hey Matthew uh just curious how much pressure did you maybe put on yourself to have a day like this to try to you know impress the fan base or make an impact with them and you know with Noah coming off the books just what do you do for an encore how active do you intend to be in free agency thank you
well first of all the decision I make is never for me to put a show or for me to look good or it’s always for the best interest of the New York Islanders and that’s what we felt today uh by making this trade that’s what we had to do for the best interest of the New York Islanders and then we took advantage you know every um I don’t want to say obstacle but everything you go through opens another opportunity so we took advantage of our opportunities by drafting three great players and yes we have cap space and we have uh I’ll be I’ve worked the phone uh all day the last two weeks i’ll be working it all day tomorrow Sunday Monday Tuesday for free agency we’ll try if we can there’s a way we can improve the team whether it’s through signings through trades we’ll look we’ll look at every my job is to uh look at every opportunity we may have and try to improve the team
stephan Roser of the Hockey News hey Matthew thanks for doing this um with how you guys fared tonight is the focus now on using the rest of the picks you have to get players that could help you now or it just wait and see with how you guys approach the rest of the draft again that’s uh like when I got this job my goal was to sign everyone we weren’t able with one player and and we move we moved on and we again like I said it was uh actually a great work with the agent and our I think we we work really well to get the to do the best for no one to do the best for the New York Islanders and tomorrow if I have opportunities i have no uh reservation of using those picks or next year’s picks to try to get a player if I can get a good player that can help us this year and beyond so uh in this job you can have the the best plan but things change in our business like I said before like even during a season players overachieve some players underachieve you have to be stay nimble and be able to adjust so we adjusted this week by making this trade and uh we picked the players tonight and tomorrow if we have opportunities my job is to look at them and discuss it with our staff and make decisions
joe Panouo am New York matthew what does a night like tonight do in terms of helping you build sort of a more self- sustainable pipeline where you can maybe build a contender in the future where your roster improvements are coming from within thanks
well I think we we replenished the prospect pool uh really well tonight you know I even started the last trade deadline when um Lou was able to acquire a first round pick uh even if it’s next year and uh Caleb Richie we already have some good prospects and now today we we drafted three players in the top 17 of a draft so that that’s exciting and you know again tomorrow we’ll try to bring the same type of uh character and players and uh that we want and if we can move those picks for players that help us now if we can move next year’s picks for players that can help us now I’ll do it but again my job is to look at every opportunity but I’m really excited because now we have a lot of those kids that have high potential you never know what they turn out to be in five years but they have high potential so we’re excited with what’s coming
back to Ethan Sears New York Post um I’m just curious um with with Emil Heinman um what did you like about him what do you think you guys are are getting there
well Emil it’s funny because we we really want him to be in the trade uh so we pushed till the end to be in the trade cuz he’s a he’s a player that I got uh kind of the league kind of discovered this year he had a great start of the year and I don’t know if people remember but at uh around Christmas he was going great and he got unfortunately hit by a car in Utah and missed two months uh which slowed his year but you see in his first year in the NHL he scored 10 goals playing mostly on the fourth line so we see potential he’s a strong kid that skates great he’s got a rocket of a shot like if you look at his goals it’s it’s it’s it’s a high velocity shot that can score so we we see a lot of potential in this player the hapit you know right now works he’s he’s uh it helps us maybe create other opportunities somewhere else because he’s an NHL player he’s an established NHL player now and we feel he can only improve in the coming years was there a he’s an RFA right is there a deal done with him as part of the trade no because at the end I mean he’s an RFA so he’s uh we have his rights and there’s no arbitration there so I’ll talk with the agent i’ve already talked with the agent quickly uh not necessarily about the contract per se but I told him “Hey we’ll talk in the next few days i don’t expect it to be any issues uh with Emil.” And I’ve talked to the player already today we told him how excited we were me and Patrick got on the phone with him and he’s back in Sweden and he was very excited to come to the island and uh we’re excited to have him

New York Islanders General Manager and Executive Vice President Mathieu Darche addressed the media after the conclusion of Round One of the 2025 NHL Draft. He reiterated what he had emphasized before the draft: the team was not going to trade the first-overall pick—“someone would really have to knock my socks off” to even consider it. And as expected, they stayed put and selected Matthew Schaefer with the top pick.

The New York Islanders acquired the 16th and 17th overall picks in the 2025 NHL Draft, along with forward Emil Heineman from the Montreal Canadiens, in exchange for Noah Dobson.

With pick 16, the Islanders chose Swedish winger Victor Eklund.

With pick 17, they selected OHL defenseman Kashawn Aitcheson.

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