Mathieu Darche knows with certainty now that the New York Islanders hit a home run with Matthew Schaefer , the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.

But that wasn't so clear to Darche, the Islanders first-year general manager, going into training camp and the start of the regular season.

"It's funny because all summer I kept telling his agent, 'You know what, let's stay open-minded here, he only played 17 games last year, the option of going back to junior is still there,'" Darche said on this week's episode of the “ NHL @TheRink " podcast. "From the start, my mind was 'let's bring him to camp, he's going to play preseason games, he's going to play at the start of the season, we'll evaluate from there.'"

The evaluation didn't take long.

"Let's just say after game six or seven I calle

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