Matthew Schaefer.

Michael Misa.

Beyond those top two prospects — Schaefer is the unanimous No. 1 on TSN’s final rankings; Misa is the near-unanimous No. 2, receiving nine of 10 second-place votes — there is a real air of unpredictability as it relates to the rest of the 2025 NHL draft.

Even within the top 10.

Mind you, that unpredictability is somewhat paradoxical.

Which is to suggest this: Identifying the top 10 prospects this year is rather easy, bordering on obvious.

If you look at TSN’s final list, and then check any of the myriad independent scouting lists elsewhere, you’re pretty much going to find the same eight to 10 names immediately following Schaefer and Misa.

Something along these lines:

Brampton Steelhead right winger Porter Martone (No. 3 on the TSN list); Swedish centre Anton Frondell (No. 4); Moncton Wildcat centre Caleb Desnoyers (No. 5); Brantford Bulldog centre Jake O’Brien (No. 6); Boston College centre James Hagens (No. 7); Soo Greyhound centre Brady Martin (No. 8); Brandon Wheat King centre Roger McQueen (No. 9); and Swedish right winger Victor Eklund (No. 10).

There may be the odd list that has Seattle Thunderbird defenceman Radim Mrtka (No. 11) , Tri-City American defenceman Jackson Smith (No. 12) or Barrie Colt defenceman Kashawn Aitcheson (No. 13) in the Top 10.

But it would be tough to find a top 10 list that is devoid of any one of Martone, Frondell, Desnoyers, O’Brien, Hagens, Martin and McQueen. In fact, of those seven players, only two — Martin and McQueen — got a single vote outside the top 10 from our panel of 10 NHL scouts.

That is an unusually strong consensus.

But how is each of this Group of Seven viewed within the top 10?

Well, now, there’s the unpredictability factor and the reason why no one seems to have any idea what order they will be taken June 27 in Los Angeles.

“It’s a weird dynamic this year,” said one NHL head scout. “You’ve got Schaefer at the top and then there’s a bit of a gap to Misa and then there’s a much bigger gap between those two and everyone else, but it seems there’s almost no gap between the [No. 3 to No. 9] guys. One big winger (Martone) and six really good centres [Frondell, Desnoyers, Hagens, O’Brien, Martin and McQueen].”

“I think we can all agree,” said another NHL scout, “that outside of Schaefer, who has a chance to be elite, and maybe Misa, too, it’s still an above-average top 10 because it’s dominated by talented centres. But I’ll bet each team’s order of how they rank those nine or 10 players is all over the map.”

It is.

One player (Schaefer) received votes at No. 1

Two players - Misa and Frondell - received votes at No. 2.

Three players - Martone, Frondell and Desnoyers - received votes at No. 3.

Six players received votes at No. 4. Six players received votes at No. 5.

Seven players received votes at No. 6. Seven players received votes at No. 7.

Five players received votes at No. 8. Seven players received votes at No. 9.

And eight players received votes at No. 10.

This is not just the Matthew Schaefer Draft; it’s the Scattershot Draft.

Let’s take a closer look at TSN’s Top 10.

3. Porter Martone

The 6-foot-3, 208-pound Steelhead winger has the size, strength and skill to project as an NHL power forward, though scouts are evenly split on whether he’ll be a first or second liner. He does his best work close to the net and can be a hard guy to play against, but scouts would like to see that on a more consistent basis.

“He’s got a big shot,” said a scout. “His skating is somewhat average, but he moves okay. He can be a skilled big man who can be an agitator, too, but he sometimes has a tendency to want to ‘skill’ things up too much.”

4. Anton Frondell

The 6-foot-1, 198-pound Djurgarden centre, as noted, was the only player besides Misa to get a second-place vote.

He battled illness and injury this season and didn’t play particularly well at the World U-18 Championship in April against his own age group. But Frondell still scored 11 goals and 25 points in 29 games against men in the Sweden’s second-level Allsvenskan to help lead Djurgarden’s promotion to the SHL next season.

That production represented the second best points-per-game (.86) output by a draft-eligible player in Allsvenskan history, behind only Vancouver Canuck forward Elias Pettersson.

“He’s not as big as Anze Kopitar or Sasha Barkov, but he has a chance to be that type of player and make a big impact at both ends of the ice,” said one scout who projects Frondell as a potential first-line NHL centre.

Most view him as a second-line centre, though a couple of others believe he’d be better suited on the wing in the NHL.

5. Caleb Desnoyers

The 6-foot-2, 178-pound centre put up nice offensive numbers (84 points in 56 games) and led the Wildcats to the QMJHL championship, but it’s his strong two-way play, with and without the puck, that has him projected as a high-end, second-line NHL centre.

He received votes as high as No. 3 and no lower than No. 9.

“Plays a similar style to Patrice Bergeron,” said one scout. “He was Canada’s best forward at the Hlinka [U-18 tournament] last........

© TSN