The true testament to defenceman Matthew Schaefer’s prodigious talent and boundless potential as the undisputed No. 1 prospect in the NHL’s Class of 2025 can be found in the numbers.

Not the goals or assists or points or penalty minutes or plus-minus or any analytics.

Just look at his games played this season: 17 in the regular season for the OHL’s Erie Otters; two in the inaugural CHL-U.S. NTDP Prospects Challenge; and two for Team Canada at the 2025 World Junior Championship.

Twenty-one games in all.

If, as expected, Schaefer is taken No. 1 overall by the New York Islanders at the NHL draft June 28 in Los Angeles, it will be unprecedented. That is, no No. 1 pick will have ever played so few games in his draft year as Schaefer.

The next closest among major-junior players? Twice as many games.

When the Boston Bruins took Billings Bighorns defenceman Gord Kluzak No. 1 overall in 1982 he was coming off a 45-game season cut short by a knee injury – 38 in the WHL and seven more for Canada at the 1982 WJC.

Schaefer’s year was initially curtailed by a bout of mononucleosis that kept him out of Erie’s first nine games, and then a season-ending broken collarbone suffered when he crashed into a goal frame versus Latvia in only his second game at the WJC.

So, when 10 out of 10 NHL scouts put the 6-foot-2, 183-pound dynamo at No. 1 in the annual TSN draft ranking poll, was there any hesitation because of the unprecedented small sample size?

“No,” said one scout. “None whatsoever.”

In fact, many of the 10 scouts surveyed didn’t just have Schaefer as No. 1, they had him in a class by himself.

“[Schaefer] is clear cut above everyone else,” said another........

© TSN