Will the Islanders bring James Hagens home? GM Mathieu Darche weighs his options in the NHL draft
Mathieu Darche’s phone keeps ringing as he prepares for his first NHL draft as general manager of the New York Islanders, and he’s sure of only one thing: They are not trading the No. 1 pick.
Beyond that, it’s wide open. While Darche is not saying, the growing consensus is the Islanders are expected to select defenseman Matthew Schaefer on Friday night.
With Long Island native James Hagens also in the mix as a likely top-10 pick, there has been plenty of speculation about them making a splash to trade back into the first half of the first round to get both.
“I’m looking at everything,” Darche said on a video call with reporters Tuesday. “If I feel the opportunity warrants that trade, I’ll try it. … Whether it’s moving up in the draft with another pick, whether it’s acquiring another pick, whether it’s trading another pick to get a player, I’m looking at all options to improve our team.”
Hagens grew up in Hauppauge going to Nassau Coliseum as a kid. He still has the towel from his first playoff game, and his buddies who are Islanders fans were pumped to see them win the draft lottery to get the first pick.
It has started to look increasingly unlikely that Hagens is the top prospect in this draft, but that has not stopped folks in the New York area from rooting for Darche to keep the local boy. Hagens has had people approach him on the golf course and recently saw a bumper sticker reading, “Bring Hagens Home,” at which point he tried to drive by without making eye contact.
“It was cool,” Hagens a bit blushingly acknowledged. “Moments like that, it puts a smile on your face.”
Hagens, a 5-foot-11 center who was a point-a-game player during his freshman season at Boston College, spoke with Darche but also sounds at peace with the possibility he ends up somewhere else.
“I have no idea what’s going to happen on draft day, so it’s just being ready,” Hagens said during the top prospects’ visit to the Stanley Cup Final in South Florida earlier this month. “I know that whatever team does takes the chance on me, I’m a loyal guy so I’d want to stick with them for however long they want me. I just want to be at a spot that wants me the most.”
That still could be the Islanders, though probably not the rival Rangers after they transferred the 12th pick to Pittsburgh on Tuesday to complete an earlier trade and keep their first-rounder next year. Maybe Hagens is playing down I-95 in Philadelphia, up the East Coast in Boston or across New York in Buffalo.
Schaefer and a couple of centers, Canadian Michael Misa and Swede Anton Frondell, are expected to be the top three off the board. San Jose, which took Macklin Celebrini first a year ago, and Chicago, which got Connor Bedard at No. 1 in 2023, have the second and third picks after New York.
“We’re going to keep debating it till the end, keep calling around and getting as much info,” said Darche, who spent seven seasons in Tampa Bay’s front office before getting his first job running an NHL team. “There’s a few guys we like, and do I have an idea at this point because it’s in four days? Probably. But we’re going to keep doing our due diligence all the way through Friday.”
Asked specifically about Schaefer, Darche raved about the maturity of the soon-to-be-18-year-old, who has dealt with the grief of the deaths of his mom and his junior hockey host family mother in Erie and has turned it into a way of helping others.
“He’s an impressive young man,” Darche said. “He’s a hell of a player. He’s a great person. But having said that, there’s a lot of other kids at the draft that we met that are very impressive. That’s why I say, regardless of who we pick on Friday, we’ll get a special player that’s going to help the New York Islanders fairly quickly.”
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