It is a slap in the face for the San Jose Sharks, who expected to pick a Savior. And it is a miracle who fell from heaven for Patrick Roy, who has literally changed the story of a franchise that did not go anywhere.
The New York Icelanders, 10th in the probabilities, have just challenged the laws of physics, mathematics and common sense. They just jumped to the front of the 2025 draft. A leap in nine places, like an uppercut in the Gorge of the National League.
And the one who orchestrates this miracle? No other than Patrick Roy. The same Roy that all of Quebec dreamed of seeing behind the Canadiens’ bench. The same Roy who was humiliated by the Wild of Minnesota in series, but who has just replicated in the only way he knows: by winning.
Because let’s say the real cases: the Icelanders, before this evening, were a stagnant team, unable to renew themselves, be enthusiastic or sell a single ticket without a promo 2 for 1. and here in the space of a few seconds, they become the center of the hockey universe.
The first choice in total. The right to recover a generational player. The power to change everything.
The Sharks had the highest percentage. And they lost everything. Again. After exchanging Karlsson, Timo Meier and having plunged deeper than a Russian submarine, they are being ahead of a club which was supposed to recover 10th. A disaster. A flight to everyone’s sight.
But in Long Island, it’s the party. Patrick Roy does not need to speak. His smile does it for him. He who was criticized, underestimated, held responsible for everything except victories, has just received the most beautiful reward: time.
Time to build. Time to dream. Time to transform a breathless club into a modern power. Because the first choice 2025, according to all experts, is a Player franchise. A Connor Bedard without the spotlight. A Matvei Michkov without the Russian passport.
A player who can change everything. And he will fall into the hands of Patrick Roy.
Now no one can laugh at Islanders. Their coach is a winner. Their DG has just hit a circuit without lifting a finger. And their future has just received an injection of pure talent worthy of a dream.
The most ironic? It was the Canadian who was the second higher leap possible, thanks to the choice of Calgary. And they too were frozen. No movement. No magic. The CH will recover 16th and 17th. While Patrick Roy speaks to the first player to go on the stage.
NHL needs this kind of story. Hockey too. Because yes, it makes California supporters crazy. But that gives hope to forgotten markets, resistant coaches, tired clubs.
Patrick Roy has just won much more than a lottery. He has just regained control of his destiny.
And it is all the NHL that has just heard the message: the grown -ups never die. They just wait for their turn.
We were on the artificial respirator at Long Island.
The club was not going out of the way, bogged down in a gray area where hopes no longer wandered, where the veterans were running out of steam, and where the coach, despite all his contagious energy, seemed to be condemned to type on rusty nails.
And then suddenly, boom.
The miracle.
The kind of miracle that only occurs once per generation, and which completely changes the career plan of a head coach.
Patrick Roy has just inherited a “Rug Envy” as at the time when Nathan Mackinnon fell from the sky to Denver. An elite player, a generational talent, a light at the end of the tunnel that transforms the cloakroom overnight.
It is no longer a small market in reconstruction.
He is no longer a coach who tinks with third trios.
It is a real project. A real team. A real flame.
And what is fascinating is that Roy is exactly where he excels: on the edge of the precipice, with a torch in one hand and an adrenaline bomb in the other.
Did he want a challenge?
He has it.
But this time, he also has an asset.
A first overall choice in the pockets.
And with Matthew Schaefer, Cayden Lindstrom or Ivan Demidov 2.0 in the sights, everything becomes possible for the one that was thought to be relegated to cling the breaches of a drifting ship.
Patrick Roy now has an anchor. A star. A future.
And above all … a revenge to execute against the whole NHL.
And this is where Matthew Schaefer’s name enters the scene like a slap in the face of the status quo.
Because this defender is not a hope like the others.
It is a superstar project, a reconstruction catalyst, a Jaccob Slavin in version 2.0 with a V12 engine in the legs and a brain of offensive quarter in the skull.
At 6 feet 2, 183 pounds, Schaefer plays as if he already had 400 games in the body.
His season with the Erie Otters? 22 points in 17 games, a differential of +21, and scouts that were crying almost by describing his play readings.
Captain of the Canadian team at the Hlinka-Gretzky. The most complete defender of his generation, according to several.
A guy capable of extinguishing the fire in the defensive zone and lighting an offensive recovery fire five seconds later.
And there, this guy, he falls into the hands of Patrick Roy.
The same Patrick Roy who, in Colorado, had seen Nathan Mackinnon land in his arms as a gift from the gods of hockey.
The same Patrick Roy who has never agreed to lose, and who has just seen the whole NHL send him a raw diamond ready to be polite.
It’s over, the Icelanders of Long Island who survive apnea with lead trios and honorable defeats.
With Matthew Schaefer, it is pure oxygen that returns in the lungs. It is a dynasty that can be rebuilt from the blue line.
Schaefer and Noah Dobson on the first defensive pair?
Good luck to the opponents to cross the neutral zone.
This duo-loche could do what Makar and Toews have done in Colorado.
And with Roy behind the bench? The fire is on. Identity is found.
The NHL has just revived a franchise that she had left for dead.
And Patrick Roy has just received the perfect weapon to trigger his revenge.
A revenge signed Matthew Schaefer.
