ELMONT, NEW YORK \u2013 Matthew Schaefer, who went No. 1 overall to the New York Islanders in 2025, will face San Jose Sharks forward Michael Misa, the No. 2 pick, for the first time on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The duo are forever joined as being the first two picks of the 2025 NHL Draft<\/a>. Misa told reporters that he\u2019s known Schaefer for a long time.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve known him for a while now. We\u2019re pretty good friends, so it\u2019s cool to see what he\u2019s doing over there,\u201d Misa said. \u201cI played with him a lot this year in terms of those prospect games or in the summer showcase for the World Juniors. Just getting them to know him. I skate with him in the summer, so just getting to know him over the last couple of years, it\u2019s been great. He\u2019s a great guy.\u201d<\/p>\n The Islanders defenseman has an incredible upbringing story. Schaefer lost his mother to a battle with cancer. He also lost his billet mom to cancer during his time in the OHL. At 18, Schaefer has dealt with an incredible amount of loss in his life, but it\u2019s only made him stronger.<\/p>\n Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.<\/p>\n \u201cThe kid has been through a lot. Just listening to him, he\u2019s a very well spoken person, and he\u2019s obviously a very talented hockey player,\u201d San Jose Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky<\/a> said. \u201cHe\u2019s got a great head on his shoulders with his brother and his dad. The whole story, it\u2019s tragic, but you can tell he\u2019s got a high, high character. Probably a lot of it from his mom. He\u2019s a special talent.\u201d<\/p>\n While all the praise is deserved for Schaefer, Misa still has something to prove in their first matchup.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will definitely be some little competition on the inside. He went one, I went two,\u201d the Sharks forward said. \u201cIt\u2019s a matchup I\u2019ve been looking for, and I\u2019m excited for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Warsofsky sees improvement from Misa in a short time frame<\/p>\n Schaefer is breaking records as an 18-year-old defenseman through the first part of the NHL season, while Misa is still finding his footing. Warsofsky said he\u2019s seen the Sharks\u2019 rookie start to find his footing through two games.<\/p>\n Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to keep playing him, see how [he] develops. Part of where we\u2019re at as an organization is we have some young players that need to play and develop,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cHe\u2019s had a good week of practice. Good game. Gonna keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n But where specifically has Warsofsky seen Misa improve his game?<\/p>\n \u201cHe just looks more comfortable with the pace. I think he can still hold on to some more pucks, but he got some really good looks last game,\u201d the Sharks coach said. \u201cHe\u2019s not thinking as much. Playing with his instincts has been the most developed trait so far. We\u2019re gonna keep pushing the envelope.\u201d<\/p>\n Tuesday will be Misa\u2019s first road game in his NHL career, but he\u2019s not worried. <\/p>\n Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is what it is. Just go out there and try and play my game no matter what the environment is,\u201d Misa explained. \u201cWe\u2019re looking to get our first win, so we\u2019re going to be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n Misa will center a line with Collin Graf<\/a> on the left wing and Adam Gaudette on the right. Gaudette is a<\/a> game-time decision due to illness. Gaudette was able to participate in the Sharks\u2019 morning skate.<\/p>\n Read more news and stories about the San Jose Sharks on\u00a0Sharks Hockey Digest<\/a>! Bookmark the page and follow Sharks Hockey Digest on Twitter @SharksHKYDigest<\/a>!\n<\/p>\n Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ELMONT, NEW YORK \u2013 Matthew Schaefer, who went No. 1 overall to the New York Islanders in 2025,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[14255,13254,3259,12745,88,90,89,98,4174,755],"class_list":{"0":"post-16147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-2025-nhl-draft","9":"tag-matthew-schaefer","10":"tag-michael-misa","11":"tag-new-york-islanders","12":"tag-san-jose","13":"tag-san-jose-headlines","14":"tag-san-jose-news","15":"tag-san-jose-sharks","16":"tag-sharks-news","17":"tag-sj-sharks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}