Russell’s Roundup: Isles Win Lottery, League Reacts

The New York Islanders won the 2025 NHL Draft Lottery. Yes, it really happened. The Islanders had a 3.5% chance of moving up to the pick, meaning there was a 96.5% chance of staying put or dropping back. The ping pong balls bounced in this order, by sweater numbers:

Trent Hunter – Lubomir Visnovsky – Josh Bailey – Mathew Barzal (7-11-12-13).

The Islanders have plenty of options. First, they must hire the next President of Hockey Operations and/or General Manager. Only then can the next steps begin. As the sun rises behind the non-stop rain here on Long Island, it’s a new day. Let’s recap it all:

New York Islanders:

It happened. The New York Islanders won the 2025 NHL Draft Lottery. Here’s the initial breaking news story.

Once the news sunk in, we sunk our teeth into possibilities. Matthew Schaefer? Michael Misa? Local product James Hagens? Trade down? It’s all addressed here. It’s just the beginning. But there are plenty of possibilities.

Earlier in the day, one of the wilder stories dropped. New York Governor Kathy Hochul dropped a big ol’ eff you to Gary Bettman and the NHL for cancelling the 2026 All-Star Game. Here’s the full letter and reaction.

And the early morning story. Simon Holmstrom, in a constantly evolving story, will not represent Team Sweden at the IIHF World Championship. Then again, William Eklund underwent surgery. Sweden will have to replace him.

National Hockey Now & NHL Playoffs:

Florida Hockey Now: Boy, the Toronto Maple Leafs came to play. They charged out to a 3-1 lead after one period and would not relinquish the game.

More FHN: However, that’s not what anyone is discussing after tonight. In the second period. Sam Bennett struck again. He delivered a sneaky, but extremely brutal headshot onto Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz. Stolarz left the arena on a stretcher and went to a hospital for further evaluation.

ForeverBlueshirts: Time to take a victory lap, Islanders fans. Had the Rangers not beaten the Islanders in each and every meeting, it would be the Rangers selecting first overall. The team that tried to “rebuild” once, then won consecutive lotteries and had Artemi Panarin sign as a UFA did not find such luck last night. Here’s the lottery postmortem for the Rangers.

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: What’s that? More divisional rivals upset at their ping pong luck? Take a drive to Pittsburgh, PA, where the Pittsburgh Penguins dropped not one, but two spots last night.

Philly Hockey Now: Here’s another unhappy divisional foe. William James writes: “Worst Case Scenario” as the Flyers fell back two spots in the 2025 draft.

Boston Hockey Now: After the Islanders, the next four teams to draft are from the Western Conference. Then, the Flyers finally pick at #6.  Then, also dropping two places are the Boston Bruins. They’ll pick seventh.

San Jose Hockey Now: Here’s Sheng Peng’s full story on Eklund’s aforementioned injury. Elsewhere, the Sharks entered last night with the best odds of winning the lottery. Instead, they dropped one place, from 1st to 2nd.