We are finally there! After a jam-packed season of playoff highs and lows and some sweet trade surprises, we have arrived at the NHL draft season, where the league will be livened up by the surge of young blood and new talent. While the dates were sort of uncertain till just recently, we now have some insider info on where, when and how to tune into the NHL 2025 live draft at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles, where fresh talent will be lining up for hungry franchises to place their bids. So here’s the scoop.

It has just been announced via Mark Scheig, who primarily covers the Columbus Blue Jackets, Cleveland Monsters and Erie Otters (Hello Matthew Schaeffer!), that the Draft is scheduled to be live-streamed on Friday night between 7 and 10 pm Eastern! That’s right, tomorrow night! With this, we can expect high emotions and big surprises after a number of teams have reorganized their rosters to sort out limited salary caps. Ahem, goodbye, Evander Kane and hello…. The Oilers are pretty low down on the lottery list, so we can’t really be sure of that yet, what we can be sure of, however, is who is hosting the event and what all of that might look like!

Get ready for some full-on hockey foresight and accuracy, with ESPN analyst John Buccigross hosting the event, fans are sure to get a load of stats and predictions when each new draft comes through. Remember, it was Buccigross who knew Ovechkin would cross the career goal record before anyone else did, so he has a way of seeing things the rest of us maybe don’t. Joining him will be Kevin Weekes, Emily Kaplan, Leah Hextall and Meghan Chayka.

But who’s being drafted and who gets the first pick? Here’s a sense of what to expect from the layout of tomorrow’s big NHL event.

NHL Draft prospects: Who gets the first pick and who’s looking good?

So, here’s what we know. The New York Islanders got the lucky first pick and it looks like that one is most certainly going to go to Erie Otters’ Matthew Schaefer, who has shown incredible conviction and resilience despite personal tragedy to come out as one of the top prospects of the season. In the 2024-2025 season he scored 22 points in 17 games, and considering everything that he had to persevere through, including his mother’s untimely death, his level of maturity is astounding! The Islanders would be remiss not to pick this star prospect, so it seems only obvious that they would scoop him up.

Next, Michael Misa will likely be swept away by the San Jose Sharks. The Saginaw Spirit prospect beat a Connor McDavid record in the 2022 OHL Cup tournament, securing 20 points in just 7 games. He was a first draft pick for the Saginaw Spirit and it’s highly likely he’ll be the same for the Sharks.

Here’s where it gets a bit interesting: for a long time it was thought that James Hagens of the Boston College Eagles was going to be a first-pick prospect, but then Matthew Schaeffer and Michael Misa came into the picture and stole his thunder. Now, however, Anton Frondell from Djurgårdens IF of the HockeyAllsvenskan seems to be doing the same!

So, while the top two picks seem more or less set in stone, things will get really interesting once we come down to #3 and see where the Chicago Blackhawks decide to land! Anyway, tune in to ESPN 7-10pm Eastern and find out.