After multiple trades, Hurricanes take 7 players in NHL draft
LOS ANGELES (WTVD) -- The NHL draft got underway Friday night, and the Carolina Hurricanes waited quite a while to make their first-round selection.
And with the 29th overall pick, the Hurricanes didn't make a pick at all. They made a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for the 34th pick and 62nd pick, and a fifth-round pick in 2027.
On Saturday, the Canes then traded that No. 34 pick and the 189th pick to the Montreal Canadiens for picks No. 41 and 49.
Carolina finally selected a player with the 41st overall pick in the second round, taking goalie Semyon Frolov of MHK Spartak Moscow. At No. 49, the Canes took Charlie Cerrato from Penn State University.
The Hurricanes then took Ivan Ryabkin from Muskegon of the USHL at No. 62. A trade up to No. 67 brought Kurban Limatov, a defenseman from HC Dynamo Moscow, into the fold. At No. 87, the Canes selected Roman Bausov, a defenseman from MHK Dynamo St. Petersburg.
By the time they were done, the Hurricanes had added seven players from the draft.
Frolov, 18, helped his club win the 2025 MHL championship. The 6'3", 203-pound goalie was ranked second among international goaltenders by NHL Central Scouting.
Cerrato, 20, is the only American among the Canes' draft haul. He appeared in 38 games with Penn State in 2024-25, ranking second in points, tied for second in assists, and tied for third in goals among Nittany Lions skaters. The 6'0", 190-pound forward led all Big Ten rookies in goals, assists and points, helping him earn Big Ten All-Freshman Team honors. The Fallston, Maryland, native also spent two seasons (2021-23) with the United States National Team Development Program.
Ryabkin, 18, a native of Balakova, Russia, earned 30 points (19g, 11a) in 27 USHL games with the Muskegon Lumberjacks in 2024-25. He was ranked 35th overall among international skaters by NHL Central Scouting.
Carolina then traded its 2025 fourth-round pick, 125th overall, and the Dallas Stars' third-round pick in 2026 to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for the Nashville Predators' 2025 third-round pick, 67th overall.
Limatov, 18, a 6'4", 190-pound defenseman and Moscow native, was ranked ninth among international skaters by NHL Central Scouting.
After getting Tampa Bay's 2025 third-round pick, 87th overall, on June 30, 2024, in exchange for the rights to forward Jake Guentzel, the Canes took Bausov, 18, a St. Petersburg, Russia, native. The 6'5", 190-pound blueliner totaled 14 points (3g, 11a) in 73 career MHL games, ranking second among club blueliners younger than 18 in points since 2023-24. Bausov was ranked 34th among international skaters by NHL Central Scouting.
In Round 6, with the 183rd overall pick acquired from Tampa, Carolina took Viggo Nordlund, a left winger from Sweden. Nordlund, 18, had 49 points (24g, 25a) in 40 regular-season games with Skellefta AIK in the J20 Nationell, Sweden's top junior league. He was ranked 26th among international skaters by NHL Central Scouting
Finally, in Round 7, with the 221st overall pick, the Canes drafted Filip Ekberg, a right winger from Uppsala, Sweden. The 18-year-old played for Ottawa of the OHL and tallied 45 points (16g, 29a) in 53 games with the Ottawa 67's in the OHL during the 2024-25 season, ranking fourth among club skaters in points per game. The 5'10" 168-pound winger represented his country at the 2025 IIHF Under-18 World Junior Championship, recording 18 points (10g, 8a) in seven games to lead all tournament skaters in goals and points to help Sweden capture a silver medal.
The New York Islanders selected defenseman Matthew Schaefer with the No. 1 pick in the draft on Friday night.
High-scoring forward Michael Misa went second overall to the San Jose Sharks, and the Chicago Blackhawks took Swedish forward Anton Frondell third at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles..
The Islanders surprised nobody by using their first No. 1 selection since 2009 on the 17-year-old Schaefer, a 6-foot-2 blueliner from Hamilton, Ontario, who spent the past two seasons with the Ontario Hockey League's Erie Otters. He played only 17 games last season before breaking his collarbone in December, but Schaefer's acumen on both ends of the ice still propelled him to the top of nearly all draft boards.
Schaefer is just the fifth defenseman picked No. 1 overall in the NHL draft since 2000, and the first since Owen Power went to Buffalo in 2021.
Schaefer persevered through tragedy to reach this milestone. Schaefer's mother, Jennifer, died of cancer 16 months ago, and he also endured the recent deaths of the Otters' owner, Jim Waters, and the mother of his billet family.
When Schaefer pulled on his Islanders sweater for the first time, he kissed a pink ribbon patch on the chest representing breast cancer awareness before breaking into tears.
"I appreciate you taking a chance on me," Schaefer said in a video conference call with the Islanders' front office. "I promise I won't disappoint, but especially I just want to say to my mom and all my family and friends, thanks for everything."
Misa tore up the OHL last season as the captain of the Saginaw Spirit, scoring 62 goals and 134 points in just 65 games. He joins a struggling Sharks organization that chose Will Smith fourth overall in 2023 and got center Macklin Celebrini with the first overall pick a year ago.
"We just thought it was a perfect fit with what we already have here," Sharks general manager Mike Grier said. "Another guy to step in and be a nightmare matchup for people."
There was no absolute lock of a No. 1 pick in this field, although Schaefer clearly came out on top, and the draft also lacked the centralized structure that has long been a staple of this annual exercise. The 32 teams' various executives are mostly at home, not strewn across the draft floor.
ABC11's Kate Rogerson and The Associated Press contributed.
