If you stumble upon 2025 NHL Draft top prospect Matthew Schaefer's Elite Prospects page, you'll see that he only played 17 games for the OHL's Eerie Otters in 2024-25.
That's because the 17-year-old, who potentially could go No. 1 to the New York Islanders, sustained a broken clavicle against Latvia at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championships on Dec. 27.
Here's the video:
Schaefer, who needed surgery, missed the rest of the season, finishing his second season with Eerie as over a point-per-game defenseman, with 22 points (five goals, 17 assists) in those 17 games.
Should there be a concern with Schaefer going forward?
"I have not heard any talks," Russ Cohen of nhldraftbuzz.com and NHL on Sirius XM told me. "It's not like Roger McQueen, where there's definitely a concern, or Cayden Lidstrom from a few years ago. It's not like that. There's no concern. It's just one of those things that happened."
According to a study done by the National Library of Medicine, the odds of someone breaking their clavicle twice is 0.07%.
If that doesn't settle your mind, Islanders fans, here's something else.
Superstar Connor McDavid, who played for the Eerie Otters and was selected No. 1 overall in 2015, broke his clavicle during his rookie season, and look what's happened to his career.
Back in April, Schaefer was back on the ice with his teammates but was unable to return before their season came to a close.
Schaefer, projected No. 1 pick in 2025 Draft, 'healed,' cleared for contact | NHL.com
17-year-old defenseman had surgery for broken clavicle sustained at World Juniors
Check out Russ's brand-new book called "Game Winners: The Greatest Game-Winning Goals In Hockey History.
Game Winners: The Greatest Game-Winning Goals In Hockey History
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