Islanders fans react to club selecting Matthew Schaefer with top pick

Gary Bettman announced the selection at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles and the reverberations from those words spoken by the NHL commissioner were felt 2,812 miles away inside UBS Arena.

The large, loud crowd watching on the videoboards in Elmont voiced its approval, and confetti began to rise and fall over the expected news.

The Islanders beat the daunting odds, winning the NHL Draft Lottery despite only a 3.5% chance of doing so.

Now they will hope to collect a big payoff with Matthew Schaefer, the great-skating, puck-moving, playmaking, two-way defenseman selected as the first overall pick by new GM Mathieu Darche.

Along with confetti on Friday night at the Islanders Draft Party, there was hope floating for Islanders fans following a season that ended with their favorite team cropped out of the playoff picture.

“I was pretty hopeless when the season ended,” said Daniel Steigerwald, a 22-year-old fan from Huntington Station. “I didn’t really feel like the team was going in a good direction. But once they hired the new GM and I found out we got first, I felt so much better.”

Seth Duhl was feeling optimistic, too.

“A lot of hope in the air right now for the future of the Islanders,” said the Merrick resident, attending the party with his 4-year-old son. “The last time they drafted the first pick a defenseman [Denis Potvin], they won four straight Stanley Cups. Yeah, very exciting.”

Now Schaefer just has to live up to the advertising.

The scouts loved the 17-year-old Ontario native. The NHL Central Scouting Bureau rated him No. 1 among North American skaters.

Schaefer had seven goals and 15 assists this past season with the Erie Otters in the Ontario Hockey League. But the 22 points came in only 17 games as an illness and a broken collarbone limited his ice time.

“I’m excited for Schaefer,” said Cynthia Gangichiodo, a season-ticket holder from Lindenhurst. “I think it will be a great addition to the team. But I would also like to pick up [James] Hagens because he’s a Long Islander.”

But a few minutes later, the fans saw that the Long Islander from Hauppauge was bound for Boston at No. 7.

The party doors had opened to the people at 5. The fans, so many in blue or white Islanders jerseys, began taking their seats or flooding the area where the ice will form again in a few months.

A Ferris wheel took some for a ride on one side and there was a giant inflatable slide at the other end.

About 30 minutes later, Darche took the stage where he was interviewed by MSG Networks’ Shannon Hogan and former Isles defenseman Thomas Hickey.

“We want to push the pace, play aggressive,” Darche said. “ . . . We’ll try to build a team with some good skating players.”

The GM had already made a trade earlier in the day, getting two more first-round picks, No. 16 and 17, along with wing Emil Heineman, from Montreal in exchange for defenseman Noah Dobson.

But Darche knew he wasn’t going to send that top overall pick anywhere.

“It would take something to knock my socks off and my socks are on tight right now,” he told the crowd. “So I don’t expect that to happen.

“We’re really excited. It’s a great way to start. We’re going to have a franchise player that’s going to be with us for years.”

Later on, that franchise player appeared on the videoboards. Schaefer did a Q&A from L.A. with actor and lifelong Islanders fan Kevin Connolly.

And the newest Islander knew exactly what to say to the fans at UBS: “We’re going to beat the Rangers every time we play them.”