{"id":20794,"date":"2025-06-28T03:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T03:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/20794\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T03:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T03:36:09","slug":"islanders-draft-victor-eklund-kashawn-aitcheson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/20794\/","title":{"rendered":"Islanders draft Victor Eklund, Kashawn Aitcheson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES \u2014 The <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/06\/27\/sports\/islanders-trade-noah-dobson-to-canadiens-in-pre-draft-shakeup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Noah Dobson trade<\/a> didn\u2019t net the Islanders James Hagens, but they ended up with two high-end prospects in addition to Matthew Schaefer.<\/p>\n<p>The Islanders used the 16th and 17th picks on Swedish wing Victor Eklund and OHL defenseman Kashawn Aitcheson, netting a pair of players who were widely anticipated to go well before the middle of the first round.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.40082079;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"36376075\" width=\"826\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-2193051604.jpg\" alt=\"Victor Eklund #18 of Team Sweden skates in the second period against Team Finland of the semifinal match during the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship at Canadian Tire Centre on January 4, 2025 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.\" class=\"wp-image-36376075\"  \/>Victor Eklund #18 of Team Sweden skates in the second period against Team Finland of the semifinal match during the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship at Canadian Tire Centre on January 4, 2025 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s pretty nice to get drafted, especially in the first round,\u201d Eklund said. \u201cDidn\u2019t really care what pick. The biggest thing is the team and the organization. And I\u2019m pretty happy this was the case, because I feel like the New York Islanders [are] a very, very good organization.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 18-year-old Eklund will play next season in the SHL with Djurg\u00e5rdens IF after helping the club gain promotion from the second division in Sweden.<\/p>\n<p>He accumulated 31 points (19 goals, 12 assists) in 42 games and was linemates with third overall selection Anton Frondell, who is also a close friend.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"36376141\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-2187210261.jpg\" alt=\"Kashawn Aitcheson #77 of Team CHL gets ready to pass the puck during CHL USA Prospects game between USA and CHL at Canada Life Place on November 26, 2024 in London, Ontario, Canada. \" class=\"wp-image-36376141\"  \/>Kashawn Aitcheson #77 of Team CHL gets ready to pass the puck during CHL USA Prospects game between USA and CHL at Canada Life Place on November 26, 2024 in London, Ontario, Canada.  Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Aitcheson, a Toronto native, had 59 points (26 goals, 33 assists) in 64 games with the Barrie Colts.<\/p>\n<p>He is generally described as a hard-hitting defenseman, with Jacob Trouba as a comparable but with more offense to his game than the former Rangers captain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m a two-way defenseman that will go against the other team\u2019s top lines, be in their faces, get under people\u2019s skin and mix it up,\u201d Aitcheson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 The Noah Dobson trade didn\u2019t net the Islanders James Hagens, but they ended up with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[1301,293,8993,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-20794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-new-york-islanders","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-nhl-draft","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114758902640707822","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}