By Zackery Robert
Coming in at 13 is the spring break state, Florida. The Panthers have been around since 1993 and have what will now be 30 years of drafting history. We’ll take a look back and see just how those 30 years have gone.
For the majority of the Panthers franchise, a lot of their best picks have come within the last 15 years or so. One of those choices being current captain Alexsander Barkov, the former second overall pick was a surprise and somewhat of a disappointment to some when chosen second as people believed it should have been Seth Jones second overall instead of his eventual fourth overall placement. However Barkov has continued to show that he is one of the top centres in the league, the two way dynamo has been a threat in the league for years and has been just what the Panthers have needed for even longer. With a Lady Byng trophy and a Frank J. Selke trophy to his name Barkov is proving just how valuable he is, with 631 points in 664 games played, Barkov is poised to go down as the best Florida Panther of all time.
Up next was Barkov’s tag team partner for many years, Jonathan Huberdeau. Huberdeau was drafted third in the 2011 draft and turned out to be immensely valuable to the Panthers organisation. In 671 games Huberdeau put up an impressive 613 points. For a team that lacked a lot when it came to offence Huberdeau put up great numbers and proved his value and helped carry the team offensively with Barkov for many years.
Thirdly we will go to the 2014 draft where the Panthers were the first overall pick, and chose Aaron Ekblad. What’s important with this pick is that it helps Florida be a year in year out playoff contender which was not their usual look during the seasons before. Ekblad has been a 50 point defenseman and can definitely get there again. He has all the capabilities to be that top pair guy when healthy and he allows the Panthers to build a blue line around him. He adds strength to their blue line and with a high scoring offence and an up and coming goalie who could potentially be a top five goalie in his prime, the Panthers look to have a lot going for them in the future.
Now looking towards some of the Panthers less favourable picks in their history we will first talk about Petr Taticek. Taticek was drafted ninth overall in 2002 and his career in the NHL lasted three games with no points. After his three games stint in the 2005-2006 season Petr would leave North America in favour of European hockey in the 2006-2007 and further play his career out until his retirement in 2020.
Next to the 2007 draft where the Panthers held pick number 10. With that pick the Panthers elected to draft defender Keaton Ellerby, Ellerby was always more of a defensive defenseman but he was never able to quite hold on to a spot in the league. Ellerby played a total of 125 games for the Panthers organisation and scored a total of 17 points in that span. He spent three and a half seasons with the NHL team and 150 games for their AHL affiliate before being moved to the Winnipeg Jets for two seasons until going to play in Europe. Ellerby was drafted in 2007 which held a lot of top four or better defenseman. Ryan Mcdonagh was drafted 12th, Kevin Shattenkirk was drafted 14th, and of course PK Subban was drafted 43rd overall. Ellerby never panned out to be more than a bottom pairing player and being 10th overall, one would definitely hope for better.
Now this choice may come as a bit of a surprise but given the placement of the pick and the short tenure and production for 80% of the tenure I believe it makes sense as maybe not one of the worst but definitely not a top five worthy pick. In 1993 Rob Niedermayer was chosen fifth overall, and while he wasn’t a bad player by any means he was just not what a top five pick should be. In total he scored 459 points in 1153 games, even as a two way centre that would not necessarily be top five pick worthy. In two of his eight seasons with the Panthers Niedermayer scored 61 points in 82 in 1996 and in 1999 he scored 51 points in 82 games. Every other year he was not able to score more than 38 points and in total Niedermayer played 81 or more games in three of those eight Panther seasons. With a top five pick and choosing a centre you would expect them to turn into a first line centre and for Rob Niedermayer that wasn’t him.
The current day Florida Panthers are looking at the draft with no first round pick and with only five picks in total for the 2023 draft, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th (ARZ), it will be hard to boost their already middle of the pack prospect pool. Their top prospects would be Anton Lundell and Matthew Samoskevich. Their defence prospects look a little too thin for comfort so with their first pick on the 2023 draft which looks like it’ll be somewhere around 47-50 the Panthers should look at a player like Brady Cleveland, a big guy who can hit and move the puck will most definitely help jumpstart breakouts for their high speed offence and will add a necessary crunch to the Panthers’ backend.
For more information on the 2023 NHL Draft class be sure to pick up your copy of the comprehensive DraftPro 2023 NHL Draft Guide.