Panthers Draft History (Part 1)

When the MRFHL heads to the draft this upcoming Thursday, it will be the 18th year that Dylan Wilson will be running the Panthers table. There’s been ups and downs through the 156 picks the team has made over the years, but in the end it has resulted in 3 cups over that time, whether those picks factored into the winning teams or were used in trades to put them over the top. From trading Jakob Chychrun to get Mark Stone that helped them win in 2022, or their first ever pick Alex Pietrangelo leading the blueline in 2013. They have over 21,000 NHL games and 10,000 points from all their picks over the years, so let’s take a look at the best (and worst) of the Panthers drafting over the years.

1st Round - Picks 1-16 (11 Picks) / 6,246 NHL Games (694 avg.)

Home Runs: Alex Pietrangelo, Matt Duchene, Tyler Seguin, Cam Fowler, Jakob Chychrun

Busts: Scott Glennie

Still in the System: Arytom Levshunov, Zayne Parekh

In 18 years the Panthers have never picked 1st overall, but have been in and around the top 5 plenty of times (4 straight years when entering the league).The top of the draft, the spot where you can’t fail, and if you do you could be set back for years to come. Luckily for Dylan, he’s had a pretty good hit rate at the top of the draft. Once you remove out the two newest picks (Parekh & Levshunov), 6 of the 9 picks have been top line players for most of their careers, but no major award winners in the bunch. Fowler, Chychrun and Pietrangelo have been top pair guys, but never really been in the Norris conversation. Seguin and Duchene have been 2nd tier stars on their teams, but maybe Lucas Raymond will be the change there.  

Ryan Strome has been solid, and likely another 1000 game player, but not the sexiest pick at the top. Timothy Liljegren might get to 500 games at the end of the day, but it’s hard to see his time in the NHL as long lasting. And the biggest whiff of all the picks, Scott Glennie, is their only 1st rounder over 18 years that’s completely out of hockey, and only has 1 NHL game to show for it…luckily they came away with two good NHLers in that same 1st round.

1st Round - Picks 17-32 (6 Picks) / 1,955 NHL Games (325 avg.)

Home Runs: Chris Kreider, Shea Theodore

Busts: Dominik Bokk

Still in the System: Shea Theodore, Jeremie Poirier

Not a surprise that the Panthers have picked far fewer times at the bottom of the 1st. If they were going to be good, they likely would move it to put them over the top. One pick that was actually used to put them over the top was picking Shea Theodore in 2013. The Panthers, having won the cup in 2013 and had the last pick in the round, aggressively traded up with Chicago to get this pick as they knew they needed to leave the draft with Shea, who has won 2 cups with the team in the years to follow, and still remains a long time Panther. Chris Kreider was another pick they zeroed in on in 2009 (the ill fated Glennie draft), who was a huge home run of a pick, and despite being traded and re-acquired 2 different times, has never played a game for the Panthers.

Connor McMichael seems to be building a good NHL resume, but was dealt away for Jake Guentzel. Jeremie Poirier was selected far earlier than expected in 2020, and still remains in the organization. The big whiff is clearly Dominik Bokk, the scoring German winger who just completely stalled out over COVID and now wastes away in the DEL after a grand total of 0 NHL games……even Zayne Parekh has passed him.

2nd Round (25 Picks) / 3,812 NHL Games (173 avg.)

Home Runs: Brock Nelson, Troy Terry

Busts: Dalton Thrower, Daniel Catenacci

Still in the System: Logan Stankoven, Brodie Ziemer

Now the fun begins! The 2010 draft ended up being a huge success with both Brock Nelson and Jon Merril early in the 2nd, two players still playing in the NHL today. Troy Terry, an overage pick in 2017, is another highlight in this round. Unfortunately the Panthers have never been able to re-create quite that level of success, until hopefully recently. They’ve picked a handful of depth guys who hung around for a couple years (Robert Hagg, Anton Lander, Eric Gelinas). Alex Vlasic and Logan Stankoven are picks in the last 6 years that are well on the road to being home runs, especially with Stankoven still in the organization. 

But oh boy there are some landmines that they could not avoid in round two! There were a lot of high hopes for Vladislav Kamenev, their first pick in 2014, who bounced around for a couple years and then headed home back to Russia. Daniel Catenacci was another pick the organization was high on, who somehow managed to get 12 games in the NHL, before disappearing to Austria and now in the latest season, England. 

If you remove 3 of the more recent picks, 20 of the 22 all at least showed up in the NHL, so let’s give some special attention to the two that didn’t. Jeremy Bracco, oh what could have been. The silky smooth passer had a massive AHL season, never got a sniff at the NHL, fell off hard the next season and then vanished to an assortment of various European leagues. Dalton Thrower is one of two that are now completely out of hockey. The defenceman played a grand total of 9 AHL games, spending the rest of his pro career in the ECHL.


PART 2 COMING NEXT WEEK