Florida Panthers: A Quick Look At The New Draft Picks

Looking ahead to the newest additions to the Florida Panthers prospect pool

The NHL Draft is a make or break time for many GMs in the league. While Florida historically has had high number picks in the draft that gave us the like of Aaron Ekblad, Lawson Crouse, Aleksander Barkov, Erik Gudbranson, and Jonathan Huberdeau this year was different. With the 23rd overall pick in the draft, the club certainly wasn’t expected to make any major waves with their pick.

Or did they?

Henrik Borgstrom became the 23rd overall pick, which nobody correctly predicted. Most expected him to be picked somewhere in the second round. Borgstrom is the type of player that is naturally gifted on the puck but needs refinement in a few areas of his game. Borgstrom’s scouting report tells a tale of a player that just needs to wait out his growth spurt to fill out his already large 6’3 and 173 pound body. His report suggested also that his lower body needed work to build power and speed to his skating.

Florida Panthers

Borgstrom most likely will develop the skill set working under the Panthers to get to the main roster, however I dont expect him to be the big star prospect that the Panthers will rely on as a star forward. I believe that honor is already well secured in Dryden Hunt, who I expect to see coming up to the roster within the next year. Borgstrom shouldn’t let that affect him, as players like Huberdeau found themselves still in junior leagues for a year before getting the main roster call. Huberdeau gained about 15 pounds once he became an NHL player and it seemed to make quite a difference in his presence on the puck.

Borgstrom could be a diamond in the rough, but only if he and the coaching staff work hard at getting him to that level.

https://twitter.com/FlaPanthers/status/752597930285105152

Florida managed to use their second round pick that they got from Vancouver during the Erik Gudbranson trade to acquire Adam Mascherin 38th overall. Mascherin’s scouting report sounds like the description you could give to a large truck with him being 5’9 and 192 pounds. He isn’t overly agile, but can power through defenders. He is praised for his ability to shoot and having the ability to dish a soft pass, and is an excellent north-south skater that is strong on the puck.

His only flaws seem to be in the defensive zone, where he just can’t seem to get his positioning right. He is considered a work in progress, which is to be expected of a second round pick.

I expect Mascherin to be a staple player on Springfields AHL roster after a year or two honing his skills further in Kitchener. While he wont see1st line play, he would make a great second or third line centre. Being a stalky individual helps on the faceoff and in the corner battles. If he does crack the main roster in the near future, I could see him taking the place of Rocco Grimaldi, who also had a shorter and stalky build.

Linus Nassen would be the Panthers third round pick coming in at 89th overall and one of three defenders the club would draft. Ranked 46th overall in the European category of the draft. His scouting report isn’t available as of this writing, but at 6′ and 172 pounds, his build suggests he is in a similar situation as Borgstrom where they would hope he can fill out his body to accommodate his larger frame. With 5 goals and 16 assists in 42 games with Lulea’s junior team as a defender, he shows some promise as far as being a two way defender.

It’s very hard to even place a guess on a player who not much is known about.  With Florida’s defensive situation, it isn’t a far stretch to guess that he will get to see his name on the back of a Panthers jersey.

Wih this year being the year that the Panthers were relying less on big name picks, its no surprise they went for mostly European players. Europeans typically go much lower in the draft as they are naturally expected to eventually leave back to their country once they have served their time in the NHL. With big risk comes big reward for some of those teams, such as St Louis drafting Vladimir Tarasenko, Detroit’s drafting of both Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk and some that were busts such as Sergei Plotnikov for Pittsburgh, or Slava Voynov for Los Angeles.

Next: Florida Panthers: Jussi Jokinen, The Next Captain

With more young and fresh faces to the lineup at development camp, it will be interesting to see who ends up where and who could make it to the main roster.