Florida Panthers Prospect Profile: Dryden Hunt
The Florida Panthers signing of this young sniper went kind of under the radar last season, the Springfield Thunderbird rookie shows promise for the future. He went undrafted but put up huge numbers in final WHL season in 2015-16, 58 goals and 58 assists!!
Dryden Hunt
Left Wing — shoots L
Born Nov 24 1995 — Nelson, BC
Height 6′ — Weight 201 lbs–Springfield Thunderbirds — 61 GP,11 G,16 A, 27 PTS
In March of 2016 the Panthers inked the youngster to an entry-level contract, in the midst of his best season in his WHL career with the Moose Jaw Warriors. Posting 116 total points, he also had an impressive five hat tricks in eight games and went on to have seven goals and nine assists in ten playoff games.
Dryden Hunt scored 3 goals last weekend. This was his most important. #SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/Y0sndeMEnZ
— Springfield Thunderbirds (@ThunderbirdsAHL) February 28, 2017
Hunt however has struggled through some adversity in his young career. The 2012-13 season he was sidelined in all but two games due to suffering two concussions, between a preseason game and the second game of his return to the Regina Pats that season. Add another minor one in 2014 and his size, you see that it played a big part in him going undrafted. He doesn’t let it affect him at all, he actually said he uses it as motivation.
Friday: #FlaPanthers Dryden Hunt scored his 5th goal of the season for @thunderbirdsahl on the power play...sweet shot: pic.twitter.com/3btAjkNM3j
— Panthers Prospects (@fla_prospects) December 12, 2016
His shot is definitely NHL ready but he knows he’ll need develop a better two-way game in order to be an NHL ready. As is the case for many prospects when transitioning from juniors, to AHL/NHL play. He should have ample time to come to his own down in the AHL before taking the next step, on top of a lethal shot he also boasts some good playmaking ability.
He got off to a quick start with the Springfield Thunderbirds this season scoring the first ever T-Birds goal and in twelve games racking up 3 goals and 3 assists. Since then his scoring hasn’t been very consistent, which isn’t anything to worry about specifically. He’s still learning the game at the AHL level and should have a much more productive season in 2017-18.
Hunt posts great potential to be a middle six scorer in the future for the Florida Panthers. Many of us will be excited to see him at camp this upcoming season and a few others of course. He impressed last year so it’ll be interesting to see his improvements first hand after a season of AHL play.