Six years ago, the Florida Panthers acquired two-time Stanley Cup champion Patric Hörnqvist from the Pittsburgh Penguins. At 34, he was on the back end of his 15-year career, but brought invaluable leadership to a team that was just on the cusp of reaching the Stanley Cup Final in 2023. In the deal, the Panthers traded away defenseman Mike Matheson and forward Colton Sceviour.
Panthers gain a veteran presence
Hörnqvist is in an exclusive club, being the only last-pick in an NHL Draft to win multiple Stanley Cups. The Nashville Predators selected the native of Sollentuna, Sweden, with the 230th pick in the 2007 Draft. He’d go on to debut during the 2008-09 season and would go on to score 30 goals in his first full season in 2009-10, finishing with 51 points.
Outside of the 2012-13 season, when Hörnqvist played only 24 games, he scored at least 20 goals in every campaign with the Predators. He departed the organization via a trade with Nick Spaling to the Pittsburgh Penguins for James Neal on June 27, 2014.
Before landing in the Steel City, Hörnqvist played only 24 playoff games and added another five during his first season with the Penguins, who lost in the first round of the 2014-15 playoffs. However, over the next two seasons, Pittsburgh captured back-to-back titles, giving the then-30-year-old Hörnqvist his two rings.
In the regular season, Hörnqvist continued to pile up the goals, reaching the 20-goal plateau in his first four seasons, with a high of 29 in 2017-18. During his final two seasons with the Penguins, he tallied 18 and 17, leaving the club with exactly 132 goals and 132 assists in 407 games.
Unfortunately, injuries slowed him down in his mid-30s, and he skated in only 252 games over the final five years of his career, totaling 132 points with 61 goals and 71 assists. In three seasons with the Panthers, Hörnqvist served as an alternate captain, a role he also had with the Penguins at various times during his tenure.
After just 22 games during the 2022-23 season, Hörnqvist announced his retirement on July 6, 2023, a few weeks after cheering the Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final.
Panthers deal away former first-round defenseman
Matheson was the Panthers' top pick in the 2012 Draft, 23rd overall. He'd debut at 21 during the 2015-16 season and play just three games before becoming a regular the next season. Over five seasons with Florida, Matheson played 299 games, scoring 33 goals and 91 points, but finished minus-31. Overall, he collected a single assist in seven playoff games with the Panthers before the trade to Pittsburgh, where he scored his first career postseason goal during the 2021-22 campaign.
After two seasons in Pittsburgh, Matheson was traded to the Montreal Canadiens along with a fourth-round pick in 2023 for Jeff Petry and Ryan Poehling.
Meanwhile, Sceviour, initially drafted by the Dallas Stars 112th overall in the 2007 Draft, played five years with the club before coming to Florida as a free agent on July 1, 2016. Over four seasons with the Panthers, he tallied 31 goals and 79 points in 284 games, including his only NHL hat trick on October 30, 2016, against the Detroit Red Wings. Sceviour would play 46 games with the Penguins before signing with the Edmonton Oilers as a free agent for the 2021-22 season, playing his last NHL game on March 9, 2022.
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