THN Archive – Florida’s Sunshine was taking Ed Jovanovski first overall in 1994
As a rookie, Jovanovski played a big part in the Panthers reaching the 1996 Stanley Cup Final
There wasn’t a lot to know about the Florida Panthers during the summer of 1994.
Sure, they’d just completed the most successful expansion season in NHL history, but they didn’t make the playoffs and weren’t viewed as any kind of major threat in year two.
Holding the number one pick at the 1994 NHL Draft, Florida decided to select a player who personified the way the Panthers were playing hockey those days.
They selected the hard hitting, gritty and massive defenseman Ed Jovanovski.
“I like collisions,” Jovanovski said in the story. “I like to hit people.”
As we know, Florida choosing the man who’d go on to be nicknamed Jovo-cop worked out quite well for the franchise.
When he took the ice for his rookie campaign the following fall, Jovanovski helped the Panthers reach the Stanley Cup Final in just their third season.
The Hockey News dove into Florida’s selection of Jovanovski, and the picks that came immediately after, in its July 1, 1994 edition, Volume 47, Issue 38.
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