Huberdeau played 10 seasons with the Panthers before a trade two summers ago sent him to Calgary

The past two years have gone very differently for the Florida Panthers and their former star forward Jonathan Huberdeau.

It was almost exactly two years ago, on July 22, 2022, that Panthers General Manager Bill Zito pulled the trigger on a massive trade.

Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar, along with prospect Cole Schwindt and a first-round draft pick went to the Calgary Flames in exchange for Matthew Tkachuk.

All the NHL players would sign lengthy extensions with their new teams, but the similarities stop there.

Tkachuk has helped the Panthers make back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances in the two seasons since the trade, winning the whole thing last month.

Speaking from his annual golf tournament at Le Mirage Golf Course in Terrebonne, Quebec on Monday, Huberdeau expressed joy for his former teammates who he went to battle with for the first decade of his career.

“I’m happy for the guys, they worked hard,” Huberdeau said in French to Guillaume Lefrancois of La Presse. “(Sasha) Barkov, I was with him for years, he works so hard. Aaron Ekblad, Sam Bennett also.”

While things have gone swimmingly for Tkachuk and the Panthers, Calgary has not had anywhere close to that kind of success, failing to reach the playoffs both last season and this past one.

“Tkachuk arrived and, yes, he’s good, but he’s well surrounded,” Huberdeau said. “They have talent, you see it. Bill Zito did a good job of going to get guys like (Oliver) Ekman-Larson and (Dmitry) Kulikov, who weren’t doing as well elsewhere. And a good coach like Paul Maurice, it shows. I really thought they were going to win.”

Much like his new team has had difficulty finding traction, it’s been a similar struggle for Huberdeau.

After putting up career offensive numbers during his final season with Florida, racking up 30 goals and 115 points in 80 games, Huberdeau has only 27 goals and 107 points in 160 games with the Flames.

Those numbers are certainly nothing to sneeze at, but Huberdeau has yet to reach the scoring levels of any of his final five seasons in Florida.

Now, after spending ten seasons trying to lift the Panthers from a franchise mired in mediocrity to a perennial playoff team and Stanley Cup contender, he’s watching his former teammates reach the highest of highs while still having that hunger in the pit of his stomach that only a championship will quench.

With a retooled Flames squad, the 31-year-old Huberdeau is excited to make the climb again, and this time finish the job and enjoy the spoils that come with it.

“It’s hard to watch the guys lift the Cup,” Huberdeau said. “You tell yourself, ‘I was there 10 years, during tougher times, but that’s how you build a team. When you’re young, you don’t care, you want only to build your career. Now, I’m back in that situation, but a bit older.”

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