Just because Florida only has five picks in the 2023 NHL Draft doesn't mean they can't find value at those spots
The Florida Panthers enter the 2023 NHL Draft with only a handful of picks in their possession.
It’s a casualty of using draft capital in attempt to better the team for a run at the Stanley Cup.
Florida is set up nicely at the NHL level with a strong foundation of 20-somethings that should keep the team in Cup contention for the foreseeable future.
For this week’s draft, however, the Cats have only five selections to make, and none in the first or third rounds.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t value to be found outside of the top picks and prospects, and it doesn’t mean Florida won’t consider trading up if the right situation presents itself.
“Wherever you pick, you always try to find the best value and try to find the best player you can,” Panthers General Manager Bill Zito said in the days leading up to the draft. “The moving up part is probably a draft day function in this instance, where if we have somebody who have rated very, very high and they're slipping, they're slipping, they're slipping…I don't know if he's going to get into the to the 60s…maybe we do give something up, because this is too valuable to pass up here.”
At the end of the day, you can’t predict what other teams are going to do, particularly in the time during the draft and free agency.
Being prepared and ready to handle whatever situation may come your way is part of why Zito has been able to find so much success during his tenure with the Panthers.
“There could always be trades, you never know until that phone rings,” Zito said. “About a year ago it kind of happened (with the Matthew Tkachuk trade). And so, you don't know what could happen, and maybe we do end up with a first-round pick or two. You just don't know.”
It’s hard to see the Panthers making a deal for picks over players considering the team is more in ‘win-now’ mode than they are in ‘looking to add futures’ mode, but as Zito has shown, he’ll engage in any potential discussion if he and his staff believe it will be for the best of the team.
Should Florida hang on to their five picks, it might be easy to dismiss interest considering where they fall in the big picture of the massive draft, but as history has shown, there are some solid NHL players that have been found in the mid-to-late rounds.
Let’s take a look back and explore some of the Panthers past selections in the same area of their five picks this year.
Notable Panthers second-round picks
1993 – Kevin Weekes (2-41)
1994 – Rhett Warrener (2-27)
1997 – Kristian Huselius (2-47)
2004 – David Booth (2-53)
2008 – Jacob Markstrom (2-31)
2010 – Alex Petrovic (2-36)
2011 – Rocco Grimaldi (2-33)
2017 – Aleksi Heponiemi (2-40)
Notable Panthers picks around No. 63
2011 – Vincent Trocheck (3-64)
1996 – Oleg Kvasha (3-65)
2014 – Juho Lammikko (3-65)
2002 – Gregory Campbell (3-67)
1999 – Niklas Hagman (3-70)
2007 – Evgeny Dadonov (3-71)
Notable Panthers picks around No. 127
2010 – Zach Hyman (5-123)
Notable Panthers picks around No. 159
1995 – Peter Worrell (7-166)
Notable Panthers picks around No. 191 and 198
2008 – Matt Bartkowski (7-190)
1995 – Filip Kuba (8-192)
2013 – MacKenzie Weegar (7-206)
2020 – Devon Levi (7-212)