After a monster World Championship, Panthers prospect Lundell is coming to ‘take a spot’
Anton Lundell is having one of the best years of any hockey player not yet in the NHL. Now he’s ready to give the Florida Panthers a needed boost.
The 19-year-old forward is slated to join the Panthers for the 2021-22 NHL season after signing an entry-level deal Monday and he’s coming to Florida to earn an NHL roster spot — and maybe more.
“There’s a lot of good players and my goal is to take a spot on the roster,” Lundell said. “That’s the first step: to show the coaches that I’m ready to play in the NHL next season.”
Ever since the Panthers took him with the No. 12 overall pick in the first round of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, Lundell has looked ready to play at the sport’s highest level.
The center scored 25 points in 26 games — 16 goals and nine assists — for Finland’s HIFK in the 2020-21 Liiga season. He won a bronze medal and finished third in the tournament in scoring at the 2021 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in Edmonton. In the last month, he hit another height: In 10 games at the 2021 IIHF World Championship, Lundell scored seven points to lead Finland as it won a silver medal.
While Lundell was on his run, general manager Bill Zito joked he would “go get him myself” to make sure Lundell was in South Florida in time for training camp. On the day after the tournament ended, Lundell officially signed a three-year contract with the Panthers and expects to arrive in Florida in August to be ready for training camp.
After another first-round exit from the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs last month, the Panthers are ready to give Lundell a chance to compete for a major role.
“Anton is a cerebral, skilled and dynamic young player who continuously established himself in Finland’s top league and played a pivotal role on Finland’s national teams at all levels,” Zito said in a statement Monday. “Anton’s maturity, compete level and sound two-way ability are exciting qualities to add to our organization. We are thrilled to have signed Anton and look forward to his future with the Florida Panthers for years to come.”
Lundell is the No. 22 prospect in the NHL, according to ESPN.com, and a potential answer as a second- or third-line center with forwards Sam Bennett and Alex Wennberg both headed for free agency in the offseason.
Lundell, who won’t turn 20 until October and said he models his game off former Detroit Red Wings center Pavel Datsyuk, feels the experience at the IIHF World Championship this spring helped get him ready for the NHL.
“It was a really good tournament and a lot of good players,” Lundell said. “Many of them have played in the NHL for a long, long time and it was really good to see. I played my own game, my own strengths on the ice, so it was good to see I’ve done something right.
“I could show everybody that I can play on a good level every game and, of course, my goal is to help my team to win games and we won a lot of games.”
While Zito has expressed interest in locking up Bennett long-term, Wennberg is an unrestricted free agent, who could be tougher to keep around after he set a new career-high in goals. Bennett finished the year as Florida’s No. 2 center — although he can also play either wing spot — and Wennberg finished the season on the third line, with forward Noel Acciari rounding out the roster as the fourth-line center. It’s possible the Panthers could wind up with two Finnish centers anchoring their top two lines.
Lundell said he was getting messages from Aleksander Barkov throughout the World Championship, and he’s looking forward to joining the star center after growing up watching him in the Liiga and NHL.
After the last year, he’s appears ready to play alongside him. The COVID-19 shutdown last year gave Lundell time to focus on his body, and he came back faster and stronger last season, and his points per game jumped from 0.64 to 0.96.
“It was a really long summer and I trained with my summer coaches here in Finland and we worked really hard a long time,” Lundell said. “I think that was the key for this season. I was in good shape and I think I did get more muscle, and it helped me in the game and I was stronger, faster. I had more confidence and it was really good to see that hard work pays off.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2021 at 2:55 PM.
