The Florida Panthers toyed with using a few of their picks Thursday to try to move up in the second round of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft.
It turns out, they didn’t have to.
“There were a couple of situations where we tried to move up, but ended up getting the player anyway,” general manager Bill Zito told reporters after the NHL Entry Draft wrapped up in Nashville. “It was great.”
With only five picks in this NHL Draft and only one in the first three rounds, the Panthers didn’t want to give away too many chances to find some late-round steals or depth. Without any first-round picks in either of the last two years or possession of another until 2026, Florida also, however, felt the need to grab a high-level player in Round 2 this week.
The Panthers took a calculated risk and hoped some of the players they liked would fall to their Draft position and it worked out. Florida, Zito said, locked in on Canadian center Gracyn Sawchyn as a player it wanted, balked at chances to trade up to ensure it would get him and wound up with the 18-year-old center falling to the Panthers with penultimate pick of the second, anyway.
The 5-foot-11, 155-pound Canadian was one of the more polarizing prospects of this Draft — EliteProspects.com, for example, had him all the way up at No. 13 in its rankings, while The Hockey News placed him at No. 90 — and a swing like this is what the Panthers needed to add some top-end talent after trading away so many high picks to chase a Stanley Cup.
Florida didn’t have first- or second-round picks in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft, and don’t currently have first- or second-round picks in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, either. This was the Panthers’ best chance to find a future star in a three-year window and Sawchyn, at least in some scouts’ and analysts’ opinions, has elite potential.
Last season, Sawchyn helped the Seattle Thunderbirds win the Western Hockey League by scoring 18 goals and handing out 40 assists in 58 games in the regular season, then adding three more goals and 10 more assists in 18 games in the playoffs. He was the youngest Thunderbird to average at least a point per game in at least 30 games.
The forward said he models his game a bit on superstar right wing Matthew Tkachuk’s, with a similar blend of playmaking and fearlessness.
“Sawchyn’s game is not a complex one. He sprints hard after the puck, and if he can’t outright win the race, he tries to win the ensuing battle, then, he looks for a teammate,” said EliteProspects’ scouting report. “If the pass isn’t available, he drives inside without much concern for his safety.”
Even though Florida didn’t pick until the end of Round 2, Sawchyn felt like he was going to wind up with the Panthers, who clearly value much of what he brings, given Tkachuk’s success last year in his debut season in South Florida.
“We just had good talks. I felt like we connected personally, not just through hockey,” Sawchyn told reporters at Bridgestone Arena after getting picked. “I bring a lot of skill, along with a lot of compete and grit. I think that’s a big thing that separates me from other players is that grit.”
The Panthers went into the day with five picks — one each in second, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh rounds — and made all of them.
They took Sawchyn at No. 63 overall in Round 2, Swedish defenseman Albert Wikman at No. 127 in Round 4, Swedish goaltender Olof Glifford at No. 159 in Round 5, Canadian defenseman Luke Coughlin at No. 191 in Round 6 and Russian right wing Stepan Zvyagin at No. 198 in Round 7.
For the second straight year, the Panthers did not have a first-round pick after trading it to the Canadiens last year for defenseman Ben Chiarot — now with the Red Wings — and also traded away their third- and seventh-round picks in past deals, but got a seventh-round pick back from the Coyotes in a separate trade.
The lack of first-round picks is something Florida is getting used to. The Panthers, as of now, won’t have another first-round pick until at least 2026, so it was paramount to find value and high-end ability in the later rounds of the Draft. They did it with Sawchyn and they did all the way into the seventh, when they Zvyagin.
The 19-year-old winger has multiple years left on his deal with Dinamo Minsk of Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League, Zito said, and Zito believes it’s part of why he fell all the way to the seventh and final round.
