Put it in the books. The 2014 NHL Entry Draft is over and the Panthers did what will hopefully turn out in retrospect to have done the sensible thing, holding on to the first overall pick and selecting the consensus best player, defenseman Aaron Ekblad. The Cats stayed fairly quiet the rest of the draft, making one trade with the Islanders to pick up a third-round pick, and not going off the board until late.
Here are the Panthers’ picks, with links to our coverage of each:
Trade: Third-round pick in 2015 for pick 65.
Overall, I’ll give the Panthers good marks for this draft. The most important thing was to not screw up the first overall pick by making a bad trade, then spending the next ten years regretting taking a pass on Ekblad. The kid is as close to a sure thing as one gets in the draft, and could step in as early as next season. The Panthers are building a good, young team and Ekblad should be a big part of the core.
The remaining picks aren’t too far in left field, as far as I can tell. I look forward to seeing what Tallon and Company do in the next couple weeks with free agency, but I think the off-season is off to a good start.
How did the Panthers’ brass do at this year’s draft?
| Great! We got Ekblad and that’s all I care about. | 51 |
| Decent enough. We got Ekblad, but they passed on someone else I really liked. | 42 |
| OK. I would have liked them to have been more aggressive and made more moves. | 23 |
| Lousy. The trades they passed up would have helped the team win now. | 2 |
| How should I know? The jury will be out on these kids until 2025. | 16 |