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Florida Panthers first fourth-round selection in 2019 took a long and winding road to Sunrise

When, or better yet if, the Florida Panthers step to the podium and the make the 104th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft next Saturday, it will complete quite the trek for that particular fourth-rounder.

That selection has been traded a total of five times and belonged to four other franchises, one twice, before the Cats acquired it on February 1, 2019.

Let’s take a look back and follow the long and winding journey the pick made before ending up in the welcoming hands of general manager Dale Tallon.

The 104th pick in 2019 originally belonged to the Minnesota Wild.  On February 26, 2017 the Wild packaged it conditionally with prospect Grayson Downing, a first-round pick in 2017, a second-round pick in 2018 and sent it to the Arizona Coyotes for Martin Hanzal, Ryan White and a fourth-round pick in 2017. The condition – Arizona will receive a fourth-round pick in 2019 if Minnesota does not advance past the First Round of the 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs – was met on April 22, 2017.

The pick didn’t stay with the Coyotes organization too long. On December 19. 2017 the Pittsburgh Penguins took possession of the pick, and goaltender Michael Leighton, sending Josh Archibald, Sean Maguire and a sixth-round pick in 2019 to the Desert Dogs.

On that same day, the Penguins flipped the selection to the Dallas Stars for defenseman Jamie Oleksiak.

In a rather curious move a little over a year later, January 28, 2019 to be exact, the two clubs reversed the terms of the trade with Oleksiak going back to Big D and the 104th pick returning to the Steel City.

The final trade, to date, involving the pick was made on February 1, 2019, when Florida sent centers Nick Bjugstad and Jared McCann to the playoff-bound Penguins in exchange for Derick Brassard, Riley Sheahan, a second and two fourth-round picks both in 2019 – the 104th overall selection which originally belonged to Minnesota and Pittsburgh’s own pick.

The trade with the Penguins gives the Panthers a total of three fourth-rounders next week. Florida will makes selections at 104th overall, their own at 106th overall and Pittsburgh’s former pick at 114th overall.

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