You asked for a trade, you got it. The Florida Panthers sent their 2013 7th round pick to the Dallas Stars for upcoming 194th overall 7th round pick, which they used to take Swedish defenseman Jonatan Nielsen. The towering 6’3″, 183 pound defender scored 5 goals and 4 assists in 38 games with Linkoping Jr in the Swedish Juniors.
There isn’t much out there on Nielsen, but it appears he was eligible for drafting last season and wasn’t picked(final international skater ranking at #83). For Dale to swing the trade, he likely had a good report on Neilsen and wanted to take a little risk to draft him. Again, just adding to organizational depth on the blueline.
Altogether the Panthers drafted five new players:
- 1st rd (23) Michael Matheson (Defense, Dubuque-USHL)
- 3rd rd (84) Steven Hodges (Center, Victoria-WHL)
- 3th rd (114) Alexander Delnov (Left Wing, Mytischi-Russia Jr)
- 6th rd (174) Francis Beauvillier (C/LW, Rimouski-QMJHL)
- 7th rd (194) Jonatan Nielsen (Defense, Linkoping Jr-Sweden Jr)/
Second-round pick was deferred to Philadelphia (then to Tampa Bay) from the Kris Versteeg trade last summer.