The Florida Panthers claimed their second Stanley Cup on Tuesday bringing the 2024-25 season to a most satisfying end and 86-ing the need for a potential Game 7 on Friday.
Next up for hockey fans is the 2025 NHL Draft. The draft will be held on June 27 and June 28 and will take place at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The New York Islanders hold the first overall pick after winning the lottery and moving up nine spots. Utah won the second lottery and made a mammoth jump from fourteen to fourth overall.
Having assembled his championship caliber roster largely through trade, general manager Bill Zito isn’t slated to make his first selection until midway through the fourth round (112th overall). That pick originally belonged to the Calgary Flames and was acquired as part of the July 22, 2022 blockbuster that brought Matthew Tkachuk a lot closer to the Elbo Room.
The Panthers will make their own pick (128th overall) in the fourth round and then open the fifth round with a pick (129th overall) acquired from the San Jose Sharks in the deal that sent Anthony Duclair west and Steven Lorentz east on July 1, 2023.
Florida will close out the draft by making its own selections in the fifth round (160th overall), sixth round (192nd overall) and seventh round (224th overall).
So, what happened to the Panthers first three picks?
Their first-round pick (32nd overall) will be made by the Flames due to the aforementioned Tkachuk deal that sent Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar and Cole Schwindt to Calgary.
Florida’s second-round pick (64th overall) will go to the Toronto Maple Leafs as the result of the trade on June 29, 2024, that sent Boston’s second-round pick in 2024 to the Panthers, who selected Linus Erikkson, in exchange for it and a seventh-round pick in 2024.
The Cats third-round pick (96th overall) belongs to the Ottawa Senators as the result of the trade that sent Vladimir Tarasenko to Sunrise on March 6, 2024 in exchange for it and a conditional fourth-round pick in 2024 that was upgraded to third-rounder by Florida’s first Stanley Cup win over Edmonton.