Some interesting news out of Seattle today as the Kraken announced the hiring of Dave Hakstol to be their first head coach.
You guys might remember him from his (rough) time with the Flyers. For more on that news, head over to Sean Maloughney’s blog on the HB home page.
I think the hiring has surprised a lot of the hockey world because many people believed Rick Tocchet was going to be the guy - other rumors even had Q breaking his contract to head there.
Either way, that’s the big news in the NHL today. But that’s Seattle’s “on this day.” Let’s look at Florida’s “on this day,” shall we…
If you can believe it, it’s already been 10 years since the Panthers drafted Jonathan Huberdeau with the #3 pick of the 2011 Entry Level Draft.
It’s cool to go back and see the guys taken that year. Here’s the top 10:
1. Ryan Nugent Hopkins (C) - EDM
2. Gabriel Landeskog (LW) - COL
3. Jonathan Huberdeau (C) - FLA (he must have been listed as a center at this point in his career)
5. Adam Larson (D) - NJ
6. Ryan Strome (C) - NYI
7. Mika Zibanejad (C) - OTT
7. Mark Scheifele (C) - WIN
8. Sean Couturier (C) - PHI (from CBJ)
9. Doggie Hamilton (D) - BOS (from TOR)
10. Jonas Borodin (D) - MIN
Wow - a serious mix of centers and defensemen that year…I was surprised to see Landeskog in that draft. For some reason I thought he was younger.
Looking at that list, I’m glad the Cats nabbed Huby.
And if you throw the Dolorean even further back in time to 21 years, you’ll see this trade happened on today’s date in 2000:
Kvasha was drafted by Florida in 1996. In two season with the cats (1998-00) he played 146 games and had a total of 50 points (17G, 33A). After the trade, he spent four seasons with the Islanders before heading to the KHL, coming back to the NHL briefly with NYI and PHX in the 05-06 season, before heading back to the K.
Parrish spent two seasons with the Cats (1998-00) where he split time with the big club and the New Haven Beast of the AHL (2 games). Do yourself a favor and lookup that logo…
Anyways, in his time with Florida, he played 154 games and notched 81 points (50G, 31A) - not bad. He then spent five seasons with the Islanders, a season with the Kings, two with Minnesota and then a few other NHL clubs where he was up and down between them and their AHL affiliates.
Luongo and Jokinen ended up having OK careers with Florida…they even made
#1 on this list of Milbury’s worst trades.
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Stay cool, cats!
Go Panthers!
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