George Richards, FHN Publisher
MacKenzie Weegar vividly remembers being one of the last groups of people remaining in the lower bowl of Newark’s Prudential Center as the 2013 NHL Draft was finishing up.
The seventh round of the draft was wrapping up so Weegar decided the day had been long enough.
“We had been there four hours already,” Weegar recalled on Monday. “It was time to go. There were only five or six picks left. It just wasn’t going to happen.”
Then an announcement came from the podium: The Florida Panthers, who did not have a pick in that seventh round, had traded back into the draft by making a deal with Montreal.
“I said, ‘wait a second.’ I figured that, right there, was my last chance,” Weegar said.
It was not a headline-making trade, Florida swapping seventh-round picks with Montreal to get back into the draft.
Only it turned out to be a big deal to MacKenzie Weegar. It was a pretty good trade for the Panthers as well.
Weegar did not have to wait long after that to hear the Panthers call out his name setting off a celebration in the stands.
Soon, Weegar made his way to the draft floor where the Panthers had one more game jersey in their possession.
Weegar slipped it on over his dress shirt, shook hands with the Panthers’ brass including GM Dale Tallon and coach Kevin Dineen then posed for pictures.
“It was weird,” Weegar said. “My mom was screaming in the stands and everyone heard us because we were the only ones left.”
It turned out to be a pretty good day — for the Weegar family as well as the Panthers.
Florida got itself a pretty good player when they took the defenseman from the Halifax Mooseheads of the QJMHL.
“I think, just knowing the Panthers traded back in to get that pick and took me, made it a little more special than just being a seventh-round pick if that makes any sense,” Weegar said.
“They went out of their way to come and get me.”
In one week, the second day of the 2020 NHL Draft will be held remotely and every team in the league is hoping to find a player such as Weegar in the later rounds.
Weegar came within six picks of not being drafted — he was taken 206th overall in 2013 — yet thanks to the insistence of scout Paul Gallagher who had watched Weegar play numerous times, Weegar found a home with the Panthers.
A breakfast meeting with Gallagher was Weegar’s one and only interaction with the Panthers. He remembered that meeting when he heard Florida had worked its way back into the 2013 draft.
The two had hit it off. If Weegar was going to be drafted, he recalls, it was going to be by the Panthers.
He was right.
“I owe a lot to him,” Weegar said. “He saw something in me and I will always appreciate that. I was a diamond in the rough, I guess.’’
Not long after that draft, Weegar was in South Florida for his first development camp where he was introduced not only to folks with the organization, but players he would (for the most part) grow up with through the years.
Part of that group was Josh Brown, a fellow defenseman who was taken in the sixth round not long before Weegar was selected.
The two are now teammates with the Panthers who have their locker stalls next to one another.
“Big Brownie was a sixth-round pick and we hit it off right away, kept in touch when we went our different ways,” Weegar said.
“When we went to our first development camp, they treated me and Brownie like we were any other pick. Dale treated us great, so did Brian Skrudland and Kevin Dineen.
“We felt like little boys with all these big boys and it was an eye-opener. Those early development camps were great. I kind of miss those days actually.”
Said Brown: “We developed a pretty strong friendship. We kind of looked at ourselves as the misfits, guys from the end of the draft. We grew pretty close over the years.”
Just a year after being close to being undrafted, Weegar turned pro and joined the Panthers’ AHL team in San Antonio where he split time with the ECHL Cincinnati Cyclones.
After three minor league seasons, Weegar made his NHL debut for Florida at the end of the 2016-17 playing for Tom Rowe, his old AHL coach who he gives a lot of credit for his development.
”Tom Rowe always used to tell me ‘don’t be satisfied with where you’re at’ as a player,” Weegar said. “I always want to be better, want to help the Florida Panthers win a championship. We win the Stanley Cup and I’ll be satisfied.”
Today, Weegar has played in 172 NHL games and is considered a top-four defenseman in the league and has, of late, been on Florida’s top pairing with Aaron Ekblad.
Ekblad’s draft story, of course, is much different than that of Weegar.
A year after Weegar was taken in the seventh round, Florida took Ekblad with the top overall selection at the 2014 draft in Philadelphia.
There was no doubt Ekblad was going to be the top pick of that draft. The only question was whether Tallon would keep the top pick or trade it. But that’s a story for another day.
While Weegar didn’t have the media crush which descended on Ekblad, being one of the few players still in the building when the seventh round rolled around put him in demand.
“I am very thankful and happy I went to Florida,’’ said Weegar, who was the fourth defenseman taken by the Panthers in 2013. Only he and Brown (sixth round, 152nd overall) played in the NHL last season.
“I was the only guy underneath the arena so people wanted to talk to me. I got interviewed, they took my picture. It was sort of surreal. I got my draft day moment and right then it didn’t matter if I went in the first round or the seventh.”
Weegar is currently a restricted free agent with GM Bill Zito saying the Panthers are currently reviewing their options including another potential trip to arbitration.
On Monday, Weegar said he knows Zito is busy with draft prep and that the RFA stuff “will take care of itself.”
“I don’t want to say too many good things about him,’’ Tallon joked in November, “because he’s going to cost us a lot of money. He is one hell of a seventh round pick.’’
Weegar says he would like nothing more than to get a long-term deal from Florida and remain with the Panthers.
We’ll see what happens.
“I have been with the organization for eight years now so this is home for me,” Weegar said. “I don’t know what it would feel like if I had to leave Florida and I don’t want to find out. I want to remain a Florida Panther as long as I possibly can and I tell that to everyone.
“I truly do love it here, I love the team and we have a bright future. Hopefully this remains the case.”
Florida Panthers Draft Class of 2013
C SASHA BARKOV
Selected: First round, second overall
Age, hometown: 18; Tampere, Finland
Height, weight: 6-3, 210
Then: Rated the top European skater, Barkov has excelled playing professionally in Finland the past two seasons and finished second in scoring for Tappara this past year. Barkov, fluent in English, Russian and Finnish, is a big center with good hands and good size. Barkov is expected to play for the Panthers in 2013-14 after becoming the second-highest draft pick in franchise history.
Now: This pick certainly paid off. Barkov did indeed play for the Panthers as a rookie and has evolved into one of the top two-way centers in the NHL. Named team captain in 2018, Barkov set the franchise record for points in a single season with 96 last year.
D IAN McCOSHEN
Selected: Second round, 31st overall
Age, hometown: 17; Anaheim, Ca.
Height, weight: 6-3, 205
Then: Headed to Boston College in the fall, McCoshen had 11 goals and 33 assists for Waterloo, Iowa, of the USHL last year.
Now: Played in 60 games with the Panthers between 2016-19 and scored four goals with seven points. After not making the team out of training camp in 2019, McCoshen was traded to Chicago for Aleksi Saarela in October and he spent this past season playing at AHL Rockford.
G EVAN COWLEY
Selected: Fourth round, 92nd overall
Age, hometown: 17; Cranbrook, British Columbia
Height, weight: 6-3, 180
Then: Cowley went 22-24-4 with a 2.90 GAA for Wichita Falls, Tex., of the NAHL last year. Considered a raw talent, Cowley will continue the Panthers’ pipeline at the University of Denver.
Now: After four seasons at Denver, Crowley went pro and spent the 2017-18 season playing for Florida’s minor league teams. Crowley did not play last season but is signed in Denmark for this coming season.
D MICHAEL DOWNING
Selected: Fourth round, 97th overall
Age, hometown: 18; Canton, Mich.
Height, weight: 6-2, 190
Then: Downing is a shutdown defender who is headed to Michigan next season.
Now: Left Michigan after his junior year and spent three seasons in the Florida minor league system. Downing has spent parts of the past two seasons with the ECHL Florida Everblades in Estero where he is signed for the 2020-21 campaign.
C MATT BUCKLES
Selected: Fourth round, 98th overall
Age, hometown: 18; Toronto, Ontario
Height, weight: 6-1, 205
Then: Scouts like Buckles for his playmaking ability as well as his nose for goals. Buckles, headed to Cornell, had 40 goals in juniors last year.
Now: Played four seasons at Cornell where he scored 29 goals. He split the 2017-18 season playing for Florida’s minor league teams in Springfield and Manchester.
F CHRIS CLAPPERTON
Selected: Fifth round, 122nd overall
Age, hometown: 19; Cap-d’Espoir, Quebec
Height, weight: 5-9, 175
Then: Clapperton led the Blainville Boisbriand Armada (QMJHL) last season with 34 goals; he added 43 assists.
Now: Played four seasons at the University of New Brunswick and then went pro. Spent last season playing in the AHL and ECHL.
D JOSH BROWN
Selected: Sixth round, 152nd overall
Age, hometown: 19; London, Ontario
Height, weight: 6-3, 180
Then: Another strong stay-home defenseman, Brown had 16 points and 79 penalty minutes for the Oshawa Generals last year.
Now: Went pro in 2015 and made his NHL debut with the Panthers in 2018. Spent all of last season with the Panthers where he played in 56 games — and played in Games 3 and 4 against the Islanders in the qualifier series. Has four goals and 10 points in 96 NHL games with Florida.
D MacKENZIE WEEGAR
Selected: Seventh round, 206th overall
Age, hometown: 19; Napean, Ontario
Height, weight: 6-3, 180
Then: Weegar played in 62 games alongside top draft picks Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin for the Memorial Cup champ Halifax Mooseheads.
Now: Split time with Florida’s AHL and ECHL teams after going pro in 2014 and played for the Panthers’ AHL teams in San Antonio, Portland and Springfield before becoming a full-time NHL player during the 2017-18 season. Had a career-high seven goals with 18 points in 45 games last year; has played in a total of 172 NHL games with the Panthers, scoring 13 goals with 41 points.