Panthers Prospects
Florida Panthers Prospects: Sourdif, Schwindt shine to end October
As the calendar shifted to November, another month has passed for the prospects in the Florida Panthers system.
The biggest impact this week came from 2020 third-round pick Justin Sourdif of the WHL’s Vancouver Giants.
Playing in just one game this week — a 7-2 win against the Kelowna Rockets — Sourdif had two goals and two assists.
His goals both came on special teams, with one of them being on the power play and another one coming on the penalty kill.
Sourdif has been one of the WHL’s top players through the first month of the season, tying for 27th in points (11) and 30th in assists (seven) through his first six games despite playing four fewer games than the league’s leading scorer.
He also leads the Giants in assists and points.
Over the first month of the season, Sourdif has developed into a solid defensive forward who can play big minutes on the penalty kill. He’s able to break up passing lanes and turn them into offensive chances, much like Sasha Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau have for the Panthers this season.
It seems like Florida’s bread-and-butter as of late has been finding defensive forwards.
Just look at the emergence of Anton Lundell (drafted in 2020) and Eetu Luostarinen (acquired in Vincent Trocheck trade). Sourdif looks similar.
CHECKERS UPDATE
The Panthers’ AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, went 1-2-0 over the weekend in a trip to New England, with Cole Schwindt leading the charge.
After having no points through the first four games of the season, Schwindt had his best week so far, scoring two goals and an assist — including a goal and an assist in the Checkers’ 3-2 win over the Hartford Wolfpack on Saturday.
Maxim Mamin (called up to Florida on Tuesday) shouldered a lot of Charlotte’s offense in a 4-3 loss to the Providence Bruins as well on Friday.
He had an assist on Grigori Denisenko’s beauty of a goal to open the night and finished the night with yet another goal.
Most notably, 2017 third-round pick and top defense prospect Max Gildon missed two of the three games this weekend as a healthy scratch, only playing in Friday’s game.
Another notable defenseman, Matt Kiersted, who has made appearances in the NHL this year, registered two assists and three games. Undrafted forward prospect Henry Bowlby also scored his first AHL goal on Friday.
The Checkers return to North Carolina this weekend for a back-to-back with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Satruday’s game will start at 6 p.m. while Sunday will start at 1.
Games Played | Goals | Assists | Points | |
---|---|---|---|---|
C Justin Sourdif (WHL, Vancouver Giants) | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
D Mike Benning (NCAA, University of Denver) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
C Aleksi Saarela (NL, SCL Tigers) | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
C Mackie Samoskevich (NCAA, University of Michigan) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
D Carter Berger (NCAA, University of Connecticut) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
D Tyler Inamoto (NCAA, University of Wisconsin) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
C Owen Lindmark (NCAA University of Wisconsin) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
D Braden Hache (OHL, Kingston Frontenacs) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
D Cole Krygier (NCAA, Michigan State University) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
D Kasper Puutio (Liiga, KalPa) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
D Santtu Kinnunen (Liiga, Tappara) | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
C Aleksi Heponiemi (AHL, Charlotte Checkers) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
LW Grigori Denisenko (AHL, Charlotte Checkers) | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
D Max Gildon (AHL Charlotte Checkers) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
D Lucas Carlsson (AHL, Charlotte Checkers) | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
RW Serron Noel (AHL Charlotte Checkers) | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
C Logan Hutsko (AHL, Charlotte Checkers) | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
D Matt Kiersted (AHL, Charlotte Checkers) | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
RW Cole Schwindt (AHL, Charlotte Checkers) | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
C Henry Bowlby (AHL, Charlotte Checkers) | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
LW Maxim Mamin (AHL, Charlotte Checkers) | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 |