George Richards, FHN Publisher
SUNRISE — Less than a year after signing with the Florida Panthers as a free agent playing goal for a junior team in Barrie, Ontario, Mack Guzda was on an NHL roster and on NHL ice on Saturday night.
”Exciting for sure,’’ he said Saturday. “A dream come true.”
Guzda is a story in hard work, perseverance and not letting the opinion of others derail your own belief in yourself.
”I have all day for you if we are talking about Mack Guzda,” Alex Lyon, Guzda’s teammate and road roommate with the Charlotte Checkers said Saturday morning.
“I could talk for hours about that guy.’’
It certainly would have been easy for Guzda to give up on his NHL dream the first time every team in the league passed him up.
How about the second and third?
Only he did not.
After not being drafted in three consecutive drafts, Guzda played one final year of junior hockey — and his performance for the Barrie Colts certainly caught the eye of NHL teams which apparently did not think too highly of his skillset in previous years.
Guzda’s dominance last season with the Colts of the Ontario Hockey League led to a sweepstakes of sorts as he was now free to sign with any team he wanted.
There were reports he would sign with his hometown Nashville Predators; the Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins were hot for him.
Yet Guzda appreciated the way he was treated by the Florida Panthers when they invited him to development camp in 2019.
When the opportunity came to join his friend Spencer Knight and the Panthers, he signed where it “just felt right.”
“I was down there for a week,’’ Guzda said when he signed with the Panthers, describing that development camp he spent with Knight in Coral Springs.
“I wasn’t drafted or anything but they made me feel like I was part of it. I had a really close feel, everyone in the organization is real close. It just felt like a ‘Florida Panthers family’ if that makes any sense. They have a great winning culture there, they’re developing players and winning games. It’s exciting and I look forward to contributing in any way possible.”
Guzda attended his first NHL training camp with the Panthers this season, played in an exhibition game in front of family and friends in Nashville and reported to Charlotte to begin his first professional season.
In 16 games with the Checkers, the 22-year-old Guzda has been solid at 9-4-2 with a 2.72/.908.
“I don’t think there is any secret recipe but the first thing is just to be yourself and that may be the hardest part,’’ said Lyon, who started for the Panthers on Saturday night with Guzda backing him up once more.
“In hockey, it is hard to remain calm, do the things you normally do. This is a new environment for him, but the sky is the limit for him. I have been around a lot of good, talented goalies and he stacks up with any of them. I don’t think he knows how good he is, and sometimes, that’s a good thing. I try to help him as much as I can but also don’t try to inundate him with too much ‘do this, do that.’ I just try to support him in any way I can. I want him to succeed. If the goalie room is healthy, we’re all healthy. He has been fantastic.’’
As an overaged player in the OHL, Guzda has been one of the veteran voices on his junior teams either with the Owen Sound Attack or with the Barrie Colts.
Now, he is just a rookie goalie trying to develop his game — although he is a year older than Knight who is now in his third NHL season.
As far as making his way here goes, Guzda admits there were times the doubt was overwhelming.
The COVID shutdown in 2020 affected many hockey players, but those who needed to be seen, it hurt the most.
Guzda did not have anywhere to play during the entire 2020-21 season, so he went home to Nashville — he was born and raised in nearby Knoxville — to get some specialized work with a goalie coach.
Being that coach was his father Brad, who played professionally in a number of minor leagues and now works for the WHL Seattle Thunderbirds, the work was both beneficial and memorable.
“This has been pretty cool and I am taking it as it comes. A year ago today, I was undrafted and unsigned, playing junior hockey,’’ Guzda told FHN on Saturday morning.
“It is pretty cool to be standing here today. It was tough at times. Those days not playing at all during Covid, that was tough. I was just waiting. I did not know what the future would hold. But this organization took a chance on me and it has been great so far.”
It also seemed to work.
Mack Guzda’s 2021-22 season was absolutely terrific.
A two-time OHL Goalie of the Month winner last season, Guzda was 11-4-1-0 with Barrie at the time Florida signed him in February.
The Panthers signed him to a three-year entry-level contract, the first of which was immediately burned as he is now technically in his second season of his deal.
With Knight expected to rejoin the Panthers on Monday in New York — he started for the Checkers on Saturday night on a rehab assignment — Saturday night may have been the only time Guzda suits up for the Panthers this season.
But the team certainly has high expectations for him in the future.
“Every day in Charlotte, you know an opportunity like this is a possibility,” Guzda said. “I come in and do the work because you never know when you’ll get the call. Look at Lyon, he came up and played really well. My job is to be ready every day if you get the call.”