George Richards, FHN Publisher
The newest member of the Florida Panthers is in such a hurry to join his new team, Matt Kiersted is already in town biding his time in Covid-19 protocol.
Kiersted, the highly-coveted defenseman out of North Dakota, signed a free agent deal with the Panthers on Thursday.
By Friday morning, he was in a South Florida hotel wearing a Florida warmup jacket awaiting the next step of his career.
It will start with the Panthers in Sunrise.
“I think I will be having my debut here soon hopefully,” Kiersted said. “I can’t even put it into words how excited I am to do that. … I have obviously been (to Florida) a few times on vacation and stuff. This weather down here … I could get used to this.”
When Kiersted clears in the coming days, he will join the Panthers either on the taxi squad (as newly-signed goalie Spencer Knight already has been) or on the main roster.
According to Kiersted, the Panthers have told him he will be with the team for the remainder of the season.
“I will have to prove my way, work my way into the lineup,” he said. “I don’t think they are just going to give me anything right away. I hope to show what I’ve got when I am able to practice with the guys, hopefully catch some attention and work my way into a roster spot. …
“I’m ready to make the jump to the NHL. I went through the process last year and maybe had some doubts about being ready and went back to school for my senior year. Having that extra year to develop in college, now I think I’m ready to jump in and play in the NHL.”
Kiersted played four seasons of high-end college hockey at North Dakota, so the Panthers may consider him already close to NHL ready.
Either way, it sounds like he’s going to get a chance to show what he’s got.
He obviously cannot wait to get started.
“One of the reasons I signed with Florida was because of the type of system they play,” said Kiersted, the xx-year-old All-American who chose to sign with the Panthers over more than half of the other teams in the league.
“They ask a lot of their d-men and in watching their games, you see their d-men producing, joining the rush and adding offense when they can. That’s what I hope to bring here. … With the season ending last Saturday, it has been a wild three or four days. There have been a lot of phone calls, there were a lot of teams to narrow down and it wasn’t easy. It was a tough process. It’s a good problem to have, I guess. I am happy with my decision with Florida. I couldn’t be happier to be here and am ready to join the group.”
A native of Elk River, Minn., Kiersted definitely adds to the Panthers depth at the position, one that has become a bit of a logjam.
The Panthers have an obvious hole with the loss of Aaron Ekblad to season-ending surgery after he hurt his left leg Sunday in Dallas.
While GM Bill Zito is believed to still be actively looking for a top-four defenseman, the addition of Kiersted is one that did not cost any future assets.
“That was devastating,” Kiersted said of Ekblad’s injury. “I watched that and it was hard to see him go down, especially being he is such a big piece of this team.
“That did open up some opportunity here in Florida at least the rest of this year anyway. That was in my thought process moving forward in picking Florida.”
There are plenty of college players who have made the jump directly to the NHL in the past.
Joe Nieuwendyk left Cornell as a junior in 1986, played in nine games with the Flames before joining them in the playoffs. He was the Calder Trophy winner the following season and helped the Flames win the Stanley Cup in 1989.
More recently, players such as Cale Makar (UMass/Colorado), Chris Kreider (Boston College/Rangers), Charlie McAvoy (Boston University/Bruins) and Dante Fabbro (BU/Nashville) signed out of college and gave their NHL teams a boost in the playoffs.
In 2014, Johnny Gaudreau left Boston College to sign with Calgary and played in one game.
The next season, however, he scored 24 goals and was a finalist for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year. Ekblad beat him out for the award.
So, there is precedence for a high-end college player joining a contender.
If the Panthers think Kiersted is the goods, well, their track record of late has shown that he will get the opportunity to play.
They probably sold him on that in the free agency process.
But, he knows he had to prove his worth.
“There is opportunity here and that’s what I was looking for,” Kiersted said. “This is the right place for me, I think I can get along with everyone here. It’s probably the best fit for me.”
Kiersted went through a couple of drafts in which every team passed on him.
At North Dakota, however, his game progressed to the point where he became one of the top collegiate players in the nation.
He says being passed up has made him work that much harder.
“Getting passed up for three years does not sit well,” he said. “You see your buddies getting drafted and you get passed up, it’s tough. The support around me was great. I just kept pushing through, the coaches at North Dakota helped me develop and this is a special feeling. …
“Playing in North Dakota, I played against a lot of drafted players. You want to prove people wrong to a point, show that they made a mistake in passing you up. I definitely had a chip on my shoulder through junior and into college.”
As for that picture of Kiersted wearing a Panthers jersey as a toddler, well, he said his mother Candace dug that up.
He does not recall seeing it before she produced it and he tweeted it out after signing with the Panthers.
The jersey was either a homage or a gift from former Panthers forward Mark Parrish, a friend of the family whom Kiersted credits with getting his older brother get into hockey.
Kiersted will be getting the chance to wear his own updated Panthers sweater soon enough.
“That picture was pretty funny when I saw it,” he said. “Kind of ironic for sure.”