Colby Guy
Anton Lundell surpassed almost every expectation the Florida Panthers had for him last season.
In 65 games, the 20-year-old forward from Espoo, Finland scored 18 goals and 44 points.
Lundell also developed into one of Florida’s top defensive-minded forwards.
Despite missing 17 games, Lundell finished fifth in points and sixth in goals among rookie skaters. He finished sixth in Calder Trophy voting for his efforts.
Lundell, the 12th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, joined the Panthers after a 2020-21 season in Finland where he put up 16 goals and 25 points in 26 games with HIFK.
He also scored 10 goals in seven games in the World Juniors and seven points in 10 games in the World Championship playing for Finland internationally.
When he arrived in North America, it was expected he would be battle-tested against professionals — as he had been playing in Finland’s top league since he was 17 — but he turned some heads very quickly after his arrival.
The Panthers found themselves on the penalty kill nine times in his NHL debut. And they called on him to play some hefty minutes shorthanded.
Lundell started his career with 5:26 of shorthanded time on ice and 15:38 of ice time overall. While he did not register a point, he helped Florida hold the Pittsburgh Penguins’ power play to 2-of-9 and had the sixth-most ice time out of all Panthers forwards.
After shuffling through various linemates to start the season, Lundell eventually got settled next to Sam Reinhart and Mason Marchment on the third line.
They immediately clicked.
Both Reinhart and Marchment hit career-highs in goals and points while the line ate up many of Florida’s defensive zone starts. When the season was all said and done, all three members of the line had Selke votes.
The line of Marchment-Lundell-Reinhart finished the season fifth in expected goals against per 60 minutes (1.75) and expected goals for per 60 minutes (3.81) among forward lines with as much ice time as the trio shared. With Marchment and Lundell both sustaining injuries throughout the season, they played 198 minutes together.
He may have to play his 2022-23 without either of his linemates from last season, however.
Marchment left for Dallas this offseason and with Claude Giroux also moving on and Anthony Duclair out for at least the first few months of the season with a torn Achilles, Reinhart may have to move up to fill a hole in the top six.
That leaves Lundell with Colin White, Rudolfs Balcers, Nick Cousins and Ryan Lomberg — as well as a few darkhorse young guns — as potential linemates.
Most of those options had been bottom-six forwards with limited scoring potential in the past.
White boasts the biggest upside of the pack having scored 10 goals in 45 games in 2020-21 before an injury-riddled 2021-22 season.
This begs the question: Can Lundell carry his own line?
He certainly has the talent to do it, but it is a matter of if he is ready yet.
Lundell’s line operated mainly through Reinhart and Marchment, two players who were excellent play drivers who held solid passing and shooting abilities.
Lundell has shown signs of being able to do the same but there is still a lot of work to be done.
He was not as aggressive on the puck as his counterparts and carried a pass-first mentality at times.
That showed itself during the playoffs — especially after Marchment went down with an injury — when the Panthers’ offense went dry in the second round against the Lightning.
The hope for Florida would be that Lundell builds on this playoff experience and continues to build on the tenacity and confidence he showed throughout the regular season.
It does help that Paul Maurice — a veteran NHL coach who has overseen the development of elite forwards Mark Schiefele, Eric Staal and Kyle Connor — will be taking over the reins as Panthers head coach.
Maurice’s expertise will mainly help Lundell’s development curve on the defensive end of the ice, but the offense will follow suit as well.
It is just a matter of when.
If Lundell can find that tenacity he showed at times during the regular season and throughout his career in Finland, his rise in production could certainly make up for the depth scoring lost in Marchment.
The other big ‘if’ is whether or not he can stay healthy.
If he can rise above the injury bug he faced in his rookie year and continue to build his confidence, he could very well find himself in the 60-70 point range.
That is not a wild prediction considering he was on a 55-point pace during his injury-riddled rookie year.
With Florida missing Giroux, Marchment and Duclair, it is also a possibility that he will see more power play minutes.
Just four of his 44 points last season came with the advantage last season.
With a bigger role coming his way, there is real potential for a true breakout season from Lundell.
It is just a matter of if he can endure the significant downgrade in linemates, if he can stay healthy and if he can become a more tenacious offensive player.
But, as he proved throughout the 2021-22 season, he has a knack for exceeding expectations.