'Savour Every Moment': Huberdeau reflects on first NHL goal with Panthers

An NHL career is defined by many events, players present and past cherishing a single snapshot, a game or a broader body of work. Eight players reflect in our weekly eight-part series "Savour Every Moment" presented by Olymel, sharing a personal slice of what makes hockey a special part of their lives. Today: Florida Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau.

The official NHL play-by-play record of the goal says that Florida Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau scored on a 15-foot wrist shot. The video from that Jan. 19, 2013 home game at BB&T Center shows Huberdeau slamming the puck past Carolina Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward from right at the edge of the goal crease.
No matter how far the puck travelled, Huberdeau will forever savor his first NHL goal, coming on his first career shot on goal on his second shift, 3:37 into the first period of a 5-1 victory.
It crowned a memorable maiden game, Huberdeau adding two assists on 22 shifts during 14:25 on the ice. Assists on his maiden goal went to Peter Mueller and Alex Kovalev, and somehow, six ounces of priceless vulcanized rubber would find its way into his hands and his heart, the historic puck among his cherished souvenirs for going on a decade.
"I don't know who picked it up off the ice for me," the 28-year-old said recently, video of the game not tracking that part of the celebration, but the linemates' joy captured in a photo of a group hug. "I hope it's Alex who did. It's pretty cool what the Panthers did with the puck. It's framed with a nice photo and the scoresheet."

The goal is one of a handful of milestones Huberdeau has hit since he entered the NHL with the Panthers, having been selected by Florida No. 3 in the 2011 NHL Draft.
He won the 2012-13 Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year during the 48-game lockout-shortened season, scoring 31 points (14 goals, 17 assists). The native of Saint-Jerome, Quebec is the Panthers' all-time leading scorer (588 points), is second in goals (189), first in assists (399) and has played more games in Florida history (656) than anyone else.
Huberdeau finished 13th in balloting for the 2020-21 Hart Trophy, awarded to the NHL player judged to be most valuable to his team; almost surely he'll finish higher this season when the postseason vote of Professional Hockey Writers' Association members is tallied.

As the schedule turns into its final month, he is tied for third in the NHL with 90 points and the leader in assists with 69 for the Panthers (44-15-6), who are in first place in the Atlantic Division.
Huberdeau arrived in the NHL with a sterling junior pedigree, having won the 2011 Memorial Cup with Saint John, awarded the Stafford Smythe Trophy as the tournament's most valuable player. Captain of Saint John the last two of his four seasons with the team, he was twice a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champion, awarded that league's Paul Dumont Trophy as personality of the year in 2011-12 and the Guy Lafleur Trophy as QMJHL playoff MVP in 2011, having scored 16 postseason goals.
Internationally, he twice represented Canada in the IIHF World Junior Championship, helping the country finish third in 2012 after having won the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament in 2010-11.

Huberdeau's road to NHL stardom might have been paved in part by his broad sports interests as a youth, not consumed by hockey at the expense of all else.
Born June 4, 1993, five days before the most recent Stanley Cup championship of his native province Montreal Canadiens, Huberdeau enjoyed soccer, tennis and basketball when he wasn't on a rink. If he watched the Canadiens a great deal -- "they were my team growing up" -- his favorite player was Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Mario Lemieux.
"I'm the type of guy who enjoys variety and it's always good to learn and play other sports," Huberdeau said. "They give you other tools, and things you learn in other sports can help you in hockey. A lot of kids play hockey all the time, but for me, playing other sports taught me many things. I'd encourage kids today to do that too."
Huberdeau suggests that his own style of game might have evolved to be similar to that of retired Tampa Bay Lightning legend Vincent Lecavalier.
"I think [Lecavalier] wasn't the fastest guy but he had pretty good vision on the ice," he said. "It was pretty special to play against him, a guy I looked up to."

Hours on the ice as a teenager would sharpen Huberdeau's focus and bring him to major-junior stardom, leading to a memorable June 24, 2011 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He arrived at the NHL Draft that day as the Central Scouting Bureau's third-ranked North American skater, exactly where he'd be drafted by the Panthers, behind the two forwards ranked ahead of him - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, by the Edmonton Oilers, and Gabriel Landeskog, by the Colorado Avalanche.
"It's a special moment when you're drafted," he recalls. "That day you're really busy, you're excited, you don't know where you're going to go. It's stressful. When they call your name, you realize at that instant that you have one foot in the door. Being drafted, then playing your first game. I'll always remember those two moments."
Florida has served up its share of challenges. Now in his 10th NHL season, he's gone to the Stanley Cup Playoffs three times, never advancing past the first round. There are no guarantees, of course, but the Panthers have great potential this season, now leading the Atlantic Division and in a battle with the Avalanche, Hurricanes and Pittsburgh Penguins in the race for the Presidents' Trophy, awarded annually to the NHL's best regular-season team.

"You'd like to win right away but there are some things you don't control," Huberdeau says, having scored 16 points (four goals, 12 assists) in his 16 career playoff games. "We've had some adversity through the years but we've learned along the way. We're lucky that we have the same core group. Many of us have been through this forever. You take your team to heart and you want to win for this organization."
He's had personal mountains to climb along the way. Huberdeau underwent hip surgery following his rookie season and missed 51 games in 2016-17 after having suffered an Achilles tendon injury that many feared had put his career on thin ice, a deep slice physically and psychologically.
But Huberdeau would return and find a new level of excellence. He has become an NHL superstar quietly and sometimes almost invisibly, a powerful skater with soft hands who enjoys scoring but takes great satisfaction setting up a teammate, his career assist total more than double his goals.
"Sometimes I wish I would shoot more but I guess it's in my head to pass," he says, laughing. "I'd probably rather pass than score goals. I've always been like that. Maybe my problem has been that I haven't shot more during my career, but I'm unselfish."

Huberdeau has watched the NHL game evolve during his decade growing as part of it, impressed by the speed and skill of players arriving each season.
"Through the years it's been getting faster and faster," he says. "The young guys who are coming in, they're all fast. I'm not in the old generation, but some rules have changed since I got into the League. Every year it gets faster and that's been pretty cool to see. You don't really expect anything until you get into the NHL, but then you see the execution and the speed that things happen. When you learn to see guys in the right place at the right moment, it becomes easier to make plays."
From modest multi-sport beginnings to superstardom in the NHL, Huberdeau's work ethic has never changed. In some ways, he's still the young boy who never worried about the view of others, too focused on improving his skills and his teams to give that much thought.
The playoffs now on the horizon, Huberdeau is no longer invisible, unsung or underrated, the high-profile locomotive who is pulling an impressive Panthers train. Hugely popular in Florida and chased for a quote at every stop, he was featured on the cover of The Hockey News in March, "The Making of a Florida Superstar" headlining the feature inside.
"I've seen just the cover," Huberdeau said as the magazine hit the newsstands.
Then, with a laugh: "I haven't had any chirps (from teammates) yet, so I guess they haven't seen it."
Photos:Getty Images; Hockey Hall of Fame