First impressions, right?
“It felt so good right away,” Asplund, who inked a one-year, two-way contract with Florida on July 5, said with a smile after Wednesday’s morning skate at the Panthers IceDen. “I just felt this was a good organization for me to be in and a fresh start as well. It was an easy decision.”
A decision that was followed by a very warm welcome.
“Pretty much everyone reached out when I signed and welcomed me,” Asplund said. “They told me to be myself and bring what I have to the table. I’m just trying to leave it all out on the ice.”
When asked about what drew him to the Panthers, Asplund said that it wasn’t so much the fact that they reached the Stanley Cup Final last season, but rather how they still weren’t satisfied.
“They have a clear, clear mind of what they want to do and where they want to this organization,” Asplund said. “They were not happy with the Stanley Cup Final. They wanted to win it last year. That really grabbed me right away. I want to be a part of this."
Just like the Panthers, Asplund isn’t satisfied either.
A former second-round pick (33rd overall) by the Sabres in 2016, the 25-year-old forward is working hard to get back to being a consistent producer in the NHL. After appearing in a career-high 80 games with Buffalo in 2021-22, the speedy Swede played in just 46 this past season.
In March, he was traded from the Sabres to Nashville for a seventh-round pick in 2025.
With the Panthers planning to keep many of their mainstays out of action over the next three preseason games, players like Asplund are about to get a chance to show what they can do.
“Their job is to show us who they are and what they’re good at, and then we’ve got to decide if we can fix the other things” head coach Paul Maurice said. “All of these guys do something well. [Asplund] is very, very quick. He’s tenacious on the puck. He does have some pretty good hands. We just want to see his ability to get on the puck and his ability to not slow the motor at any point.”
No stranger to the NHL, Asplund, a native of Filipstad, Sweden, has recorded 49 points (18 goals, 31 assists) over 183 career games with the Sabres (2019-2020, 2022-23) and Predators (2022-23). Since coming to North America in 2018-19, he’s also played in 111 games in the AHL.
Knowing that he might only have a few games to make his case, don’t expect Asplund to hold back at all during his preseason debut against the Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Wednesday.
“Just leave it all out there,” Asplund said of his approach. “Just try to get some timing and get all that stuff going as soon as you can. I think it’s just going to be hard work and bringing that defensive part of my game to the game right away. That’s what I’m going to focus on tonight.”
With puck drop in Raleigh set for 7 p.m. ET, fans can watch the game at FloridaPanthers.com.
