MONTREAL - Even without a first-round pick, the Florida Panthers stayed busy and continued to work the phones throughout the first day of the 2022 NHL Draft at Bell Centre on Thursday.
"It was a pretty active day on the phone," Panthers General Manager Bill Zito said after the 32nd pick came off the board around 11 p.m. ET. "Just trying to see what's going on out there, keeping in touch with everybody and making sure that we were thorough in investigating all of our options."
Panthers aim to 'keep building' with six picks on Day 2 of NHL Draft
When Rounds 2-7 get underway on Friday, the Panthers will have six picks at their disposal. As of now, they have one in the third (93rd overall), one in the fourth (125th overall), one in the fifth (157th overall), two in the sixth (186th and 189th overall) and one in the seventh (221st overall).
Day 2 of the draft will begin at 11 a.m. ET with coverage on ESPN+ and NHL Network.
In two drafts under Zito, the Panthers have found plenty of promising young players in the mid-to-late rounds of the draft, bolstering their pipeline with solid prospects like Justin Sourdif (87th overall, 2020), Mike Benning (95th overall, 2020) and Kirill Gerasimyuk (152nd overall, 2022).
Both developing and dealing their later picks, they also successfully turned Devon Levi (212th overall, 2020) into an integral piece of a deal to bring Sam Reinhart to South Florida. In his first season with the Panthers, Reinhart set a new career-high with 82 points (33 goals, 49 assists).
When asked about his strategy heading into what should be a very busy Day 2 of the draft, Zito said he'd continue to target "the best player available" each time the Panthers are on the clock.
"Continue with our plan," Zito said. "Keep building."
As for the rest of Day 1, fans at Bell Centre were treated to quite the show.
Much to the delight of the hometown crowd, the Montreal Canadiens kicked things off by taking Olympic MVP Juraj Slafkovsky with the No. 1 overall pick, while the pre-draft favorite to go first, Shane Wright, ended up sliding down the board to fourth right into the lap of the Seattle Kraken.
Fully embracing their rebuild under general manager Kyle Davidson, the Chicago Blackhawks were one of the most-active teams on Day 1. After shipping 40-goal scorer Alex DeBrincat to the Senators for three picks -- including the seventh-overall pick this year -- they then traded 2019 first rounder Kirby Dach to the Canadiens for the 13th and 66th picks in this year's draft.
Moments before that second deal occured, the Canadiens picked up the 13th pick from the New York Islanders for defenseman Alexander Romanov and fourth-round pick in this year's draft.
Not done there, the Blackhawks then acquired their third first-round pick of the day when they grabbed the 25th-overall selection from the Maple Leafs in exchange for a second-round pick (38th overall) and goaltender Petr Mrazek, whose departure frees up cap space for Toronto.
Among the other movers and shakers, the Arizona Coyotes, who selected Logan Cooley with the third-overall pick, got back into the first round when they acquired the No. 11 pick from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for the No. 27 pick and a pair of second-round picks this year.
Matching Chicago with three selections on Day 1, the Coyotes closed out the draft by adding another first rounder when they acquired forward Zack Kassian, the No. 29 pick, a third-round pick in 2024, and a second-round pick in 2025 from the Edmonton Oilers to get pick No. 32.
"It was a great day for hockey," Zito said of the rowdy atmosphere in the arena. "If you're a hockey fan here in Montreal, it's a wonderful day for the kids, for hockey. It's great to be back in person. We'll be back at it tomorrow with some picks and keep building for the future."
To see all the picks from Round 1, click
HERE
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Panthers fans can listen to coverage of Day 2 locally on 560 WQAM from 12-2 p.m. ET.
