How youthful Anton Lundell has established himself as a 'bigger piece' with the Panthers

MIAMI — Anton Lundell is another year older and another year wiser. He has another year in the NHL under his belt, with another extended playoff run — this time ending with a Stanley Cup — to go with it.

And yet compared to the rest of his Florida Panthers teammates, Lundell is still the young guy in the dressing room.

The Finnish center, who turns 23 on Thursday and is entering his fourth NHL season, will either be the youngest player or the second-youngest player on the Panthers’ roster when they begin the 2024-25 season on Tuesday against the Boston Bruins. The only potential player who would be younger than him: 21-year-old forward Mackie Samoskevich, who entered training camp as a front-runner to play on Lundell’s line along with Eetu Luostarinen but has dealt with an upper-body injury throughout training camp.

But despite his youth, Lundell is far from a novice. He has been an integral part of the Panthers’ lineup each of his first three seasons since being drafted in the first round of the 2020 NHL Entry Level Draft. He already has 54 games of playoff experience and was in the lineup for all 24 games of the Panthers’ run to the Stanley Cup, racking up 17 points (three goals, 14 assists) along the way.

In many senses, he’s already a veteran even if his age says otherwise.

“It’s been weird to be the youngest guy for three years on the same team,” Lundell said. “Usually some young guys will always come here and there, but it’s been a long three years to be the youngest. You have to do the youngest player jobs a lot. It’s been so fun, but it’s been changing a little bit.

“It’s funny, Lundell continued, because as a young guy, you come into camp nervous, but you’re trying to talk to everybody now. You feel like a bigger part of the team and the other guys come to talk to you and ask you for advice and you’re like ‘Oh, I guess I’m not that young anymore.’ So, obviously, you start to feel that you became a bigger piece of the team, for sure.”

The Panthers recognized how valuable Lundell is to the team when they signed him to a six-year, $30 million deal this offseason that keeps him under contract through the 2029-30 season. It’s a deal Lundell, who was a restricted free agent, hoped would come to fruition. He, like so many of his teammates, wanted to be here long term to keep building what could potentially be a dynasty down here.

“It’s been amazing to be a part of this team and great organization,” Lundell said. “To be able to be a big part of a Stanley Cup team was something I will always remember and we want to repeat that as many times as we can. That is a huge honor from the organization towards me that they see something in me and want to keep me here for a long time. I want to show them that I’m worth it. I want to be a big part of this team and become a key player for the team. But, of course, it gives you wholeness. I’ve always just focused on hockey, but now, you have the calmness. You can focus on yourself, focus on how to get better and improve yourself every day. So, as I said, I’m very excited to go try and repeat what we did last year.”

What they see in Lundell is pretty clear. He’s a stabilizer in their lineup. Lundell primarily plays third-line center but showed last season he can play on either of the top two lines if Aleksander Barkov or Sam Bennett go down with an injury. He has 112 career points through 216 games in his first three seasons, plays on the second power-play unit and will get a crack on the penalty kill as well. He is defensively sound with a growing offensive game.

And, to repeat: He’s just turning 23.

“I think he sheds that [notion that he’s the young guy] not by age,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said, “but by performance.”

Added Barkov: “He’s very mature for his age, but I think he’s way stronger now. He looks bigger. He still has the same endurance, if not better, but he’s stronger. He is stronger on the pucks ... and he has a lot of time to become even more stronger, faster and all that kind of stuff. I’m excited to see what he can do.”

When the season begins on Tuesday, Lundell aims to pick up where he left on in the Stanley Cup playoffs, when he played what he called his “best hockey.”

“I had the most fun time in my career so far,” Lundell said of the playoff run, “so just looking back on what I did back then, I still remember, but I’m just trying to improve every day and get back to that level in the regular season.”

With that, another season begins for the “young guy” in the room.

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