The NHL 15: Anton Lundell gets his chance to shine

The Florida Panthers are about to show the NHL they have another No. 1 center on their roster.

Before each NHL season I look at 15 players that I think are the most intriguing players in the NHL. Not necessarily the best players (though, sometimes they are), but players that offer some sort of intrigue, a big storyline or figure to be a major X-factor for the season. This is The NHL 15. We continue today with Florida Panthers forward Anton Lundell, who is going to get his chance to show the NHL he is also a No. 1 center.

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When the Florida Panthers lost their top-line center, Aleksander Barkov, to a potentially season-ending injury it seemed like the sort of thing that could put a giant wrench into their three-peat plans as Stanley Cup champions. For most teams, it might be.

Barkov is one of the best players in the NHL and as good of a two-way player as there is in the league right now. He scores at a top-line level and is the best defensive forward in hockey. He does everything at a high level, and everything they do as a team runs through him.

Through the first three games of the season, however, the Panthers have not really missed a beat with both Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk — their top winger — sidelined due to injuries. They won their first three games going into play on Monday and mostly carried the play in all of them. The level of competition hasn’t yet been great (Chicago, Philadelphia and Ottawa), but they are doing what you expect a Stanley Cup contender to do to those teams. They are beating them soundly.

It has been impressive.

It might also continue, even in Barkov’s absence, for one very big reason: They already have another top-line center already on their roster that plays in a similar manner to Barkov, and now he is going to get his chance to really prove it.

That player is Anton Lundell.

If you look at Lundell’s career by the numbers you see pretty good middle-six production. He’s averaged about 17 goals and 44 points through 82 games and has been a tremendous third-line center on the league’s best team.

It is a nice career. It is a big role. He plays it exceptionally well.

But he is also capable of more, and the only reason he is not getting an opportunity to do more is the fact the team around him is completely loaded at his position.

In the rare instances he has had a chance to take on a bigger role, he has shined.

He is getting his biggest opportunity yet this season.

Through the Panthers’ first three games he’s already scored two goals and recorded an assist, while playing almost 18 minutes per game (he’s never averaged more than 16 minutes per game in a full season) and continuing to play the type of lockdown defense that has made him such a good third-line center.

Let’s talk a little more about Lundell and what might be ahead for him (and the Panthers) this season.