It’s Time: Expanding Anton Lundell’s Role to Second Line Centre

As training camps across the NHL wrap up, it’s time for coaches to finalize their rosters. Who stays, who goes, and who is the right fit in the team’s line combinations?

For Paul Maurice, the new coach of the reigning Presidents Trophy winners, this is no small task.

New Look Panthers, Who Will Play Where?

The Panthers underwent a massive shakeup to their roster that included a blockbuster trade that saw Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar moved, including all of their rental players from last season’s playoff run being signed elsewhere in the league.

As Maurice has juggled his lines around in training camp, there are only a few locks in their top-six group. Carter Verhaeghe, Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, and Sam Reinhart.

But there is one roster move that stands out among the rest, the second-line centre position.

Last season, that role was held down by veteran forward, Sam Bennett. But with the change-up of their forward group during the offseason, there is a new contender for this position.

The time is now for the Panthers to promote Anton Lundell as a mainstay in the team’s top-six group and anchor down a terrifyingly strong, two-way second line alongside newcomer, Matthew Tkachuk.

Lundell Excels in Rookie Campaign 

Anton Lundell was the Panthers’ first-round pick in 2020. He made quite the impression with his team and in the league this past season. 

He make an immediate impact offensively (18 goals and 44 points in 65 games played). Lundell took care of business in his own end as well, establishing himself as a brilliant two-way forward.

Lundell received 185 votes in rookie-of-the-year voting. Good enough for fifth place. And had he not dealt with an injury in the season, Lundell certainly would’ve been in Calder finalist discussions.

But what truly set him apart from the rest of the pack was that he was the only rookie from last season to receive a vote for the Selke Trophy as the game’s top two-way player. 

High praise right there.

Third Line Worked Best for Lundell

Last season, Lundell anchored the bottom-six forward group as the team’s third-line centre. And it showed to be a great place for him to develop his game. 

The third line is traditionally known as the “checking line,” an identity given to a line whose main goal is to go out and provide some energy through physical play and to keep the puck out of the net. 

But in today’s ever-evolving NHL, elite teams have looked to expand that role into not just punishing opponents with the body, but hitting them on the scoreboard as well. 

Anton Lundell and the Panthers’ third line excelled at embracing this identity.

The offensive potency of that third line was highlighted in a February game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The third line, consisting of Mason Marchment, Sam Reinhart, and Anton Lundell combined for 15 points in an 8-4 win.

By the end of the season, Lundell was a +33 and averaged 15:44 minutes in ice-time, 12:40 of which was even-strength time and 2:22 on the penalty kill. 

Furthermore, Lundell led all Panthers forwards in blocked shots (56). He had the largest positive margin, on the team, between take-aways and give-aways at +24.

Not to mention, the Finnish phenom had over half (52.5%) of his even-strength starts in the defensive end, where he won an impressive 44.7% of his face-offs. What makes this stat more remarkable is that he would have been taking the majority of those draws against the opposing team’s top face-off artists, due to them being taken in the defensive end.

Talk about an all-around force.

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If it’s not Broken, Why Fix It?

So you may be thinking… why is there the need to move Lundell up to the second line if he is so efficient in this third-line role?

Well, for two reasons.

First, the Panthers’ forward group experienced a big shakeup. No longer do the Panthers have the luxury of depth to roll three lines who will be able to score at the franchise record-setting pace they did last year.

Paul Maurice, as he stated, will look to “stack the top two lines.”

So that leads us to reason number two. 

If you are going to stack the top two lines, for the reason of generating the most efficiency in your lineup, then wouldn’t it make the most sense to have one of your most efficient forwards in that mix?

As it stands, just days prior to the Panthers’ first game of the season, Sam Bennett is the team’s second-line centre. 

Bennett Saw Plenty of Success on Second Line Last Season

Bennett had himself a career year last season on the second-line. Playing mostly alongside Huberdeau and Anthony Duclair, Bennett would put up a career-high in goals (28) and points (49) on this highly offensive-minded second line. 

And since coming over to the Panthers in the 2020-21 season, Bennett has averaged 0.79 points-per-game. But that is a far cry from his career average (before coming to Florida) of 0.34 ppg.

So what version of Bennett can we expect?

I believe that is somewhere in the middle of those two career averages.

Bennett has been given more opportunity in Florida than he ever had back in Calgary. He was sparingly used with the team’s top-six group.

But part of that opportunity was playing alongside a bonafide superstar in Jonathan Huberdeau.

Huberdeau’s style of play allowed Bennett to thrive in his own game, scoring goals in tight. 

You could say that the front of the net is Bennett’s “office.” Of his 28 goals scored last season, 20 were from below the hash marks, just a few feet off the crease. 

Because of this, you could say that Bennett is more of a complimentary piece as opposed to a line driver.

Now, Matthew Tkachuk is a star in his own right, but he and Huberdeau are very different players. The chemistry Bennett had with Huberdeau may not be the same as with Tkachuk.

Yes, Bennett does have some chemistry from playing with Tkachuk in Calgary. But Tkachuk was still coming into his own during that time and therefore the two didn’t see the same level of success that Bennett had with Huberdeau.

So take that with a grain of salt.

Anton Lundell will be a Better Fit for the Panthers’ Second Line

When you compare offensive stats, Lundell and Bennett are very similar, but how they accumulate those stats are very different.

After almost a decade in the NHL, Bennett has established himself as a hard-nosed, checking forward with a knack for scoring in tight. Whereas Lundell creates more of his opportunities by carrying the puck through the zone and making room for either himself or his linemates to find the back of the net. 

But when it comes to the defense, Lundell begins to separate himself from Bennett.

With a forward group that won’t be boasting the same offensive prowess as last season, it will be imperative that the Panthers’ top lines are efficient at both ends of the ice.

No longer can the Panthers expect to outscore their defensive woes.

And that is why Anton Lundell should be given an expanded role in the top six. 

If both players are productive offensively but one excels at the other end of the ice as well, why wouldn’t you use the two-way player in this scenario?

The Panthers already have one of the game’s best two-way forwards in Aleksander Barkov, (third in Selke voting last season) so could you imagine a top-six group that boasts two players that earned Selke recognition?

Plus, Tkachuk played with Elias Lindholm (second in Selke voting) last season and had himself a career year playing alongside the two-way forward.

Tkachuk’s career year last season was in part to playing with a teammate who played a strong two-way game. You can push yourself more offensively and take more risks when you are paired with another player who excels at taking care of the other end of the ice. 

Building Trust with Maurice

As it stands heading into the final two games of the Panthers preseason, Sam Bennett is the team’s second-line centre. It looks to be that Paul Maurice wants to lean on some of that existing chemistry between Tkachuk and Bennett to start the year. He hasn’t made it known that he wants to swap the veteran centre with the young Lundell just yet.

Maurice is a brilliant coach, there’s a reason he’s been in the league for as long as he has. If he’s not jumping at the switch there’s a very good reason. And it’s probably because he knows more about Bennett than he does about the young Finnish forward.

Once Lundell creates that trust with his new head coach, as the season progresses, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Lundell makes the leap into the top-six. It should cement him as the franchise’s second-line centre of the future.