Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Patient Panther
18-year-old Owen Tippett, right waits, watches and learns.
SUNRISE – Patience isn’t a popular word for any 18-year-old. Not on Christmas morning, and particularly not when you’re a budding pro and eager to show the skills that made you a first-round draft pick in the NHL.
Owen Tippett, the Florida Panthers’ latest wunderkind, gets it, though. As much as he has wanted to be on the ice during the first three games of the season, the Peterborough, Ontario, native recognizes he is making notable progress while playing the waiting game.
“Obviously, I’m anxious to get my first NHL game. But any opportunity you get to stay with an NHL club and learn, it’s an amazing opportunity,” Tippett said this week. “Me being a young guy, I just come in and be a sponge, I guess you could say, and learn as much as I can and take it all in.”
Tippett is in that limbo realm of players who won’t turn 20 in the same calendar year that they sign their first contract.
He can play in nine NHL games without burning a year of his entry level contract. After that, he can either stick with the Panthers or return to his junior team in the Ontario Hockey League.
The clock hasn’t started yet for Tippett as he spent the first three games in street clothes. He will be watching again Saturday in Pittsburgh.
With the Panthers scoring 13 goals, a club record for the first three games of a season, while off to a 2-1 start and everyone healthy, coach Bob Boughner said he doesn’t want to disrupt what’s working.
“I don’t see any reason to change right now,” Boughner said. “I want to get him in there as soon as possible. But you’ve got to gauge how the team is playing and how each individual is playing. We’ve played pretty well as a unit. He’ll get his crack. I still think he’s learning every day being in the NHL and in the practices and the video sessions and things like that.”
It’s not like Tippett is sitting idle. The intensity of every practice provides more of a challenge than he might get from another season as a dominant force in juniors.
There are also teaching moments about playing in the NHL and in the Panthers’ system that can only be gained by being with the team.
“When something’s happening in live time on the ice and we have to stop and make a minor correction, those things go a long way,” Boughner said. “Those are the important parts of the day for him.”
Tippett is one of three Panthers who have yet to see game action. Rookie defenseman MacKenzie Weegar did get into three games after a call-up at the end of last season. But while fellow rookie Ian McCoshen has played well on the third defensive pairing and scored his first NHL goal in Thursday’s 5-2 win against St. Louis, Weegar waits.
Forward Denis Malgin began last season in the same situation as Tippett at age 19. He played immediately and well enough to remain with the Panthers after nine games, though he ultimately spent most of the season with Springfield in the AHL.
Malgin was sent on loan to the Thunderbirds on Friday but Boughner said he will rejoin the Panthers for Tuesday’s game at Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, Boughner didn’t reveal his plan for Tippett’s eventual debut. The young wing showed in training camp the offensive skills to play in the league. He has size, speed and a strong shot with a quick release.
Top line falters
The Panthers’ most productive line has been the third, with five goals while Jared McCann, Nick Bjugstad and Connor Brickley have each produced four points.
The top line has only generated two goals, and Thursday for much of the third period Boughner moved Evgenii Dadonov to the second line and had Radim Vrbata skating with Aleksander Barkov and Huberdeau.