Florida Panthers: What If They Stole Alex Ovechkin In The 2003 Draft?

The Florida Panthers multiple attempts to draft Alex Ovechkin at the 2003 NHL Draft didn’t pay off. How different would things be if it worked?

The Washington Capitals needed a miracle after the 2003-04 season. They got it in the form of winning the draft lottery, giving them the privilege of picking Alex Ovechkin. He’s been the best thing to happen to Washington DC since the Rod Langway trade. But what a lot of people don’t know is the Florida Panthers nearly got him a year earlier.

How different would the NHL look? Might the Florida Panthers be more than a mediocre franchise? Would the Capitals be the Hartford Whalers or Quebec Nordiques? Perhaps they’d be in Seattle, Kansas City, or Houston right now? Let’s take a look at alternate history with Ovechkin on the Panthers.

Context

The 2003 NHL Draft is considered one of the best drafts of all-time. However, it could have been even better had Ovechkin been born two days earlier. The cutoff date for eligible prospects was Sept. 15, 1985. Ovechkin was born on Sept. 17. Had he been eligible, the 2003 draft probably would have been the best draft ever.

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But things like cutoff dates didn’t stop the Panthers, who were desperate for a miracle. So they asked their preferred deity for a favor – find them a way to draft Ovechkin. General Manager Rick Dudley had to get crafty. And he came up with a semi-respectable argument.

Dudley argued that if leap-year days were taken away, Ovechkin would be eligible. The Panthers realized they had virtually no shot of it working, but they tried anyway. Got to give them credit for having the courage to say with a straight face, “Mr. Bettman, if you just ignore leap years, we should be able to draft Ovechkin”. Or something along those lines.

This post will focus more on the Panthers than the Capitals. But the Caps would have came out alright in this because, assuming they still would have won the draft lottery in 2004, Evgeni Malkin is a pretty nice consolation prize.

Ovechkin’s Immediate Impact

Getting Ovechkin, one of the most hyped prospects of all-time, would have been huge for the Panthers. Their attendance has been bad for a while, but with The Great Eight, it probably would have seen a steady rise.

This can be said with confidence because, literally, that’s what happened when the Capitals got Ovechkin. Even though the Caps were still a lottery team in the 2005-06 season, the Russian wing made them relevant.

That season, the Panthers fell seven points short of a playoff spot. It’s safe to say adding Ovechkin, who had to that team likely would have rocketed them into the postseason. By adding Ovi’s 52 goals as a rookie to the Panthers, they jump from 240 goals (23rd in the league) to 292 (which would have been the fourth-highest).

And unlike the 2005-06 Capitals, Ovechkin would have had some help. Captain Olli Jokinen led the team with 89 points. However, it drops off a bit after him. The next guy in points? 39-year-old Joe Nieuwendyk with 51. Having Ovechkin around likely makes everyone better. At the very least, Jokinen likely gets to be remembered as a 100 point player, which would be pretty awesome.

Having Ovechkin around probably motivates their ownership to start spending more money. After all, they would certainly be getting more with one of the most potent goal scorers of all-time on their roster. So maybe the Panthers fix that problem of having no depth scoring. Even if they didn’t, Florida’s indisputably better off with Ovechkin.

Long-Term Impact

Long-term, the Panthers would view The Great Eight as their hero, much like the Capitals do. He’d have a very similar impact in Florida. Maybe The Sunshine State is taken more seriously, along with other southern markets.

Would the league have a New Orleans hockey team? Perhaps, considering adding Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings led to the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks. It’s not a guarantee, but it’s at least plausible.

Imagine if the Panthers had Aleksander Barkov, Jonathan Huberdeau and Ovechkin. That’s a pretty darn deadly top line. At the very least, it’s one that could take them places.

The downside? Ovechkin doesn’t get to play with Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green. He’s an outstanding goal scorer. There’s no reason to believe this wouldn’t carry over to the Panthers. But in his prime, Ovechkin had Backstrom and Green feeding him passes. That’s a pretty nice duo.

Backstrom is a franchise center. You need those to win a Stanley Cup. Sure, Ovechkin would help. But he wouldn’t have that reliable guy down the middle until Barkov gets drafted in 2013. Maybe this changes in this alternative universe.

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The Panthers probably weren’t even that close to getting Ovechkin in 2003. Their argument that he should be eligible was pretty funny but wasn’t taken too seriously. But if it was, things would look mighty different.

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