‘True pros at what they do’: Panthers’ draft picks soaking up their time with the back-to-back champs

FORT LAUDERDALE — Brendan Dunphy had very little idea what was coming.

After six rounds of the NHL draft had passed by Sunday afternoon without his name being called, the 19-year-old defenseman from San Diego took a break from staring at the television in anticipation.

“I wasn’t projected to get drafted, so I was just at home,” Dunphy said. “I was on the couch, and then it actually went to commercial break, and I was on my phone. Then my buddy who’s at the draft texted me.”

The message: The Florida Panthers had selected him with the No. 197 pick.

“It was unbelievable,” Dunphy said after the second practice of the Panthers’ development camp on Tuesday. “Growing up playing hockey, I never really imagined it, and just hearing it called… I’m still in shock today.”

Some phone calls and maneuvering had to go into selecting Dunphy.

Midway through the final round on Saturday, Florida traded its 2026 seventh-round pick to Chicago in exchange for the Blackhawks’ seventh-rounder this year, which the Panthers used to select Dunphy.

“It’s definitely good to be wanted,” said Dunphy, who’s committed to playing at UConn next season. “I was sitting there on the couch watching the draft, and the seventh round rolled around, then I saw they traded up for me. So it was a pretty good feeling knowing they gave up something to get me.”

The pick swap with Chicago left the Panthers with six total picks — all within rounds four through seven — Florida had long traded their picks in the first three rounds.

They opted to spend one of those picks on Shamar Moses, the 19-year-old winger from Scarborough, Ontario, taken with the No. 129 pick.

“It was a pretty exciting time,” Moses said on Tuesday. “I was really nervous leading up to the pick; obviously, I had a few names called before me. So a lot of anxiety going up to the pick, but when I heard my name called it was almost like a feeling of relief.”

Both Dunphy and Moses arrive in South Florida from the amateur leagues and will depart following the end of player development camp on Thursday.

Dunphy will move on to UConn, where he committed to after scoring 22 points and four goals in the Western Hockey League last season. Meanwhile, Moses will return to the Ontario Hockey League, where this past season he scored 48 total points and 12 goals despite getting traded across the league just five games into the campaign.

For now, though, those two players — and the three other Panthers’ draft picks in attendance for player development camp — are soaking up all they can while still in the midst of the winners of the last two Stanley Cups.

“It’s just cool to see those guys around — just true pros at what they do,” Moses said. “You can tell how well oriented everything is, and you can see all the little things that add up to make a back-to-back Stanley Cup Champion… You can really tell everyone’s really detail-oriented.”

It’s a mixed feeling of excitement and nerves for them, said general manager Bill Zito, remembering a similar feeling upon walking into an NHL facility for the first time.

“Even for me,” Zito said, “when I walked into an NHL room for the first time as a manager, you kind of look around like, ‘This is pretty cool.’”

‘True pros at what they do’: Panthers’ draft picks soaking up their time with the back-to-back champs

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