FORT LAUDERDALE – Anton Lundell is already a two-time Stanley Cup champion.

But what else could he be?

That’s the question Paul Maurice asks himself at the outset of each new season.

“If we go back three years, I’d say he’s quite a bit further ahead than you would expect a young player to be in terms of understanding the defensive parts of the game and being really, really good at it,” Maurice said after Tuesday’s practice at Baptist Health IcePlex.

Already a battle-tested veteran at just 23 years old, Lundell has been a key cog down the middle for the Florida Panthers ever since they selected him with the 12 th overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, the first-ever pick under then recently hired general manager Bill Zito.

And while his natural instincts on the defensive side of the pu

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