Tallon on Borgstrom: 'He's a big part of our future'

CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. -The Florida Panthers are taking their time with Henrik Borgstrom.
The former first-round pick was assigned to the Springfield Thunderbirds of the AHL on Tuesday morning after getting a very long look from management during his first NHL training camp. Appearing in a team-high six exhibition games, the 21-year-old forward played big minutes, registering a goal and an assist.

"This is a marathon," general manager Dale Tallon said after Tuesday's practice at the Panthers IceDen. "We're really high on his abilities, his skill level and his compete level. It's just a matter of getting stronger and quicker to play at the pace he has to play at in the NHL."
After making his NHL debut with the Panthers late last season, Borgstrom went on to score one goal in four games after putting pen to paper on his three-year, entry-level contract. A center throughout his career, he spent the majority of the preseason lining up as the team's third-line left winger.
In Springfield, Borgstrom is expected to return to the pivot position, although Tallon wouldn't rule out a return to the wing in the future. With Aleksander Barkov, Vincent Trocheck and Jared McCann holding a firm grip on the club's top-three spots down the middle, he'll likely need to be flexible going forward.
For the time being, Frank Vatrano is expected to take Borgstrom's spot on Florida's third line.
"We have a lot of depth at center," Tallon said. "We've made adjustments with that already, with [Denis] Malgin and [Nick] Bjugstad playing on the wing. Today, it's not as important. It's F-1, F-2, F-3. It's not center, left wing, right wing like it used to be. He'll play where we think it's best."
Having broken into the NHL at 18, Barkov said he understands how tough a transition like Borgstrom's can be.
"He's always been playing against juniors in Finland and in college, but right now he's playing against men," said Barkov, who has become one of the league's premier two-way centers. "It will help him. Overall, I think he's ready for it… It was tough [for me]. The game's fast, everyone's stronger… when you go on the ice you don't have time to think. Right now, it's even faster, so everything has to happen faster. It's tough, but once you get to know what it takes, it gets easier."
A Hobey Baker finalist during his final season at the University of Denver, there's no questioning the amount of skill that Borgstrom possesses. He's an offensive dynamo and incredibly creative with the puck on his stick - a talent that has earned him the nickname "The Artist" in college.
But at 6-foot-3 and 185 pounds, Borgstrom is still filling out. Undrafted in his first year of eligibility, the native of Helsinki, Finland had a huge growth sport in 2015, which caught the attention of Panthers scouts and eventually ended up turning him into the team's 23rd overall selection in the 2016 NHL Draft.
In the AHL, the Panthers believe Borgstrom will be given the best opportunity to develop physically.
"You can't teach what he has - his vision and his skill and the way he sees the ice," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. "We talked to him about keeping up the workouts, to keep getting bigger and stronger. He's going to play here for a long time. We want him to try and put on some muscle and put on some weight. He agreed. He felt that battling the big guys down low was tiring him out to where he didn't have enough to go back on offense. Those are things he's going to work on a lot.
"I don't want a guy up here like Borgy, who's a huge part of the future, to play limited minutes, put him on the wing, take him out of position and not play as much as he should. This is all about the best thing for Borgy and his development. There's no need to rush anybody. That's the good thing about this organization right now. There's not a need to rush a young guy up here and screw around with his confidence."
With those final few statements, Boughner really hit the nail on the end. In many ways, Borgstrom's demotion is less amount what he did or didn't do, and more about the position the Panthers have put themselves in heading into the upcoming season. After falling one point short of the playoffs last year, the team is aiming for 100 points to take all doubt out of the equation during the upcoming campaign.
By adding power-play specialist Mike Hoffman to a top-six forward group that already featured the likes of Barkov, Trocheck, Jonathan Huberdeau, Evgenii Dadonov and Nick Bjugstad, the team has easily the most-complete group of offensive weapons in the 25-year history of the franchise - a collection of talent the Panthers have no doubt Borgstrom will be fortifying in the near future.
"We have to make sure we protect our young guys," Tallon said. "As I said, we're in this for the long haul. We have a good young core. We're going to be here for a long time. We have a good young team. He's a big part of our future. We want to make sure we protect him and do the right thing by him."