An offensive wizard with great hands and vision, Huberdeau began to justify the Florida Panthers taking him with the No. 3 pick in the 2011 NHL Draft within minutes of stepping on the ice for his first NHL game.
During his second shift Jan. 19, 2013, Huberdeau scored on his first NHL shot, beating Carolina Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward to spark Florida to a 5-1 victory.
An offensive wizard with great hands and vision, Huberdeau began to justify the Florida Panthers taking him with the No. 3 pick in the 2011 NHL Draft within minutes of stepping on the ice for his first NHL game.
During his second shift Jan. 19, 2013, Huberdeau scored on his first NHL shot, beating Carolina Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward to spark Florida to a 5-1 victory.
Huberdeau also had two assists in that game, the first in a shortened season when he scored 31 points (14 goals, 17 assists) in 48 games and became the first player in Panthers history to win the Calder Trophy as the top rookie in the NHL.
The 6-foot-1, 202-pound center from Saint-Jerome, Quebec, led the Panthers in points (54) and assists (39) during the 2014-15 season, then scored 59 points (20 goals, 39 assists) in 2015-16 to help Florida finish first in the Atlantic Division. Injuries limited Huberdeau to 31 games in 2016-17, but he rebounded in 2017-18 with 69 points (27 goals, 42 assists) and improved those numbers in 2018-19 with NHL career highs of 30 goals, 62 assists and 92 points.
He became the leading scorer in Panthers history, when he scored one goal and one assist in an 8-4 victory against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Jan. 12, 2020 to give him 420 points (143 goals, 277 assists), one more than Olli Jokinen. Thirteen days later, Huberdeau played in the NHL All-Star Game for the first time.
Huberdeau had a 43-goal, 105-point season for Saint John of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in 2010-11. He won the Stafford Smythe Trophy as tournament MVP after helping Saint John win the Memorial Cup. He remained with Saint John in 2011-12 and scored 72 points (30 goals, 47 assists) in 37 regular-season games, then 21 points (10 goals, 11 assists) in 15 QMJHL playoff games. He scored seven points (five goals, two assists) in the Memorial Cup tournament, though Saint John failed to repeat.
NOTES & TRANSACTIONS
- QMJHL First All-Star Team (2011)
- QMJHL Second All-Star Team (2012)
- NHL All-Rookie Team (2013)
- Played in NHL All-Star Game (2020)
