A couple of years ago, Jayce Hawryluk was in the top 3 ranks of Panther prospects. He was expected to come in and play a 3rd line winger role as a Brad Marchand type role. Then the injuries came. Hawryluk broke his hand in a rookie game fight at 2016-17 camp against Capitals rookie Jakub Vrana, who has established himself as a consistent NHLer. Hawryluk missed three months and was headshotted in his first game back. These injuries limited Jayce to just 47 AHL games but in those games he put up 9 goals and 26 points. However others were passing him on the ranks. The Panthers 2016 draft class led by Henrik Borgstrom began to dominate the ratings and when the 2017 class came in, Hawryluk pretty much fell entirely as guys like Borgstrom, Heponiemi, Tippett and others began to hype up the list. Jayce’s peers Dryden Hunt and Juho Lammikko have already made the NHL. Lammikko has got a consistent job as a bottom 6 center for the Panthers this year and Hunt’s grit should help him stay up. It also didn’t help that Hawryluk put up a horrible sophmore stint with 36 points in 64 games. He was relegated to the ECHL at the end of the season. Then came Borgstrom. After Borgstrom missed the cut, the Panthers put Hawryluk and Borgstrom together. This tandem has been phenomenal. Hawryluk leads the Thunderbirds with 26 points in 23 games and is tied for 8th in the AHL scoring race. With Hunt struggling in the bigs and the Panthers content with giving Borgstrom more time to develop, it will be interesting to see what they do. Personally I would call up Jayce and Borg and put them together somewhere in the lineup. I would send down Malgin and Hunt in exchange.

Borgstrom Goal Drought

Although the Artist hasn’t scored in a while, he is second on his team in assists with 17 behind linemate Hawryluk’s 19. Borgstrom’s 21 points put him 3rd on Springfield. With the loss of Trocheck, it is interesting why Dale Tallon has refused to call up his team’s #1 prospect. He already has made Owen Tippett upset according to rumors who at rank 2 is lighting up the OHL and should definitely be in Springfield if not for the transfer rules. Borgstrom could help out in a third line role.

Should the Panthers make these callups?

I think they should call up some guys but one of my twitter friends disagrees. He says that we should leave the guys alone in the minors and let them have fun on a winning team and not bring them up and risk destroying their confidence. What do you guys think?