{"id":305841,"date":"2026-06-12T23:36:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T23:36:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/305841\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T23:36:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T23:36:21","slug":"florida-panthers-to-host-nhl-draft-party-in-fort-lauderdale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/305841\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Panthers to Host NHL Draft Party in Fort Lauderdale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Florida Panthers have a first-round pick (at least for now) for the first time since the 2021 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>They plan to celebrate that with their fans.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, the team officially announced it will hold a draft watch party at the Fort Lauderdale IcePlex on June 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Florida has the ninth overall pick after <a href=\"https:\/\/floridahockeynow.com\/florida-panthers-get-help-keep-2026-first-round-draft-pick\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/floridahockeynow.com\/florida-panthers-get-help-keep-2026-first-round-draft-pick\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">originally trading its selection<\/a> to the Chicago Blackhawks in the Seth Jones\/Spencer Knight deal in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fans are invited to come to the IcePlex starting at 5 p.m. on the night of the draft.<\/p>\n<p>The team says there will be interactive games, vendors, food, beverages, and more.<\/p>\n<p>Fans will be able to watch ESPN\u2019s draft coverage from the stands inside the IceDen \u2014 or do so from the ice as part of a public skate.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Doug\u00a0Plagens\u00a0and Billy Lindsay will also be broadcasting on WQAM.<\/p>\n<p>The Panthers currently have seven picks in the 2026 draft.<\/p>\n<p>ON DECK: FLORIDA PANTHERS\u00a0OFFSEASON<\/p>\n<p>NHL Draft (9th in First Round, Seven Picks Overall):\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/floridahockeynow.com\/nhl-draft-lottery-maple-leafs-win-sharks-get-second-florida-panthers-pick-9th\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">June 26-27; KeyBank Center, Buffalo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>NHL Free Agency:\u00a0Opens July 1<\/p>\n<p>Panthers Development Camp:\u00a0Late June\/Early July; IcePlex, Fort Lauderdale<\/p>\n<p>Panthers Rookie Camp\/Tournament:\u00a0Late August\/Early Sept.; Site TBA<\/p>\n<p>Panthers Training Camp:\u00a0Early\/Mid September; Fort Lauderdale\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>2026-27 NHL Season Opens:\u00a0Late September; Site, Opponent TBA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Florida Panthers have a first-round pick (at least for now) for the first time since the 2021&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[112466,16995,249,251,250,114702,51474],"class_list":["post-305841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-2026-nhl-draft","tag-florida-panthers","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-iceplex","tag-nhl-draft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}