The Florida Panthers used the sixth round of the 2026 NHL Entry Draft in Buffalo, NY, to add a pure offense bet: Cole Zurawski, an energetic, shoot-first forward taken 181st overall.
Zurawski’s draft-year numbers made the case for the pick. In 63 games with the Owen Sound Attack during his second OHL season, he scored 24 goals and added 22 assists.
That followed a first year in the league that produced 16 goals and 15 assists across time with both the Flint Firebirds and Owen Sound. The Attack landed him in a trade on January 8, 2025, when he was still 16.
He finished his draft season tied with Nicholas Sykora for third on the team in goals, trailing only Pierce Mbuyi and Tristan Delisle. His 46 points were good for fifth on an Owen Sound team that was middle-of-the-pack overall but able to score. Thirty of those points came at even strength, and he averaged a shade under three shots on goal per game.
The playoffs gave a small glimpse of how Zurawski can show up when the games tighten. He appeared in three of Owen Sound’s four postseason games, picked up an assist in Game 1, and then scored the club’s only goal with four seconds left in Game 2 as the Attack were swept by his former team, Flint.
Florida brought him to its annual development camp after the draft, and he is expected to return to South Florida for rookie camp.
The appeal is pretty clear. Zurawski is tenacious, has good offensive instincts, and can beat goalies with both pace and accuracy. He was widely projected by scouting services to go in the late third or early fourth round, so getting him in the sixth could prove to be a strong piece of business by Bill Zito’s group.
There’s also a path for more touches in Owen Sound. With Nicholas Sykora off to the college ranks at Western Michigan, Zurawski could become the main weapon on the Attack power play, which sets him up for a possible breakout in his draft-plus-one season.
His shot is the headline, but it’s not the whole story. Zurawski has above average hands, works well through traffic and in transition, and can deke through or around defenders before unloading his wrister.
His passing and vision have a tendency to get overshadowed, yet he has shown he’ll look for teammates and attack seams in the offensive zone. The skating is workable, with room to sharpen his acceleration, and he still needs to improve his defensive awareness and play away from the puck.
The offensive talent is real, and Zurawski should keep putting pucks in the net until he runs into professional hockey players for the first time. How complete the rest of his game looks at that point will go a long way toward determining how realistic his NHL path is after being a late-round pick. That road already looks like a long one, though, because he has verbally committed to Notre Dame for the 2027-28 season.
In Other News...
Panthers Injuries Created A Surprise Offseason Debate About Their Depth
Floridas injury-ravaged run last season did more than strain the roster, it gave the Panthers a longer look at the depth pieces that normally live on the fringe. With minor league players forced into real NHL minutes, several of them turned that opportunity into something more than a temporary fix, drawing enough attention over the summer to earn new looks around the league or stay in the mix in Sunrise.
Daniil Tarasov is the clearest example of how that stretch turned into a subplot of the offseason, while Donovan Sebrangos return keeps at least one of those familiar names in the fold. Mike Benning, Vinnie Hinostroza, Wilmer Skoog and Jack Studnicka also found new NHL homes after their Panthers stints, which only adds to the sense that last years emergency lineups may have revealed more about Floridas depth than anyone expected. [Read more 🡒]