The Panthers used the 2025 NHL Draft to take a swing on a big, physical defenseman who had already shown he could handle a step up in competition.
Florida grabbed Brendan Dunphy with the 197th pick in the seventh round at Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, adding the 19-year-old Californian after he had gone undrafted in 2024. Dunphy arrived in the draft year on the strength of a productive season with the Western Hockey League’s Wenatchee Wild, where he put up four goals and 18 assists in 47 games.
His path to that point included a stop in the BCHL with the Langley Rivermen, where he had six assists in 19 games after the Wild acquired his rights from the Regina Pats. He wrapped up his lone year of major junior with 66 penalty minutes and a minus-nine rating.
Like every prospect who gets the Florida treatment, Dunphy showed up at the team’s annual development camp after the draft. He then made the jump to college hockey and enrolled at the University of Connecticut.
That move paid off quickly. In his freshman season at UConn, Dunphy skated in 37 games and finished with two goals, four assists, 29 shot blocks and a plus-six rating.
He made his NCAA debut on October 3, blocking a shot in a 5-1 win at Colorado College. His first point came in his third game, when he picked up an assist in a 4-2 loss to Ohio State on October 18.
The only multi-point outing of his season came on November 1 against Merrimack, when he had two assists. He scored his first college goal in a 4-1 win over New Hampshire on November 21, then added his other goal - a shorthanded one - in a 4-1 victory over Long Island University on New Year’s Eve.
In UConn’s final game, a 2-1 loss to Michigan State at the Worcester Regional, he blocked three shots and put one on goal.
Dunphy was one of eight defensemen at development camp this summer, and the Panthers still see the same basic package: a 6-foot-5 mobile blueliner with agility, plus a physical edge. The puck side of his game is still developing, but the early return from his first year in college was encouraging.
After sitting out the season opener, he played the rest of the way as UConn finished second in Hockey East and reached the NCAA Tournament. Dunphy will try to build on that freshman season when the Huskies return in October.
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