On this day in 2003, the Florida Panthers drafted Alexander Ovechkin unsuccessfully in the 2003 NHL entry draft. Yep, you read that right. So here’s the details; Ovechkin was born on Sept. 17, 1985, 2 days after the cutoff date to be part of the 2003 draft class. The Panthers GM Rick Dudley argued that if it wasn’t for “Leap Year”, Ovechkin would actually be 4 days older than he was. Teams stormed the draft floor in protest and the NHL agreed that Ovechkin was ineligible. The Panthers, in protest of the protest… selected Ovechkin 4 times that draft. The called his name in the 4th, 5th, 6th & 7th rounds. The Panthers still selected other players after being denied Ovechkin each time. The team just wanted it documented several times in hopes of an arbitration hearing and a sub-sequential overturned decision that would never come.
The infamous Alexander Ovechkin draft saga. On June 21, 2003, the Florida Panthers made history by drafting the future hockey superstar not once, not twice, […]
