Originally posted June 24, 2019.
“With the 69th pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, the Florida Panthers select Johnny Ludvig of the Portland Winterhawks in the WHL.”
Saturday, June 22nd, 2019 is a day Johnny Ludvig will never forget.
The 2000-born defenseman from Kamloops, British Columbia, heard his name called in a draft for the very first time.
The six-foot-zero, 196-pound blueliner originally was passed over in the annual WHL Bantam Draft. At the time, he was playing Junior B hockey in Kamloops before being signed by the Portland Winterhawks.
Then, after a successful rookie season in the WHL, the throwback defenseman was hoping to hear his name called in the 2018 NHL Draft in Dallas, Texas. His wait lasted one more year.
However, the wait was worth it for Ludvig. He has been experiencing the thrill, joy, and excitement of being one of the 217 names called in this year’s NHL draft.
“It has been a crazy, crazy feeling I’ve been having the last couple of days,” Ludvig said. “It is a hard feeling to describe honestly. I’ve been working my whole life towards this. Now, I finally got my name called at a draft. It has been amazing.”
For many players, not hearing their names called can be a major setback. However, Johnny viewed the adversity differently. “It doesn’t affect me too much. I’ve just used it as motivation every year. Even this year, people are going to say I’m not a third-round draft pick. I would say I’m a bit of a late bloomer, and up in Canada, a lot of people over my life said so too. I’ve been proving people wrong my whole life, and I’m going to continue to do that.”
The story for how Ludvig found out he was drafted is certainly one he will cherish. “I was actually watching it at home on stream and it was about five minutes behind everyone else’s on TV,” Ludvig explained. “I was the last person to find out. Everyone else texted me, and my agent called me.”
However, due to the amount of text messages and phone calls Johnny received, he still didn’t know which team drafted him.
He described how he was “trying to talk to my agent on the phone, and when I was getting his call I was also getting ten other calls from other people. They kept interrupting my call with him. I still didn’t even know where I was going for a few minutes.”
Ludvig was watching the draft at his sister’s house without many people around him, but he went up to see his family right away.
One thing he remembers, though, is his agent telling him, “Get some sunscreen and some sunglasses; you’re heading up to the big leagues bud.”
Ludvig had an idea where he was going, but was still confused. He asked his agent, “’Wait, where am I going? I still have no idea.’ It was then he told me Florida.”
What transpired afterwards can only be described as “one big celebration with all my family members and friends.”
Within the next two rounds of the NHL Draft, he learned his teammate Reece Newkirk was also selected. Newkirk went to the New York Islanders with the 147th overall selection. Ludvig said, “It is awesome! [Newkirk] is a great player and a great guy too. I’m over the fence for him and super happy; he deserves it too.”
Next up for the shutdown defenseman: Florida Panthers Development Camp.
“I’m leaving tomorrow (Tuesday) morning to fly and get to Miami,” Johnny said. “Camp then starts on Wednesday night. I just want to take it all in and the experience there. It is NHL-level stuff, and I’m excited to meet everyone and see the facility.”
Joining him at development camp is teammate Jaydon Dureau. Johnny commented that having a teammate with him will be “nice to have someone there you know right away. He is a good guy, and I get to hang out with him; a good guy and friend.”
Ludvig said that he will return to the Czech Republic for about a month from July until August after development camp. While he grew up in Kamloops, Johnny was born in Czech, where he still has family and friends. “There is a great training facility there where my dad helps out with his old team. I go back there and train with a bunch of Czech pro hockey players which is really good leading up to my season.”
Johnny’s father — Jan Ludvig — played parts of seven seasons in the NHL, totalling 314 games with 54 goals and 87 assists. In 1994, he joined the New Jersey Devils as a scout and worked for them until the 2017-2018 season.
Another New Jersey Devils connection to Ludvig is Scott Stevens. Johnny says he watches a lot of his clips and tries to emulate part of his game after his role model Stevens.
The combination of watching Stevens and how Johnny’s father raised him helped pave the way for the style of game Ludvig plays. “That is how I was raised,” he explained. “My dad played in the NHL, and he was an old-school guy. He has raised me to be the type of player he hated to play against.”
Another factor that makes Johnny Ludvig so hard to play against is his background in boxing. “I’ve been trained by Barry Atkins, the ex-world champion. I’ve been seeing him for around seven years.”
Not only has Johnny been working with Atkins, but his dad did as well. Ludvig continued, saying, “He trained my dad when he didn’t know a word of English back when he was a young hockey player.”
Boxing is something Johnny utilizes to aid in his play on the ice as well. “It helps me out tremendously in hockey. It teaches you how to be tough mentally and physically. It is nice knowing you have that out there when you are on the ice. You have a lot more confidence.”
Anyone in the arena can see how much confidence Ludvig plays with, and the Florida Panthers recognized his game on Saturday.
Johnny describes what the Panthers fans can expect to get in the future, “I’m a defense first type of guy. I’m fun to watch, I play hard, and I don’t give anyone anything on the ice. You are going to see a hard-nosed game from me, and I will try to chip in offensively here and there too.”
What is one of the most memorable goals Ludvig scored in his young career? He scored the Portland Winterhawks Teddy Bear Toss goal against now Philadelphia Flyer, former Everett Silvertips goalie Carter Hart.
Ludvig recognizes the need to get faster and quicker as “what I would say is lacking in my game right now.” He continues to work and train hard over the summer as he wants to “make a good impression when I go back to Florida (for training camp).”
Johnny’s fitness is something his coaches never have to worry about. At the start of Portland’s training camp, he won the award for the best physical fitness results. “I think it is a big part of the game,” Ludvig explained. “The least you can do when you come into camp is being in good shape. That is all hard work during your summer. I take big pride in that and showing up in the best shape I can be in.”
While the Florida Panthers are in his future, Ludvig is also focused on the 2019-2020 season with the Winterhawks. “I want to be a leader on this team next year. I want to lead them to a Memorial Cup because that is the goal in the end. I want to chip in everywhere I can this year and be an overall leader doing whatever I can to help the team win.”
Not long from now, Johnny Ludvig will be packing his suitcase with sunscreen, sunglasses, and heading to Florida. The big leagues are in his future.
