Henrik Borgstrom opened up about DU’s recruitment of him during a post-draft interview with the Florida Panthers’ beat writers.

The 6-foot-3, 176-pound forward was selected 23rd overall by Florida on Friday night. He is coming off a season in which he had 55 points in 40 games in Finland’s top junior league.

Clearly the due diligence of the Pioneers’ coaching staff paid dividends in landing a potentially elite player.

Here are a few highlights from the Borgstrom interview:

“I had a lot of schools (looking at me). … Denver (was) like really interested. I liked the way how they showed up at the beginning of the season. That made the big difference. … One thing was that I will get the chance to play center there. That’s the place I want to be.”

This was Borgstrom’s second year of eligibility for the draft. He also talked about the difference a year made.

“Last year when I had zero interviews brefore draft I knew nobody wanted me. … Now at the combine, I had 28 interviews. I was sure some team would pick me up (laughs). It feels great to be a Panther.”

Coach Jim Montgomery believes the sky is the limit for Borgstrom.

“He has elite skill, with his shot and playmaking ability,” Montgomery said during an interview this spring. “He has the ability to create offense out of nothing. He’s big and as he puts on muscle mass he is going to be an elite college player.”

I’m pretty sure Pioneers fans will by saying it’s great to have you at DU in fairly short order.