Florida Panthers
The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. The Panthers compete in the National Hockey League as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team initially played its home games at Miami Arena before moving to what is now known as Amerant Bank Arena in 1998. Located in Sunrise, Florida, the franchise is the southernmost team in the NHL. The Panthers are one of two NHL franchises based in Florida, with the other being the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The team's local broadcasting rights were held by Bally Sports Florida from 1996 to 2024 when they made a new broadcast deal with Scripps Sports. The Panthers are primarily affiliated with two minor league teams: the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League and the Savannah Ghost Pirates of the ECHL.
The Panthers began playing in the 1993–94 season, when they set the record for the most points by an expansion team in its inaugural season, which was later surpassed by the Vegas Golden Knights in 2017–18. In 1996, the team made their first appearance in the Stanley Cup playoffs, reaching the 1996 Stanley Cup Final before falling to the Colorado Avalanche. Between 1997 and 2021, the Panthers only qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs six times, not winning a playoff series in that span.
Since the 2021–22 season, the Panthers have found considerable postseason success. They won their first playoff series in two decades in 2022, and appeared in the Stanley Cup Final for three straight seasons from 2023 to 2025, winning their first Stanley Cup in franchise history in 2024, and repeating as champions in 2025.
History
Early years (1992–2000)
magnate Wayne Huizenga was awarded an NHL franchise for Miami on December 10, 1992, the same day the Walt Disney Company earned the rights to start a team in Anaheim that would become the Mighty Ducks. At the time, Huizenga owned both the newly founded Florida Marlins of Major League Baseball and a share of the National Football League 's Miami Dolphins. The entry fee was $50 million. Huizenga announced the team would play at the Miami Arena, sharing the building with the National Basketball Association 's Miami Heat, until a new arena was built. Offices for the team were only established in June 1993, while vice president of business operations Dean Jordan conceded that "none of the business people, myself included, knew anything about hockey." The new franchise would be the first professional ice hockey team in Miami since the folding of the Tropical Hockey League in 1939.Huizenga initially wanted to name the team the "Block Busters" in honor of his video rental chain. The team would have the same colors as the video rental chain and even a uniform concept was designed. In the end, the NHL rejected the nickname.
On April 20, 1993, a press conference in Fort Lauderdale announced that the team would be named Florida Panthers, with former New York Islanders general manager Bill Torrey as president and Bobby Clarke as general manager. The team is named for the Florida panther, an endangered species of large cat endemic to the nearby Everglades region. Once the logos and uniforms were unveiled on June 15, the team also announced its financial commitment to the panther preservation cause. Huizenga had held the Panthers trademark since 1991, when he purchased it from a group of Tampa investors who sought to create an MLB team in the Tampa Bay area.
The new franchise joined the NHL for participation in the 1993–94 season, along with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. The Panthers' and Ducks' rosters were filled in both the expansion draft and the 1993 NHL entry draft in June 1993, hosted by Quebec City; that draft produced ten players who would eventually be a part of the 1996 Eastern Conference-winning team.
The Panthers' first major stars were former New York Rangers goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck, rookie Rob Niedermayer and forward Scott Mellanby, who scored 30 goals in Florida's inaugural season. Their first game was a 4–4 tie on the road against the Chicago Blackhawks, while their first win was a 2–0 shutout of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Thunderdome before a then-NHL record crowd of 27,227. The Panthers had one of the most successful first seasons of any expansion team in league history, finishing just two points below.500 and narrowly missing out on the final 1994 playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Their first-year success was attributed mainly to the trap defense that first-year coach Roger Neilson implemented. This conservative style was widely criticized by NHL teams; some even suggested that the Panthers were ruining the game. While the team executives expected the audience to consist of mostly "snowbird" Canadians living in Florida, the Floridians soon embraced the Panthers. Helped by Miami's other teams having middling performances, the club averaged 94% capacity at the 14,500-seat Miami Arena, and sold 8,500 season tickets in 100 days.
In August 1994, general manager Clarke left to work for the Philadelphia Flyers; Bryan Murray was brought in from the Detroit Red Wings as his replacement. After another close brush with the playoffs, finishing the lockout-shortened 1994–95 season again in ninth, Neilson was fired following an argument with Murray regarding Ed Jovanovski, whom the Panthers chose as the number one overall pick at the 1994 NHL entry draft. Doug MacLean, who had been the team's player development director, was promoted to coach. The team then acquired Ray Sheppard from the San Jose Sharks at the NHL trade deadline and looked toward the playoffs for the first time.
The Rat Trick and a trip to the 1996 Stanley Cup Final
A very unusual goal celebration developed in Miami during the 1995–96 season. On the night of the Panthers' 1995–96 home opener, a rat scurried across the team's locker room. Scott Mellanby reacted by "one-timing" the rat against the wall, killing it. That night, he scored two goals, which Vanbiesbrouck quipped was "a rat trick". Two nights later, as the story found its way into the world, a few fans threw rubber rats on the ice in celebration of a goal. The rubber rat count went from 16 for the third home game to over 2,000 during the playoffs.In the 1996 playoffs, as the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, the Panthers faced the Boston Bruins in the first round and won in five games. Bill Lindsay's series-clinching goal is still a trademark image for the run the third-year franchise went on. The Panthers went on to upset the top-seeded Philadelphia Flyers in six games followed by the second-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins in seven to reach the 1996 Stanley Cup Final against the Colorado Avalanche, another team making its first Stanley Cup Final appearance. The Avalanche, however, swept the Panthers in four games. Despite losing in the Cup Final series, the Panthers set a record for most wins by an expansion team in their first postseason appearance with 12 victories. For his team's surprising success, Bryan Murray was honored as NHL Executive of the Year.
The Panthers began the next season with a 12-game unbeaten streak, but faded in the second half of the season after trading second line center Stu Barnes. They lost in five games in the first round of the playoffs to the Wayne Gretzky-led New York Rangers. The team would plummet in the 1997–98 season. After a 7–12–4 start, the Panthers fired Doug MacLean, replacing him for the season with general manager Bryan Murray. The change did not aid matters, as Florida posted a franchise-worst 24–43–15 record, including a 15-game winless streak. This season also marked the end of goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck's time in Florida; in the midst of that streak, he was shelled by the Chicago Blackhawks and never played another game for the Panthers. In the following off-season, Vanbiesbrouck signed with the Flyers as a free agent.
New arena and a decade of struggles (1998–2010)
The Panthers moved into the brand new National Car Rental Center in 1998. In 1998–99, they acquired Pavel Bure, in a blockbuster trade with the Vancouver Canucks. They then reached the playoffs again in 1999–2000, losing in a first round sweep to the eventual Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils. The team slumped in 2000–01. Afterward, Huizenga sold the Panthers to an ownership group led by Alan Cohen. The following season, 2001–02, the Panthers had their worst record ever. Bure struggled despite being reunited with his brother Valeri, and was traded to the Rangers at the 2002 trade deadline.File:Jay Bouwmeester.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The Panthers drafted Jay Bouwmeester third overall in the 2002 NHL entry draft.
The Panthers then began eyeing defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, who was widely tipped to be picked first overall pick at the 2002 NHL entry draft. However, then-general manager Rick Dudley sent Florida's first pick to the Columbus Blue Jackets, who selected winger Rick Nash, and in return, the Panthers received the right to trade first-round selections with the Blue Jackets in the 2003 NHL entry draft, a right which was not exercised when the Panthers received the first overall selection in 2003 as well. The Atlanta Thrashers, after picking goaltender Kari Lehtonen second overall, announced that the Panthers had given them two draft picks to guarantee that Bouwmeester would still be available for Florida's selection. Bouwmeester was selected third overall by the Panthers. Said then-head coach Mike Keenan, "We shouldn't have done that... Jay would have been number-one if we'd kept that pick."
In 2003, the Panthers hosted the NHL All-Star weekend in which the Western Conference earned a 6–5 victory after the first overtime shootout in All-Star history. The West overcame a four-goal outburst by Thrashers winger Dany Heatley, who took home MVP honors in his first All-Star appearance.
On June 23, 2006, the Panthers were again involved in a blockbuster trade with Vancouver, sending Roberto Luongo, Lukas Krajicek and a sixth-round draft pick in exchange for Todd Bertuzzi, Alex Auld and Bryan Allen. This trade has been regarded by some as one of the worst trades in professional sports history – Luongo, who was at the prime of his career, was one of the League's top goaltenders, while Bertuzzi played just a handful of games for Florida before getting injured. He would later be traded to Detroit Red Wings at the trade deadline for Shawn Matthias. Additionally, Auld ended up a poor replacement for Luongo, and was ultimately let go after one season with the team.
On June 22, 2007, the Panthers were involved in yet another draft-day deal involving a goaltender. The team acquired Tomas Vokoun from the Nashville Predators in exchange for three draft picks – a first-round pick in 2008, a second-round pick in 2008 and a conditional second-round pick that could be used in 2007 or 2008. The move would eventually pay off when Vokoun was selected to the Eastern Conference All-Star Team. On July 28, 2007, Florida unveiled their new jerseys to over 11,000 fans at the BankAtlantic Center during the first intermission of the Panthers' 1996 Reunion game. Star forwards Nathan Horton and Stephen Weiss were both in full gear to help showcase the sweater changes.
In June 2008, the Panthers traded their captain Olli Jokinen to the Phoenix Coyotes for a second-round draft pick and defensemen Keith Ballard and Nick Boynton. The Panthers finished the 2008–09 season with a strong 41–30–11 record and 93 points, their second-highest finish in franchise history. Despite this, however, the Panthers missed the playoffs for an eighth-straight season, the then-longest streak in the NHL.
In November 2009, Cliff Viner and Stu Siegel became the new majority owners. On November 23, 2009, the Panthers made their third jersey, ridding red from the alternate jersey, replacing it with powder blue. The Panthers missed the playoffs for the ninth consecutive time in the 2009–10 season, making them the first team in NHL history to do so in one city.