Florida Panthers

The Florida Panthers are a professional hockey team based in Sunrise, Florida. The team plays in the National Hockey League's (NHL's) Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. In 1992, Wayne Huizenga purchased an NHL expansion franchise for the Miami-Dade County, which was the second NHL expansion in Florida and played its inaugural season in 1993–1994. The Florida Panthers play their home games in the FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, which is west of Ft. Lauderdale and north of Miami, allowing the team to draw from fans in both cities.

Florida Panther original logo.

The team took its name from the endangered Floridian panther. This was partly based on owner Huizenga's desire for the team to possess similar traits as those associated with the powerful cat, including strength and agility, as much for it being a unique animal to the Florida area. The new franchise was awarded a $50 million franchise fee and would play at the Miami Arena, where the NBA's Miami Heat played, until a new arena was built. The team's original logos and uniforms were unveiled on June 15, 1993.

Florida Panthers early jerseys.

Florida Panthers rebranded team logo and colors.

In 2016, the Florida Panthers underwent a significant rebrand, unveiling a new logo and new uniforms. The new uniforms included a new military-style badge logo, which was a nod in honor of the 101st Airborne division of the United States military, and replaced the long-standing leaping panther. The military theme extended to the alternate sleeve patches, which featured the state flag with a panther on top and either "Florida" or "Panthers" depending on if it is the home or away jersey. Along with the change, the team changed their three primary colors to Panthers Red, Panthers Blue, and Panthers Flat Gold.

Unlike other expansion teams of the era, the Panthers were competitive early in their history, amassing 83 points and nearly qualifying for the playoffs in their first season, which set a record for NHL expansion teams that would stand until the Vegas Golden Knights entered the league. In the team's second season, they earned 46 points, which placed them fifth in their division and ninth in the conference, just one point shy of the final playoff spot.

Scott Mellanby, who would start the tradition of throwing rats on the ice.

In the team's third season in the NHL, the Panthers finally qualified for the playoffs. The season started with an unusual goal celebration after Scott Mellanby struck a rat scurrying across their dressing room with his stick, killing the rodent. During the succeeding game, Mellanby scored two goals, which goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck called a "rat trick." As the story spread, fans of the Panthers began throwing rubber rats on the ice to celebrate the team's goals. The Panthers were largely propelled by the goaltending of Vanbiesbrouck to the playoffs.

Avalanche goaltender Patrick Roy surrounded by plastic rats in Florida.

In the first round of the playoffs, the Panthers beat the Boston Bruins in five games before going on to upset the top-seeded Philadelphia Flyers in six games. They reached the Eastern Conference Finals to play the Pittsburgh Penguins. The series went to seven games before the Panthers won and were headed to the Stanley Cup Finals in the expansion team's third season. However, in the finals, the Panthers met the Colorado Avalanche, powered by superstars such as goaltender Patrick Roy and forward Joe Sakic, who overpowered the Panthers in a four-game sweep.

Panthers' captain and leading scorer Pavel Bure.

The Panthers returned to the playoffs in the 1996–1997 season but were eliminated in the first round by the Washington Capitals. This began a trend for the franchise, which would qualify for the playoffs in the 1999–2000 season, where they lost again in the first round. Then came an eleven-season drought, between the 2000–2001 and 2010–2011 seasons, which saw the team finish between third and fifth in its division. However, during this period, many players made records for the franchise, including superstar Pavel Bure, who scored 59 goals, the most for the franchise, in the 2000–2001 season.

More concerningly for the franchise, was a series of decisions that complicated their performance. For example, due in part to the poor on-ice performance, and not being a state known for hockey, the Panthers suffered poor attendance. Another came after the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, in which Florida made a deal for more draft picks but would ultimately place Michael Grabner on waivers. Grabner would be picked up from waivers by the New York Islanders, and the young player put up a 34-goal campaign the next season.

Many of these decisions were the result of dysfunctional management. In 2001, coach Mike Keenan was hired with the promise of ending his career in Florida. General manager Rick Dudley was brought in the season after. These were decisions made by different ownership partners, and Keenan was known to be difficult to work with. The coach and general manager clashed and a power struggle began almost immediately.

Mike Keenan behind the Panthers' bench.

Keenan was fired after a poor start to the 2003–2004 season gave Dudley the leverage he needed. Dudley brought in John Tochetti to coach the team, but this only lasted six months before Dudley was fired as general manager to be replaced by none other than Mike Keenan. The team had another disappointing result in the 2005-06 season, and Keenan looked to change the club's composition, only to make a trade that is considered by some to be one of the worst in NHL history. The trade saw franchise goaltender Roberto Luongo traded to the Vancouver Canucks for Todd Bertuzzi, Alex Auld, and Bryan Allen, none of whom would have the impact for the Panthers that Luongo would have for the Canucks. Mike Keenan was fired once again.

Following the bizarre Keenan experiment, the Florida Panthers hired Dale Tallon as their general manager. Tallon had most recently turned the Chicago Blackhawks into a Stanley Cup-winning team, and the Panthers hoped he would do the same for their club. Tallon was the general manager of the club from his hiring in 2010 to 2016, and he was replaced for a year in 2016 by Tom Rowe, who lasted one season before being replaced again by Dale Tallon.

The 2015-16 Panthers celebrating a goal.

In the 2011–2012 season, Florida Panthers rebounded to capture the first division title in franchise history, but once more lost the opening round of the playoffs to the New Jersey Devils. The 2012–2013 season was a lockout-shortened season in which the Panthers posted the worst record, only to rebound by 2015–2016 with another division title. In the 2015–2016 season, the Panthers found themselves upset again in the first round of the playoffs but once more began to post middling records and finish outside of playoff contention.

During these down years, the Panthers were able to draft and develop several young players, such as defenseman Aaron Ekblad, who won the Calder Memorial Trophy for NHL Rookie of the Year in 2015; Jonathan Huberdeau, who won the Calder Trophy in 2013; and franchise center Aleksander Barkov. Around the end of this stretch, the team underwent further changes to its roster and was rebranded at the end of the 2015–2016 season.

Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

Starting in the 2019–2020 season, there was hope for the Panthers, as they had new starting goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who would win his 500th career win in his first season with the Panthers. During the regular season, the Panthers posted a winning record and showed the young players who had been drafted and developed by the team were beginning to reach their potential and pushing the team back to respectability.

However, the season was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic before resuming in August in a twenty-four-team tournament format. Florida faced the New York Islanders in the qualifying round and lost the best-of-five series in four games. This left the Panthers without a playoff win since their remarkable 1996 run to the Stanley Cup Finals.

General manager Bill Zito meets the media for the first time.

Following the upsetting result from the 2019–2020 season, the Florida Panthers replaced Dale Tallon after ten seasons as the club's general manager with Bill Zito. The eleventh general manager in the Panthers history, Zito began working to overhaul the team and turn them not just into a playoff team but a Stanley Cup contender. Zito quickly identified the players in the organization who could be considered the team's core players, or the players to be built around, and worked around the edges to create a contending team.

The Florida Panthers improved during the 2020–2021 season, which saw the teams limited to inter-divisional play during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, the Panthers lost in the first round to interstate rivals Tampa Bay Lightning. The team went into the 2021–2022 regular season, which was back to a normal NHL format, building on the previous season's success, and won the franchise's first Presidents' Trophy as the best team in the regular season, with the team finishing with fifty-eight wins and 122 points, both franchise records.

Panthers and Lightning players shake hands after second-round series.

Perhaps most importantly, however, the Panthers faced the Washington Capitals in the first round of the playoffs, and they won the series in six games, their first series win since 1996. However, the Panthers met their interstate rival Tampa Bay Lightning for the second postseason in a row, only to be swept by the Lightning.

Despite the success, Zito and the Panthers fired coach Andrew Brunette at the end of the season and hired former Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice. That would be followed by a surprising trade that sent Calgary Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers for Jonathan Huberdeau and Mackenzie Weegar. Huberdeau and Weegar were both considered important to the previous season's success of the Panthers, but Tkachuk was seen as a different kind of player, who would perform in the playoffs.

Matthew Tkachuk, whose physical and offensive instincts would lead Panthers to a Stanley Cup Final.

The gamble would pay off. Although the Panthers were not as successful in the regular season as they had been the season prior, the 2022–2023 Panthers reached the playoffs. This was partly due to Tkachuk, who gave the Panthers a physical presence they had previously lacked. The Panthers reached the playoffs, where they faced the Boston Bruins, who had set NHL records for regular season wins. They took the Bruins to seven games, where the Panthers won in over time.

Their second-round series came against the Toronto Maple Leafs, who had won a first-round series for the first time since 2004. The Panthers beat the Leafs in five games and reached the Eastern Conference Final for the second time in their franchise's history, where they played the Carolina Hurricanes. The Panthers swept the series in four games. However, the Panthers' historic run fell short against the Vegas Golden Knights, who beat the Panthers in five games to win the Stanley Cup.