The
Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team who play in the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida/Miami, Florida suburb of Sunrise. They began playing in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a 1993 expansion team.
Franchise history
Blockbuster Video magnate H. Wayne Huizenga was awarded an NHL franchise for his native Miami in 1992. The team played at the Miami Arena, and its first major stars were New York Rangers goaltender castoff John Vanbiesbrouck, rookie Rob Niedermayer, and Scott Mellanby, who scored 30 goals. They had one of the most successful first seasons of any expansion team, finishing one point below .500 and narrowly missing out on the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
After missing another close brush with the playoffs in 1995, coach Roger Neilson was fired and replaced by Doug MacLean. They then acquired Ray Sheppard from the San Jose Sharks on the trade deadline in 1996 and they looked towards the playoffs for the first time.
Also during that season, a very unusual goal celebration developed in Miami. On the night of the Panthers' '95-'96 home opener, a rat scurried across the Florida locker room. Mellanby reacted by "one-timing" the rat against the wall, killing it [1]. 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 a freak coincidence, 1996 was also year of the rat according to Chinese Astrology.
In the 1996 playoffs, as the #4 seed, the Panthers beat the Boston Bruins(led by Bill Lindsay's famous goal now know as the shot where he scored while sliding on the ice to win the series) in 5 games, then upset the top seeded Philadelphia Flyers in six, and then the second seeded Pittsburgh Penguins in seven to reach the Stanley Cup Final. Their opponents, the Colorado Avalanche, swept the Panthers in four games. Following the Panthers' two goals in the first period of game three, the Avs’ Patrick Roy spoke to his teammates, declaring there would be "no more rats." The Panthers did not score another goal, and Roy finished the series with a 1.00 goals against average.[1]
The Panthers would begin the next season with a 17-game unbeaten streak, but due to injuries and a couple of questionable personnel moves[citation needed] (the acquisition of Kirk Muller at the trade deadline as well as the earlier trade of popular center[citation needed] Stu Barnes), Florida faded in the second half of the season, losing in the first round of the playoffs to the Wayne Gretzky-led Rangers in five games.
The 1997-98 season would be a return to mediocrity for the Panthers.[citation needed] After a 7-12-4 start, the Panthers fired coach Doug MacLean, replacing him for the season with General Manager Bryan Murray. The change didn't aid matters,[citation needed] as Florida suffered a franchise-worst 24-43-15 record, including a 15-game winless streak. This season would also mark the end of Disneyworld for Vanbiesbrouck, who in the midst of that streak was shelled by the Chicago Blackhawks and never played another game for the Panthers. He would sign with the Flyers that offseason as a free agent.
Florida's alternate logo; a palm tree and a hockey stick crossing one another over a sun.The Panthers moved into the National Car Rental Center (now known as BankAtlantic Center) in 1998. In 1999, they acquired Pavel Bure (the "Russian Rocket"), in a blockbuster trade with the Vancouver Canucks. They reached the playoffs again in 2000, losing in a first-round sweep to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion New Jersey Devils.
The team slumped in 2000-01. 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 on the 2002 trading deadline.
The Cats started coveting defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, who was widely tipped to be picked first overall in 2002, around then. But controversial bench boss “Iron Mike” Keenan sent Florida's first pick to the Columbus Blue Jackets, who took winger Rick Nash. The Atlanta Thrashers, after secondly picking goalie Kari Lehtonen, announced that the Panthers had given them two picks to guarantee that Bouwmeester went to Miami. Bouwmeester was selected third overall. "We shouldn’t have done that ... Jay would have been number-one if we'd kept that pick,"[2] said Keenan.
In 2003, the Panthers hosted the NHL All-Star Weekend in which the Western Conference earned a 6-5 victory after the first OT shootout in All-Star history. The West overcame a four-goal outburst by Thrash winger Dany Heatley, who took home MVP honors in his first All-Star Game.
On June 23, 2006, Florida was 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. Bertuzzi would later be traded to the Detroit Red Wings at the deadline.
Current roster
As of February 27, 2007. [2]
Goaltenders
20 Ed Belfour L 2006 Carman, Manitoba
31 Craig Anderson L 2006 Park Ridge, Illinois
35 Alex Auld (IR) L 2006 Thunder Bay, Ontario
Defensemen
2 Branislav Mezei (IR) L 2002 Nitra, Czechoslovakia
4 Jay Bouwmeester L 2002 Edmonton, Alberta
5 Bryan Allen L 2006 Kingston, Ontario
7 Steve Montador R 2005 Vancouver, British Columbia
21 Alexei Semenov L 2005 Murmansk, U.S.S.R.
24 Ruslan Salei - A L 2006 Minsk, U.S.S.R.
26 Mike Van Ryn R 2003 London, Ontario
Forwards
9 Stephen Weiss C L 2001 Toronto, Ontario
11 Gregory Campbell LW L 2002 London, Ontario
12 Olli Jokinen - C C L 2000 Kuopio, Finland
13 Juraj Kolnik RW R 2002 Nitra, Czechoslovakia
15 Jozef Stumpel C R 2005 Nitra, Czechoslovakia
16 Nathan Horton RW R 2003 Welland, Ontario
18 Ville Peltonen LW L 2006 Vantaa, Finland
23 Martin Gelinas - A LW L 2005 Shawinigan, Quebec
38 Janis Sprukts C L 2006 Riga, U.S.S.R.
46 David Booth LW L 2004 Detroit, Michigan
77 Chris Gratton - A C L 2005 Brantford, Ontario
85 Rostislav Olesz LW L 2004 Bílovec, Czechoslovakia
Team captains
Brian Skrudland, 1993-97
Scott Mellanby, 1997-2001
Pavel Bure & Paul Laus, 2001-02 (co-captains)
No captain, 2002-03
Olli Jokinen, 2003- present
Hall of Famers
Builders
Roger Neilson, Head coach, 1993-95, inducted 2002
Bill Torrey, GM & President, 1993-2001, inducted 1995
Retired numbers
99 Wayne Gretzky, number retired league-wide February 6, 2000
First-round draft picks
1993: Rob Niedermayer (5th overall)
1994: Ed Jovanovski (1st overall)
1995: Radek Dvorak (10th overall)
1996: Marcus Nilson (20th overall)
1997: Mike Brown (20th overall)
1998: None
1999: Denis Shvidki (12th overall)
2000: None
2001: Stephen Weiss (4th overall) & Lukas Krajicek (24th overall)
2002: Jay Bouwmeester (3rd overall) & Petr Taticek (9th overall)
2003: Nathan Horton (3rd overall) & Anthony Stewart (25th overall)
2004: Rostislav Olesz (7th overall)
2005: Kenndal McArdle (20th overall)
2006: Michael Frolik (10th overall)
Franchise Individual Records
Most Goals in a season: Pavel Bure, 59 (2000-01)
Most Assists in a season: Viktor Kozlov, 53 (1999-00)
Most Points in a season: Pavel Bure, 94 (1999-00)
Most Penalty Minutes in a season: Peter Worrell, 354 (2001-02)
Most Points in a season, defenseman: Robert Svehla, 57 (1995-96)
Most Points in a season, rookie: Jesse Belanger, 50 (1993-94)
Most Wins in a season: Roberto Luongo, 35 (2005-06)
Most Shutouts in a season: Roberto Luongo, 7 (2003-04)
All time leader in goals against average: John Vanbiesbrouck, 2.58
All time leader in shutouts: Roberto Luongo , 26
All time leader in games played by a goaltender: John Vanbiesbrouck, 268
All time leader in wins by a goaltender: John Vanbiesbrouck, 106
SOURCE: Florida Panthers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Complete Panthers Franchise Story
Complete Panthers Franchise Story
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