Florida Panthers

The Florida Panthers are a National Hockey League team, based in Miami, Florida and playing in the suburb of Sunrise.

Founded: 1993-1994

Arena: Office Depot Center (capacity 19,452)

Uniform colors: red, blue, gold, white

Logo design: a panther (puma subspecies)

Stanley Cup final appearances: 1 (1995-1996 (loss))

Franchise history

Blockbuster Video magnate Wayne Huizenga was awarded an NHL franchise for his native Miami in 1992. The team's first major stars were New York Rangers goalie 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 1994-1995, coach Roger Neilson was fired and replaced by Doug MacLean. They then acquired Ray Shepard from the San Jose Sharks on the trade deadline in 1996 and they looked towards the playoffs for the first time.

The 1996 playoffs were a dream for the Panthers. They upset the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins to reach the Stanley Cup finals. South Florida was euphoric.

It came to an end in the Stanley Cup finals though. Their opponents, the Colorado Avalanche, would sweep the Panthers on Uwe Krupp's third-overtime goal in game 4. The next season, a team ravaged by injuries would lose to the New York Rangers on the first round. More injuries caused the team to have their worst record to that point in 1997-1998.

The Panthers moved into the National Car Rental Center (now known as Office Depot Center) in 1998, the new arena being the result of bickering and threatening to move the team. In 1999, they acquired Pavel Bure (the "Russian Rocket"), and they would reach the playoffs again in 2000 riding on his 58 goals.

Bure slumped in 2000-2001 and he was traded. The Panthers would have their worst record ever in 2001-2002.

Players of Note

Hall of Famers:

Current stars:

• Jay Bouwmeester
• Valeri Bure
• Olli Jokinen
• Viktor Kozlov
• Roberto Luongo

Not to be forgotten:

• John Vanbiesbrouck

Retired Numbers:

• 99 Wayne Gretzky (retired league-wide by the NHL)

Florida Panthers official web site

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For the animal species by this name, see Florida panther.