Florida Panthers

The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team who play in the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida/Miami, Florida suburb of Sunrise. They play in the National Hockey League (NHL).

Facts

Founded: 1993-94 NHL season

Arena: BankAtlantic Center (Previously known as the National Car Rental Center, and later, Office Depot Center) (capacity 19,452)

Former Home Arena: Miami Arena (1993-1998)

Team color jersey: Navy blue jersey with white, red and gold stripes at the bottom of sleeve and torso with red and gold stripes over the shoulders. Team logo (a leaping panther) centered on chest.

White jersey: White jersey with identical striping and logo as team color jersey.

Third Jersey: Red jersey with navy, gold and white stripes at bottom of sleeve and torso with navy and white stripes over the shoulders. Team logo is identical to other jerseys with the exception of a broken hockey stick in the panther's paws.

Logo design: a Florida panther (puma subspecies)

Mascot: Stanley C. Panther

Conference Championships: 1 (1995-96)

Stanley Cup Finals appearances: 1 (1995-96; lost to Colorado, 0-4)

Rivals: Tampa Bay Lightning, Philadelphia Flyers

Franchise history

Blockbuster Video magnate 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 1994-95, 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.

The 1996 playoffs were a dream for the Panthers. They upset the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins to reach the Stanley Cup Final. South Florida was euphoric. Against Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, series comebacks were part of the astonishment. 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 1997-98.

The Panthers moved into the National Car Rental Center (now known as BankAtlantic 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"), in a blockbuster trade with the Vancouver Canucks. They would reach the playoffs again in 2000 riding on his 58 goals, losing in the first round to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion New Jersey Devils.

The team slumped in the 2000-01 NHL season despite a 59 goal season from Bure. The following season, 2001-02, the Panthers would have their worst record ever. Bure struggled despite being reunited with his brother Valeri, and was traded to the New York Rangers on the 2002 trading deadline.

In 1994, Miami businessman Cliff Viner, acquired a four percent stake in the Panthers.

In 2003, the Florida Panthers held the NHL All Star Weekend. In the abnormally high-scoring exhibition, 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 Atlanta's Dany Heatley, who took home MVP honors in his first All-Star Game.

On June 23, 2006, the Florida Panthers were again involved in a blockbuster trade with the Vancouver Canucks, sending Roberto Luongo, Lukas Krajicek and a 6th round draft pick in exchange for Todd Bertuzzi, Alex Auld and Bryan Allen.

Season-by-season record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Season	GP	W	L	T	OTL	Pts	GF	GA	PIM	Finish	Playoffs
1993-94	84	33	34	17	-	83	233	233	1620	5th in Atlantic	Out of playoffs
1994-95¹	48	20	22	6	-	46	115	127	770	5th in Atlantic	Out of playoffs
1995-96	82	41	31	10	-	92	254	234	1494	3rd in Atlantic	Final, 0-4 (Avalanche)
1996-97	82	35	28	19	-	89	221	201	1628	3rd in Atlantic	Conf QF, 1-4 (Rangers)
1997-98	82	24	43	15	-	63	203	256	1676	6th in Atlantic	Out of playoffs
1998-99	82	30	34	18	-	78	210	228	1522	2nd in Southeast	Out of Playoffs
1999-00	82	43	27	6	6	98	244	209	1329	2nd in Southeast	Conf QF, 0-4 (Devils)
2000-01	82	22	38	13	9	66	200	246	1509	3rd in Southeast	Out of playoffs
2001-02	82	22	44	10	6	60	180	250	1994	4th in Southeast	Out of playoffs
2002-03	82	24	36	13	9	70	176	237	1127	4th in Southeast	Out of Playoffs
2003-04	82	28	35	15	4	75	188	221	1192	4th in Southeast	Out of playoffs
2004-05²	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
2005-06 ³	82	37	34		11	85	240	257	1255	4th in Southeast	Out of playoffs

¹ Season was shortened due to the 1994-95 NHL lockout.

² Season was cancelled due to the 2004-05 NHL lockout.

³ As of the 2005-06 NHL season, all games have a winner; games ending overtime in a tie are decided by shootouts.

Notable players

Current squad

As of July 15, 2006 ^*

Goaltenders
Number	Player	Catches	Acquired	Place of Birth
--	Alex Auld	L	2006	Thunder Bay, Ontario
--	Craig Anderson	L	2006	Park Ridge, Illinois

Defensemen
Number	Player	Shoots	Acquired	Place of Birth
-	Bryan Allen	L	2006	Kingston, Ontario
-	Ruslan Salei	L	2006	Minsk, Belarus
-	Ari Vallin	L	2006	Ylöjärvi, Finland
4	Jay Bouwmeester	L	2002	Edmonton, Alberta
5	Branislav Mezei	L	2002	Nitra, Slovakia
7	Steve Montador	R	2005	Vancouver, British Columbia
20	Joel Kwiatkowski	L	2004	Kindersley, Saskatchewan
21	Alexei Semenov	L	2004	Murmansk, Russia
26	Mike Van Ryn	R	2003	London, Ontario
55	Ric Jackman	R	2006	Toronto, Ontario

Forwards
Number	Player	Shoots	Position	Acquired	Place of Birth
--	Todd Bertuzzi	L	RW	2006	Sudbury, Ontario
--	Ville Peltonen	L	LW	2006	Vantaa, Finland
9	Stephen Weiss	L	C	2001	Toronto, Ontario
10	Gary Roberts - A	L	LW	2005	North York, Ontario
12	Olli Jokinen - C	L	C	2000	Kuopio, Finland
13	Juraj Kolnik	R	RW	2002	Nitra, Slovakia
15	Jozef Stumpel	R	C	2005	Nitra, Slovakia
16	Nathan Horton	R	C	2003	Welland, Ontario
23	Martin Gelinas	L	LW	2005	Shawinigan, Quebec
25	Joe Nieuwendyk - A	L	C	2003	Oshawa, Ontario
42	Mikhail Yakubov	L	C	2006	Barnaul, Russia
44	Gregory Campbell	L	C	2002	London, Ontario
57	Anthony Stewart	R	RW	2003	LaSalle, Quebec
77	Chris Gratton - A	L	C	2005	Brantford, Ontario
85	Rostislav Olesz	L	C	2004	Bilovec, Czech Republic

Hall of Famers

Retired numbers

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

Team captains

Brian Skrudland 1993-97
Scott Mellanby 1997-01
Pavel Bure/Paul Laus 2001-02 (co-capts)
no captain 2002-03
Olli Jokinen 2003- present

1st 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 scoring leaders

These are the top-ten point-scorers in the history of the Panthers. Figures are updated after each completed NHL regular season.

Note: GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points * = Still active as a Panther

Player	POS	GP	G	A	Pts
Scott Mellanby	RW	552	157	197	354
Viktor Kozlov	C	414	101	190	291
Robert Svehla	D	573	61	229	290
Rob Niedermayer	C	518	101	165	266
*Olli Jokinen	C	403	115	142	257
Pavel Bure	RW	223	152	99	251
Ray Whitney	LW/RW	273	97	130	227
Radek Dvorak	RW	336	69	93	162
Bill Lindsay	RW	506	63	98	161
Gord Murphy	D	410	42	100	142