NHL All-Time Teams: Florida Panthers
The Panthers haven't been around long and have been mostly bad. But their all-time team does have one of the best scorers in NHL history.
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Ah, hockey in the summer, where things come to a grinding halt for about two months in between one long season and another. To fill the void we at Eye on Hockey thought it would be fun to make an all-time team for each of the 30 organizations in the NHL today.
The ground rules: The teams will consist of a center, two wings (regardless of which side), two defensemen and a goaltender. A player must have spent at least 200 games with a franchise to be considered. So Bobby Orr won't be on the Blackhawks' roster or Wayne Gretzky for St. Louis.
The Florida Panthers haven't been around long -- they are celebrating their 20th anniversary this season -- and haven't had a very illustrious history in their brief time, either. Aside from one magical season in just their third year of operation when they reached the Stanley Cup Final, Florida has been a barren wasteland in hockey. They have made the playoffs just once since 2000, a first-round exit in 2011-12.
As a result, their past rosters aren't littered with Hall of Famers or anything -- though there have been a couple to play in South Florida. As a result, either the guys on this team were good players on bad teams or come from the short-lived golden era of Panthers hockey.
| Center |
Olli Jokinen: The Panthers actually have a few decent choices at center but I'm giving the nod here to Jokinen. The all-time leader in games played for the franchise is Stephen Weiss and if you were ever looking to tab somebody as Mr. Panther it would probably be him despite the fact he just left to Detroit in free agency. Viktor Kozlov is another option.
But Jokinen is the franchise's all-time leader in goals with 188 and points with 419 despite playing 77 fewer games than Weiss as a Panther. Jokinen isn't the same player today as he was in Florida when he had the best years of his career with four seasons of at least 34 goals.
| Wings |
Pavel Bure: The title of best player to ever wear a Panthers sweater goes to this man. The recent inductee to the Hall of Fame didn't spend a massive amount of time in Florida -- just 223 games -- but was he ever productive. Florida had never seen a player anywhere near Bure in terms of ability before he came and it hasn't come close to seeing one since.
The Russian Rocket doesn't come close to cracking the top of the games-played list in franchise history, a whopping 431 games less than Weiss, but he is the third all-time leading goal scorer in franchise history. In what amounts to a little less than four seasons, Bure had 152 goals as a Panther. His time there also included two Rocket Richard Trophies with a 59-goal season and another with 58. This one is a no-brainer.
Scott Mellanby: Mellanby goes back to the golden days of Panthers hockey, aka the mid-90s. He was with the Panthers from 1993 until 2001 when he was traded to St. Louis. In that time he put up consistent numbers over the years to put himself near the top of all categories in franchise history.
Mellanby had his best season in 1995-96 by scoring 32 goals with 38 assists, a big reason the Panthers were able to surprise the league with a good season and go all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.
Plus, Mellanby has to be a shoo-in over guys like Nathan Horton and Ray Whitney for having the most famous hit in Panthers history. He is forever in franchise lore by killing a rat in the locker room of the old Miami Arena with a slap shot to the wall before scoring two goals in the 1995 season opener. Thus the rat trick was born, as was a hockey tradition in Florida.
| Defensemen |
Jay Bouwmeester: The Panthers don't have a terribly illustrious history of defensemen, but it's not as if Bouwmeester is necessarily here just by default either. A third overall selection by the Panthers in 2002, Bouwmeester was with the Panthers for six seasons when he built himself into a rare All-Star for the Panthers.
When he was in Florida, Bouwmeester could always be counted on to play every game and log a lot of minutes. In addition to that he was a scoring threat on the blue line, scoring 15 goals in each of his final two seasons in Florida. His time with the Panthers might not have ended as well as it could have -- he made it pretty clear he didn't want to play in Florida any more -- but he was a very productive and good defenseman for them during lean years.
 |
Robert Svehla: This was a close call between Svehla and Gord Murphy, but I'll go with Svehla in this case. Certainly not a recognizable name to most hockey fans, Svehla was partly a victim of playing in Florida for most of his career.
He has more games played -- 573 -- than any defenseman in franchise history and was a consistent performer as well as scorer on the blue line. In his seven full seasons with the Panthers he never registered fewer than 28 points in a season, topping out at 57 in that magical 1995-96 season. Not to mention Svehla only missed six games in those seven seasons. He could always be counted on.
| Goaltender |
Roberto Luongo: This might have been the toughest call to make of any position for the Panthers. It was at the point of essentially flipping a coin between Luongo and John Vanbiesbrouck. It just so happened to land on Lu.
Luongo played 317 games as a Panther, 49 more than Vanbiesbrouck, and was barraged on a nightly basis. Luongo was routinely peppered with shot after shot in Florida and still posted a .920 save percentage. His 108 wins are two more than Vanbiesbrouck, who played on much better teams. But if you wanted to go with the Beezer over Luongo, it's really tough to argue against that thinking.
Regardless, it won't be Jamie McLennan, who is still stuck behind Lu here.
| Notable omissions |
John Vanbiesbrouck, Viktor Kozlov, Stephen Weiss, Gord Murphy, Nathan Horton, Rob Niedermayer, Ray Whitney, Radek Dvorak, Tomas Vokoun
Perhaps we should have an honorary spot on this list for Mike Milbury. The former Islanders general manager helped give the Panthers two of the six players on this list when he dealt Jokinen and Luongo to Florida for Mark Parrish and Oleg Kvasha. Oops.
