By Greg MakerIt seems like yesterday that the Florida Panthers entered the National Hockey League (NHL). The bright red jerseys with palm trees on the sleeves gave the team a unique look. Playing home games in Miami doesn’t exactly have the same feel as a harsh February in Edmonton, but the novelty of ice hockey was once embraced by southern Floridians in their heyday, though that heyday lasted only two seasons.
It’s funny to think that the Florida Panthers were the most successful expansion team since the Edmonton Oilers made the playoffs in 1980. The 1993-94 version of the team wound up with 14 more points than those Oilers but did not benefit from playing in a time where just about every team qualified to compete for the Stanley Cup. They missed the playoffs by a single point that year. In the lockout shortened 1994-95 season, Florida narrowly missed the playoffs as the defending champion New York Rangers held them off by only one point again.
Finally in 1996 they broke through winning three playoff rounds (their only postseason series victories in franchise history) and advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals where they were simply overmatched by a rising Colorado Avalanche team that was in the midst of setting a record for consecutive division titles won. That year, the Panthers handled Boston before disposing of the top-seeded Philadelphia Flyers in six games. Since the 1996 Eastern Conference Finals, where they edged the Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games, Florida has won exactly ONE playoff game. In 1997, the Panthers served as the foil for Wayne Gretzky’s final curtain in the NHL playoffs. After Vanbiesbrouk shut out his former mates for a Game 1 victory, the Rangers fought back by winning the next two games. This was the last time the Panthers led in a playoff series. Up 1-0 in the second period of Game 4, Gretzky set the stage for his final bow with three goals in 6:23 sending Madison Square Garden into an absolute frenzy. The Rangers prevailed in five games. After two subpar seasons, the Panthers were back in the playoffs but were ousted in a four game sweep by the eventual champions from New Jersey. The Panthers are yet to return to the playoffs since the Devils used them as the first stepping stone to the franchise’s second Stanley Cup.
So how did this happen? From John Vanbiesbrouk in the early years of the franchise to Sean Burke to aging Conn Smythe winning goaltender Mike Vernon to Roberto Luongo and even now Tomas Vokoun, the Panthers have always been solid in net. That’s never been the problem. From Robert Svehla and Ed Jovanovski to Jay Bouwmeester, the Panthers have boasted some of the league’s top blue liners but the depth on D has never been solved. Making matters worse, the Panthers have had only two legitimate offensive threats in their 17-year history: Pavel Bure and Olli Jokinen. Bure, acquired in a trade that sent a package including Jovanovski to Vancouver, had two remarkable seasons in Florida. In 1999-00 and 2000-01, the “Russian Rocket” scored 58 and 59 goals respectively, winning the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the NHL’s top goal scorer both years. Quite an impressive feat. Bure, played in 56 games in 2001-02 before being dealt to the Rangers but still led the team in scoring at season’s end. In the playoff season of 1999-2000, Bure had secondary scoring help from Ray Whitney and Viktor Kozlov who each hit the 70 point mark. However, Bure was counted on too much the following season (2000-01). Though he scored one more goal than he did the previous season, Bure and the Panthers went from winning 43 games to a meager 22. The problem? Simple, Bure had to score or the team would lose. At season’s end he had amassed 30 percent of Florida’s goals. Remarkably, Bure led the team in assists as well though his total of 33 showed that the Panthers did not have a true assist man that season. Consider Kozlov who finished second on the team in scoring had only 14 goals and 25 assists.
With Bure gone, eventually retiring prematurely in 2003 due to injuries, it was time for Olli Jokinen to lead the Panthers attack. The Panthers finished the two years prior to the lockout with subpar teams but emerged as a surprising team post-lockout. With Jokinen now free to play his game with the new rules in place, he managed three straight seasons (2005-08) with goal totals of 38, 39 and 34. However, just like Bure, Jokinen had no secondary scoring. Despite top pick from 2003 Nathan Horton, Jokinen found himself carrying the majority of the workload scoring 16 percent of the team’s goals in those three seasons. Horton played admirably but didn’t even come close to threatening Jokinen for the team lead. The Panthers only missed the 2006-07 playoffs by four points, though four other teams had higher point totals than them and also missed the playoffs. Florida came oh so very close to that elusive playoff berth in 2008-09 but a tiebreaker was given to Montreal due to head to head matchup results. How heartbreaking was it? Both Florida and Montreal finished the season at 41-30-11. Florida had a better goal differential (which would have been the third tiebreaker) by exactly one goal but the eighth seed went to the Habs. Will this team ever make the playoffs again? All probability points to yes but reality seems to point to no.
Usually when an expansion team enters the NHL, they struggle for a few years while developing their young talent. When the young talent is ready, you add a few free agents and you have yourself a playoff team. This happened in both San Jose and Ottawa, who entered the league in 1991 and 1992, respectively after both teams set the record for most losses in a row in NHL history. For the Panthers, the exact OPPOSITE happened! They had a great expansion draft getting Vanbiesbrouk and veteran forwards Scott Mellanby and Brian Skrudland, the latter of whom won the cup with Montreal in 1986. Add rookie Rob Niedermayer and defenseman Ed Jovanovski from the draft and forward Johan Garpenlov, Stu Barnes and Ray Sheppard from outside the organization and the formula is proven to be a winner. And it was for two years but starting in 1997-98 mediocrity began when Florida failed to win 25 games. The following season Jovanovski went to Vancouver as part of the Pavel Bure deal where he played for seven seasons followed by another five in Phoenix. Niedermayer stayed for eight years but his production dropped mightily before he was traded to Calgary for the “Russian Rocket’s” brother Valeri Bure in 2002. Niedermayer would go on to have success in Anaheim where he won the Stanly Cup in 2007 and played in the finals in 2003. Ironically, Anaheim was the other team to enter the league in 1993 alongside Florida.
In the time since their final playoff appearance in 2000, the Panthers have not retained a core of players for any significant length of time. Jokinen became the face of the franchise in his seven year stint with the organization. Florida tried the European route to establish a core of players around him but by the lockout in 2005, most of those players had departed and never really got to establish themselves in Florida. Along with Pavel Bure and Kozlov, both Russians acquired in separate trades, the Panthers added Swedes Marcus Nilson, their first round pick in 1996 (20th overall), and Kristian Huselius, a second rounder (47th overall) in 1997. Also in the mix was third round selection (70th, 1999) Niklas Hagman. The Panthers gave up on Hagman in 2005-06 when he was traded to Dallas for a seventh round draft pick but since the trade, Hagman has had three 20-goal seasons in the league. Bure, as mentioned before, was shipped to the New York Rangers in 2002 while Nilson was sent to Calgary for a second round selection. Though Nilson never flourished in Calgary, eventually going back to his native Sweden to play, he helped the Flames get to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals where he recorded 4 goals and seven assists in their miraculous playoff run in 2004. Huselius hit the 20-goal mark twice in his first two NHL seasons but in his third season he only lit the lamp 10 times. Florida gave up on him after 24 games into the 2005-06 season sending him to join Nilson in Calgary. In return, the team received Steve Montador who played 2-1/2 seasons with Florida before bolting the organization for Anaheim in 2008. Huselius became a star in Calgary with a 34 goal, 77 point performance in 2006-07. Since the trade, Huselius has never scored less than 20 goals in a season with both the Flames and Columbus. It’s just another case of the organization panicking too quickly after one bad season. In goal, the deal that sent Roberto Luongo and Lukas Krajicek to Vancouver has not paid the dividends they were hoping for. The Panthers got controversial forward Todd Bertuzzi who only played seven games with the team in an injury plagued season that saw him traded to Detroit before it ended. Alex Auld, originally drafted in 1999 (Rd. 2, #40) came back to the organization to back up an aging Ed Belfour for one year. Defenseman Bryan Allen, Vancouver’s first round selection (4th) overall in 1998, turned out to be the best player in the deal. Allen has turned into a steady blueliner in Florida since the trade.
The Panthers have not had any draft pick stay for longer than their initial contracts since 2000 with the exception of Stephen Weiss (Rd. 1, #4, 2001) who now in his eighth NHL season (all with Florida) leads the team in scoring. The Panthers traded their top pick to Vancouver in 2000 as part of the Pavel Bure trade and drafted no one of any importance that year. Since being drafted in 2001, Weiss remains the lone Panthers draft pick from this era still with the franchise. Weiss has totaled 321 points (118 goals, 203 assists) in 534 games with the Panthers as of this writing. Florida took Krajicek in the second round that year but sent him to Vancouver after only one year with the team. In 2002, the Panthers held two top 10 picks taking Jay Bouwmeester 3rd overall and Petr Taticek 9th. Bouwmeester was solid for six years, playing in all 82 games five of those seasons but pending unrestricted free agency led Florida to trade him to Calgary in 2009. The Panthers got defenseman Jordan Leopold in return who played three-quarters a season for Florida before being shipped to Pittsburgh. Taticek spent three seasons in the American Hockey League (AHL) but only appeared in 3 NHL games in his career. Taticek has spent the last five seasons playing in Switzerland.
The Panthers held the top pick in 2003 but decided to trade down to the number three slot giving Pittsburgh the opportunity to draft Marc-Andre Fleury who would reward them with the Stanley Cup six years later. Along with swapping draft picks, Florida also received Mikael Samuelsson who would only appear in 37 games with the Panthers. Samuelsson headed for Detroit where he won the Stanley Cup in 2008. After Carolina took Eric Staal with the second pick, Florida opted for Horton who tallied five 20-goal seasons in six years with the Panthers before being sent to Boston with 2002 third rounder (67th overall) Greg Campbell for defenseman Dennis Wideman and Boston’s first round pick in 2010. As they had the previous year, Florida held two draft picks in the first round in 2003 taking forward Anthony Stewart 25th overall. Stewart struggled with the Panthers who let him leave as a free agent following the 2009 season. Stewart signed with Atlanta where he is now having success.
The Panthers have been keeping draft picks since 2004 with the team. Rotislav Olesz, taken in the first round (7th overall) in 2004 and David Booth (Rd. 2, #53, 2004) have become key cogs in the young Panthers core. Booth hit the 30-goal mark in 2008-09 while Olesz has scored a career high 14 goals twice. With 2005 first round pick (20th overall) Kenndal McArdle nowhere near where they thought he would be six years after being drafted and Michael Frolik (Rd. 1, #10, 2006) being traded to Chicago after scoring 21 goals in his first two seasons but having his production drop to eight goals in 52 games, Florida is banking on Jack Skille, drafted by the Blackhawks in the first round (7th overall) in 2005 to take his place. Since drafting Frolik, only defenseman Dmitri Kulikov (Rd. 1, #14, 2009) has earned a full time spot on the Panthers’ roster. The Panthers are banking on Eric Gudbranson, currently playing in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) for Kingston, to join Kulikov on the blue line in the future. Defenseman Keaton Ellerby (Rd. 1, #10, 2007) and Michal Repik (Rd. 2, #40, 2007) have bounced between Florida and their top affiliate in Rochester since being drafted. Along with Gudbranson, the Panthers are hoping their two other first round draft picks will help the team in the future. Nick Bjustad (19th overall) is currently a freshman at the University of Minnesota while Quinton Howden is still playing for Moose Jaw in the Western Hockey League (WHL). Without getting anybody onto their roster from the later rounds of the draft, the Panthers have fell behind other teams who have drafted more effectively in that time period.
It’s funny to think that the Florida Panthers were the most successful expansion team since the Edmonton Oilers made the playoffs in 1980. The 1993-94 version of the team wound up with 14 more points than those Oilers but did not benefit from playing in a time where just about every team qualified to compete for the Stanley Cup. They missed the playoffs by a single point that year. In the lockout shortened 1994-95 season, Florida narrowly missed the playoffs as the defending champion New York Rangers held them off by only one point again.
Finally in 1996 they broke through winning three playoff rounds (their only postseason series victories in franchise history) and advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals where they were simply overmatched by a rising Colorado Avalanche team that was in the midst of setting a record for consecutive division titles won. That year, the Panthers handled Boston before disposing of the top-seeded Philadelphia Flyers in six games. Since the 1996 Eastern Conference Finals, where they edged the Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games, Florida has won exactly ONE playoff game. In 1997, the Panthers served as the foil for Wayne Gretzky’s final curtain in the NHL playoffs. After Vanbiesbrouk shut out his former mates for a Game 1 victory, the Rangers fought back by winning the next two games. This was the last time the Panthers led in a playoff series. Up 1-0 in the second period of Game 4, Gretzky set the stage for his final bow with three goals in 6:23 sending Madison Square Garden into an absolute frenzy. The Rangers prevailed in five games. After two subpar seasons, the Panthers were back in the playoffs but were ousted in a four game sweep by the eventual champions from New Jersey. The Panthers are yet to return to the playoffs since the Devils used them as the first stepping stone to the franchise’s second Stanley Cup.
So how did this happen? From John Vanbiesbrouk in the early years of the franchise to Sean Burke to aging Conn Smythe winning goaltender Mike Vernon to Roberto Luongo and even now Tomas Vokoun, the Panthers have always been solid in net. That’s never been the problem. From Robert Svehla and Ed Jovanovski to Jay Bouwmeester, the Panthers have boasted some of the league’s top blue liners but the depth on D has never been solved. Making matters worse, the Panthers have had only two legitimate offensive threats in their 17-year history: Pavel Bure and Olli Jokinen. Bure, acquired in a trade that sent a package including Jovanovski to Vancouver, had two remarkable seasons in Florida. In 1999-00 and 2000-01, the “Russian Rocket” scored 58 and 59 goals respectively, winning the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the NHL’s top goal scorer both years. Quite an impressive feat. Bure, played in 56 games in 2001-02 before being dealt to the Rangers but still led the team in scoring at season’s end. In the playoff season of 1999-2000, Bure had secondary scoring help from Ray Whitney and Viktor Kozlov who each hit the 70 point mark. However, Bure was counted on too much the following season (2000-01). Though he scored one more goal than he did the previous season, Bure and the Panthers went from winning 43 games to a meager 22. The problem? Simple, Bure had to score or the team would lose. At season’s end he had amassed 30 percent of Florida’s goals. Remarkably, Bure led the team in assists as well though his total of 33 showed that the Panthers did not have a true assist man that season. Consider Kozlov who finished second on the team in scoring had only 14 goals and 25 assists.
With Bure gone, eventually retiring prematurely in 2003 due to injuries, it was time for Olli Jokinen to lead the Panthers attack. The Panthers finished the two years prior to the lockout with subpar teams but emerged as a surprising team post-lockout. With Jokinen now free to play his game with the new rules in place, he managed three straight seasons (2005-08) with goal totals of 38, 39 and 34. However, just like Bure, Jokinen had no secondary scoring. Despite top pick from 2003 Nathan Horton, Jokinen found himself carrying the majority of the workload scoring 16 percent of the team’s goals in those three seasons. Horton played admirably but didn’t even come close to threatening Jokinen for the team lead. The Panthers only missed the 2006-07 playoffs by four points, though four other teams had higher point totals than them and also missed the playoffs. Florida came oh so very close to that elusive playoff berth in 2008-09 but a tiebreaker was given to Montreal due to head to head matchup results. How heartbreaking was it? Both Florida and Montreal finished the season at 41-30-11. Florida had a better goal differential (which would have been the third tiebreaker) by exactly one goal but the eighth seed went to the Habs. Will this team ever make the playoffs again? All probability points to yes but reality seems to point to no.
Usually when an expansion team enters the NHL, they struggle for a few years while developing their young talent. When the young talent is ready, you add a few free agents and you have yourself a playoff team. This happened in both San Jose and Ottawa, who entered the league in 1991 and 1992, respectively after both teams set the record for most losses in a row in NHL history. For the Panthers, the exact OPPOSITE happened! They had a great expansion draft getting Vanbiesbrouk and veteran forwards Scott Mellanby and Brian Skrudland, the latter of whom won the cup with Montreal in 1986. Add rookie Rob Niedermayer and defenseman Ed Jovanovski from the draft and forward Johan Garpenlov, Stu Barnes and Ray Sheppard from outside the organization and the formula is proven to be a winner. And it was for two years but starting in 1997-98 mediocrity began when Florida failed to win 25 games. The following season Jovanovski went to Vancouver as part of the Pavel Bure deal where he played for seven seasons followed by another five in Phoenix. Niedermayer stayed for eight years but his production dropped mightily before he was traded to Calgary for the “Russian Rocket’s” brother Valeri Bure in 2002. Niedermayer would go on to have success in Anaheim where he won the Stanly Cup in 2007 and played in the finals in 2003. Ironically, Anaheim was the other team to enter the league in 1993 alongside Florida.
In the time since their final playoff appearance in 2000, the Panthers have not retained a core of players for any significant length of time. Jokinen became the face of the franchise in his seven year stint with the organization. Florida tried the European route to establish a core of players around him but by the lockout in 2005, most of those players had departed and never really got to establish themselves in Florida. Along with Pavel Bure and Kozlov, both Russians acquired in separate trades, the Panthers added Swedes Marcus Nilson, their first round pick in 1996 (20th overall), and Kristian Huselius, a second rounder (47th overall) in 1997. Also in the mix was third round selection (70th, 1999) Niklas Hagman. The Panthers gave up on Hagman in 2005-06 when he was traded to Dallas for a seventh round draft pick but since the trade, Hagman has had three 20-goal seasons in the league. Bure, as mentioned before, was shipped to the New York Rangers in 2002 while Nilson was sent to Calgary for a second round selection. Though Nilson never flourished in Calgary, eventually going back to his native Sweden to play, he helped the Flames get to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals where he recorded 4 goals and seven assists in their miraculous playoff run in 2004. Huselius hit the 20-goal mark twice in his first two NHL seasons but in his third season he only lit the lamp 10 times. Florida gave up on him after 24 games into the 2005-06 season sending him to join Nilson in Calgary. In return, the team received Steve Montador who played 2-1/2 seasons with Florida before bolting the organization for Anaheim in 2008. Huselius became a star in Calgary with a 34 goal, 77 point performance in 2006-07. Since the trade, Huselius has never scored less than 20 goals in a season with both the Flames and Columbus. It’s just another case of the organization panicking too quickly after one bad season. In goal, the deal that sent Roberto Luongo and Lukas Krajicek to Vancouver has not paid the dividends they were hoping for. The Panthers got controversial forward Todd Bertuzzi who only played seven games with the team in an injury plagued season that saw him traded to Detroit before it ended. Alex Auld, originally drafted in 1999 (Rd. 2, #40) came back to the organization to back up an aging Ed Belfour for one year. Defenseman Bryan Allen, Vancouver’s first round selection (4th) overall in 1998, turned out to be the best player in the deal. Allen has turned into a steady blueliner in Florida since the trade.
The Panthers have not had any draft pick stay for longer than their initial contracts since 2000 with the exception of Stephen Weiss (Rd. 1, #4, 2001) who now in his eighth NHL season (all with Florida) leads the team in scoring. The Panthers traded their top pick to Vancouver in 2000 as part of the Pavel Bure trade and drafted no one of any importance that year. Since being drafted in 2001, Weiss remains the lone Panthers draft pick from this era still with the franchise. Weiss has totaled 321 points (118 goals, 203 assists) in 534 games with the Panthers as of this writing. Florida took Krajicek in the second round that year but sent him to Vancouver after only one year with the team. In 2002, the Panthers held two top 10 picks taking Jay Bouwmeester 3rd overall and Petr Taticek 9th. Bouwmeester was solid for six years, playing in all 82 games five of those seasons but pending unrestricted free agency led Florida to trade him to Calgary in 2009. The Panthers got defenseman Jordan Leopold in return who played three-quarters a season for Florida before being shipped to Pittsburgh. Taticek spent three seasons in the American Hockey League (AHL) but only appeared in 3 NHL games in his career. Taticek has spent the last five seasons playing in Switzerland.
The Panthers held the top pick in 2003 but decided to trade down to the number three slot giving Pittsburgh the opportunity to draft Marc-Andre Fleury who would reward them with the Stanley Cup six years later. Along with swapping draft picks, Florida also received Mikael Samuelsson who would only appear in 37 games with the Panthers. Samuelsson headed for Detroit where he won the Stanley Cup in 2008. After Carolina took Eric Staal with the second pick, Florida opted for Horton who tallied five 20-goal seasons in six years with the Panthers before being sent to Boston with 2002 third rounder (67th overall) Greg Campbell for defenseman Dennis Wideman and Boston’s first round pick in 2010. As they had the previous year, Florida held two draft picks in the first round in 2003 taking forward Anthony Stewart 25th overall. Stewart struggled with the Panthers who let him leave as a free agent following the 2009 season. Stewart signed with Atlanta where he is now having success.
The Panthers have been keeping draft picks since 2004 with the team. Rotislav Olesz, taken in the first round (7th overall) in 2004 and David Booth (Rd. 2, #53, 2004) have become key cogs in the young Panthers core. Booth hit the 30-goal mark in 2008-09 while Olesz has scored a career high 14 goals twice. With 2005 first round pick (20th overall) Kenndal McArdle nowhere near where they thought he would be six years after being drafted and Michael Frolik (Rd. 1, #10, 2006) being traded to Chicago after scoring 21 goals in his first two seasons but having his production drop to eight goals in 52 games, Florida is banking on Jack Skille, drafted by the Blackhawks in the first round (7th overall) in 2005 to take his place. Since drafting Frolik, only defenseman Dmitri Kulikov (Rd. 1, #14, 2009) has earned a full time spot on the Panthers’ roster. The Panthers are banking on Eric Gudbranson, currently playing in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) for Kingston, to join Kulikov on the blue line in the future. Defenseman Keaton Ellerby (Rd. 1, #10, 2007) and Michal Repik (Rd. 2, #40, 2007) have bounced between Florida and their top affiliate in Rochester since being drafted. Along with Gudbranson, the Panthers are hoping their two other first round draft picks will help the team in the future. Nick Bjustad (19th overall) is currently a freshman at the University of Minnesota while Quinton Howden is still playing for Moose Jaw in the Western Hockey League (WHL). Without getting anybody onto their roster from the later rounds of the draft, the Panthers have fell behind other teams who have drafted more effectively in that time period.
