All-Time Florida Panthers Team

[ScottM]

 

To continue our all-time franchise series, we travel to sunny south Florida to take a look back in Panthers history. The Panthers have yet to win a Cup, but with some of the young talent they have, it may be only a matter of time.

 

First Line: Ray Whitney, Olli Jokinen, Pavel Bure

Second Line: Cory Stillman, Viktor Kozlov, Nathan Horton

Third Line: David Booth, Stephen Weiss, Scott Melanby

Fourth Line: Tomas Fleischmann, Jonathan Huberdeau, Radek Dvorak

 

First Defensive Pair: Jay Bouwmeester, Robert Svehla

Second Defensive Pair: Brian Campbell, Dmitry Kulikov

Third Defensive Pair: Mike van Ryn, Aaron Ekblad

 

Goaltenders: Roberto Luongo, John Vanbiesbrouck, Tomas Vokoun

 

Head Coach: Doug MacLean

 

To be perfectly honest, I really wasn't overly impressed with what the Panthers had to offer. Don't get me wrong, I think there are some good players on that list, but it just doesn't feel like it lives up to the standards of a lot of the others. That said, it did present me with the opportunity to put some of the current crop of youngsters in. Guys like Huberdeau and Ekblad haven't been around long enough to move too high yet, but to me, they already feel good enough to be included. I almost didn't include Ekblad due to being in only his second season, but I really didn't find anyone else to be more worthy of the slot.

 

Now the goaltending is a different story. This is a group that I like. All three of them have at least 300 career wins -- 400+ in Luongo's case -- and Beezer was certainly stellar for the Cats in their Stanley Cup run.

 

Speaking of that run, it's what won Doug MacLean the coaching spot on this team. Panthers coaches don't tend to last very long, and MacLean is included, but that was still quite a feat.

[JagerMeister]

Olli Jokinen

To be fair, its one of the newer teams, even then, I'm quite certain Tampa became an NHL team after Florida. And look at their players...

 

One player you didn't mention, who will be among the top Panthers players is Barkov. Excels defensively and is improving on offense. he's currently their best forward. Any Panthers fan on HFBoards (yes, there is a rabid group of panthers fans only on HFBoards..) will tell you the same

[ScottM]

Olli Jokinen

To be fair, its one of the newer teams, even then, I'm quite certain Tampa became an NHL team after Florida. And look at their players...

 

One player you didn't mention, who will be among the top Panthers players is Barkov. Excels defensively and is improving on offense. he's currently their best forward. Any Panthers fan on HFBoards (yes, there is a rabid group of panthers fans only on HFBoards..) will tell you the same

 

Actually, Tampa Bay played its first season in 1992-93, and Florida came along in 1993-94. I've already done the Lightning, and honestly, outside of goal, I like their team a good bit better. The Lightning show the same lack of depth on the wings, but they're strong at center and defense.

 

And yes, you're right about Barkov. I didn't feel that there was quite enough to include him yet, but I strongly suspect he'll make it one day. In Huberdeau's case, he has about 80 more games under his belt and a Calder to push him into the last center spot.