Improved Cats: Are the Florida Panthers Stanley Cup Contenders?

Where They Started

The Florida Panthers, often the butt of fan attendance jokes. Considered a failed project of the National Hockey League wanting to expand to “nontraditional hockey markets”. Unfortunately despite the early success they accomplished their 1993-94 season debut. The Panthers came in hot going to their first Stanley Cup Final in 1996 against the Colorado Avalanche. The team got swept by the Avalanche but put up a record 12 wins in the postseason. A record they would hold until the Vegas Golden Knights broke it in 2018.

It seemed that the NHL struck gold with the Panthers. That success ended up being short-lived, when the very next season the Panthers posted a lackluster 23-43-15 record. The Cats came back down the Earth in a crushing way.

http://”Clemmensen and Vokoun Warm Up” by clydeorama is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0WASHINGTON, DC – January 29, 2010: Florida Panthers goalies Scott Clemmensen (#30) and Tomas Vokoun (#29) warm up before facing the Washington Capitalsin an NHL hockey game at Verizon Center.

A decade of pain and roster changes

The turning point came in 2010. Before then, the team struggled. A turbulent decade marked by the introduction of Pavel Bure and 2006 trading of Panther legend and goalie Roberto Luongo.

2010-2020 had up and downs for the team. Lows including the extremely bad 2013 season. Dale Tallon, newly hired general manager lead the team to their first division title in franchise history 2012. The season ended with them being eliminated by the New Jersey Devils in the first round of the playoffs.

The Panthers’ second and third playoff appearances of the decade happened in 2015-2016 season and 2020 seasons respectively.

The decade is one of overhaul. The players synonymous with the expansion and early start of the team retired or left. In came in new draft picks making their mark for the Panthers including franchise player Aaron Ekblad. Two coaches fired this time before the 2019 addition of Stanley Cup winning Joel Quenneville in 2019.

http://”Aaron Ekblad” by Dinur is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

2021 Shift and Stanley Cup Aspirations

This 2021-2022 season is considered a game changer for the Panthers. The season began with a 8 game winning streak. The team currently holds the best home winning record in the league with a whopping 20-3-0.

Standout players for the team: Center and Captain Aleksander Barkov, Left Winger Anthony Duclair, and Left Winger Jonathan Huberdeau. The three players combined so far accumulated 34 goals. Panthers sit at the top of the league with 55 points in 37 games.

Impressively their dominance only grew after the resignation of Head Coach Quenneville.

The Huberdeau-Bennett-Duclair line is one of the best lines in hockey right now. For instance, the 18 points in 37 games scored by Huberdeau is record second to Pavel Bure.

The @FlaPanthers became the first team to 20 home wins this season and have five more than the next-closest club.#NHLStats: https://t.co/0l3wHGzCTU pic.twitter.com/exF5VlXYEP
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 15, 2022

Dominate and rolling, the Panthers look like early Stanley Cup favorites. To get to the promise land, they have to go through a competitive Atlantic division. Moreover, the two-time defending Stanley Cup Champions Tampa Bay Lighting. Hypothetically, if the Panthers win the Atlantic Division, they could play either Tampa Bay or the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round. Not the most ideal, but the Panthers did take the Lighting to six games in the first round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

To achieve the outcomes Florida players and fans want,

According to Oddsshark.com, the Panthers are +650 in the odds to win the Stanley Cup. If they continue their success, it is hard to argue with their great odds this year.

What this Success means for Panthers

The NHL wants to grow the sport, especially in the States. Firstly, in the South, football is king and it is hard to compete with not only the NFL but also college ball. The only way to grab peoples’ attention is through winning. Two successful hockey teams in Florida doing wonders for how the game is looked at. Slowly the Panthers have acquired more fans, therfore slightly better fan attendance for games.

It could be argued that the lack of pressure on the team was helpful. The management and players made mistakes in their tenure. For better or worse, no one really cared.

In conclusion, it is easy to say the Florida Panthers are one of the better teams in the league. Their growth is indicative of patience, good drafting and a little luck. Everything is falling into place for them. The best players in their prime, the 10 million dollar goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky, looking like the Veznia winner he is, and hard working depth.

The NHL runs on parity. The season grind is the hardest part; the key is to just get to the playoffs. After that, it is any team’s trophy.