Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the top 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists and consistently look to update them when necessary and based on necessity. As such, we are delighted to present our post-2023-24 revision of our top 50 Florida Panthers.

As for all of our top 50 players in hockey, we look at the following:

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National Hockey League.

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles that are not reflected in a stat sheet.

Last year, Florida finally did it!  They won their first Stanley Cup championship with a deep and talented squad.  As this franchise formed in the 1990s, last season’s accomplishments led to one of the most significant changes ever in our 50 franchise lists.

As always, we present our top five, which saw some significant changes:

1. Roberto Luongo
2. Alexsander Barkov
3. Jonathan Huberdeau
4. Aaron Ekblad
5. John Vanbiesboruck

You can find the entire list here.

Again, as this is still a young franchise, the changes were huge.

It was very tempting to put Barkov at #1, and perhaps it is a mistake not to have done so.  Barkov captained the Panthers to their first Stanley Cup, but Luongo was a first ballot Hall of Famer.  An average Barkov season will easily place Barkov at #1.

Aaron Ekblad, who was #5, moved up one spot to #4.

Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who was third in Vezina Trophy voting, rocketed to #10 from #19.

We might have made a mistake in not ranking Sam Reinhart last year.  That has been corrected, and the sniper who lit the lamp 57 times last year is here at #18.

Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, who began his second run in Florida last season, climbed to #21 from #26.

2022/2023 Second Team All-Star Matthew Tkachuk rocketed to #25 from #42.

Defenseman Gustav Forsling reached #26 from #35.

Center Carter Verhaeghe went to #28 from #34.

Defenseman Brandon Montour, who is now with Seattle, advanced from #36 to #30.

Center Sam Bennett jumped ten spots to #39.

We thank you for your continued support of our lists on Notinhalloffame.com.

Carter Verhaeghe was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs, but was traded to the New York Islanders before he made the NHL.  He never played for the Isles either, as he was dealt to Tampa, where he won an AHL scoring title, and made it to the Lightning roster in 2019/20, where he played a small role in their Stanley Cup win.  As the Bolts were loaded at Center, they allowed him to leave for Free Agency, in a move that they might have regretted.  Verhaeghe stayed in state, signing with Florida, and he proved that he could be a scorer at hockey’s elite level.

Verhaeghe’s ice time doubles with the Panthers and in his first season (the COVID-shortened 2020/21) with the club he scored 36 Points in 43 Games, and had 55 Points in 2022-22.  He took it to another level two seasons ago, lighting the lamp 42 times which placed him ninth overall, and last year he had hid second straight 70-plus Point output and was a large component in their first Stanley Cup win.