In the 2017-18 Season, it felt like Evgenii Dadonov came out of nowhere, but the reality was that he had already been a Panther.

The Right Wing was a Third Rounder in 2007, and he would play 55 Games for Florida, though mostly he was in the minors.  He was traded to Carolina, but he never played for the Hurricanes, just their minor league team.  He went back to Russia, and played in the KHL where his skills improved, and under no affiliation with any NHL team, he was signed back to the Panthers for the 2017-18 Season.

In his return season, Dadonov scored 65 Points, erasing the memories of his play in Florida before, that is for those who remembered his first run.  Dadonov had an even better 2018-19, posting a career-best 70 Points, and equalling his 28 Goals.  He had 25 Goals in 2019-20, though his Assists plummeted to nearly half of what he had.  

This was it for Dadonov as a Panther, as he signed with Ottawa as a Free Agent.  He would score 202 Points for Florida.

Twice an All-Star with the Coyotes, Keith Yandle was dealt to the Florida Panthers after his second team, the New York Rangers, were concerned that they would not be able to resign the Defenseman when his contract expired after the season.  It worked out well for the Panthers, as they only gave up two middle round picks and they resigned him for four more years.

An offensively gifted blueliner, Yandle became the top Defenseman instantly as soon as he donned Florida gear.  Yandle was not just a good hockey player, he became a modern ironman, setting the record for the most consecutive games played by a Defenseman.  He would score at least 40 Points in his first four years with the Panthers, with a 56-Point year in 2017-18, followed by a career-best 62 Points the year after.

An All-Star in 2019, Yandle joined Philadelphia as a Free Agent, but not before scoring 201 Points in 371 Games with Florida.

Regular visitors of Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB. Once that is done, we intend to look at how each team honor their past players and executive.  As such it is news to us that the Florida Panthers have announced that next season, they will be retiring the number 1 of Roberto Luongo on their March 7 home game against the Montreal Canadiens.

The Goalie joined the Panthers after being traded from the New York Islanders where he only played 24 Games after being drafted fourth overall in 1997.  Splitting netminding duty with Trevor Kidd for the 2000/01 Season, he would quickly become the team’s primary Goalie.  

Florida would struggle to put together a competitive hockey team but it would become quickly clear that this was no fault of Luongo, who was the main reason why they were even in most games.  In each season from 2002-03 to 2005-06 (2004-05 never occurred due to the lockout) Luong would finish first in Goalie Point Shares and he was named a Second Team All-Star in 2003-04.

Luongo would be traded to the Vancouver Canucks before the 2006/07 season as he was set to become a free agent the year after and negotiations were not going well.  With the Canucks, he would take them to the Stanley Cup Finals and after seven and a half years in Vancouver, he was traded back to the Panthers during the 2014/14 campaign where he would still thrive and have two top ten Vezina voting finishes before retiring at the end of last season.

Luongo would record 230 of his 469 Wins with the Panthers while posting a 2.61 Goals Against Average.

This marks the first time in franchise history that a jersey is being retired.

Luongo is eligible for the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2022.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate Roberto Luongo for earning this impending honor.

Our process is slowly continuing as we have another Top 50 to present in our look at the best players for every major sports team. 

The random process continues as we now look at one of the newer teams in the National Hockey League, The Florida Panthers. 

While the Panthers do not have that many trips to the playoffs, they did reach the Stanley Cup Finals in their infancy, a surprise trip in 1996, their third year of existence.  As of this writing, they haven’t been back since, but some good players have suited up in Miami. 

As this is a young team, the Top 50 Florida Panthers are likely to have significant fluctuation in the upcoming years but for now, you can find the complete list here.

We will however state here that Goaltender, Roberto Luongo has been named by Notinhalloffame.com as the greatest Florida Panther to date.

The remaining top five are 2. Robert Svehla, 3. Olli Jokinen, 4. John Vanbiesbrouck, 5. Pavel Bure.

You know what we want you to do!

Take a look and let us know what you think!

In three weeks, our next Top 50 team will be coming to Notinhalloffame.com

Note: Hockey lists are based on an amalgamation of tenure, traditional statistics, advanced statistics, playoff statistics and post-season accolades. 


This list is up to the end of the 2015-16 Season. 

Jussi Jokinen played three seasons with the Florida Panthers, and in his second year in South Beach, (2015-16), the Finnish forward scored 60 Points, his second-best total since he entered the National Hockey League in 2005.  Jokinen's play would drop off and he was released after the following year, but he did have 132 Points as a Panther.

A third round pick in 2011, American Center, Vincent Trocheck made his NHL debut two years later with the Florida Panthers.  

Two years later, Trocheck scored 53 Points, and had similar numbers the season after with 54 with a trip to the All-Star Game.  Trocheck showed that he was proven commodity, and he followed his All-Star year, with his best season in Hockey, a 75 point year, which would be his best in Florida.  He played two more years in Florida, but injuries piled up, and he never had another 40-Point year as a Panther again.  The Panthers dealt him to Carolina during the 2019-20 Season, and Trockek left Florida after 282 Points in 424 Games.

Part of Florida’’s surprise run to the NHL Finals, Tom Fitzgerald was with the Panthers for five of his eighteen NHL seasons.  In 1995-96, Fitzgerald would have his best offensive output (34 Points) and finished ninth in Frank J. Selke Trophy balloting.

Stu Barnes was a Florida Panther for three seasons and change, most notably for his 16 Point playoff run in 1996.  Barnes was known as one of the leaders of the locker room and it is not inconceivable to state that Florida would have not done as well as that season without him.

A surefire first ballot Hall of Famer, we thought that when Jaromir Jagr was traded from New Jersey during the 2014-15, season, that this would be where he finished his NHL career.  That would not be the case, but the ageless one proved in Florida that he still had a lot of hockey despite being into his 40’s,

Jagr remained a healthy offensive contributor to the team and could still rise in this rank.  He would win the Bill Masterton Trophy in the 2015-16 Season, his first full year as a Panther, where he scored 66 Points and was seventh in Hart voting.  Jagr had another good year with the Panthers (46 Points), and would play one more year in the NHL with Calgary.  With the Panthers, Jagr had 130 Points in 181 Games.

From Finland, Alexsander Barkov had lofty expectations coming in as the number two overall pick in 2013.  It is safe to say that the Panthers obtained a player who came as adevrtised.

Barkov saw ample playing time as a rookie, but Florida made sure to ease the Center into action.  He had a breakout of sorts in his third year, scoring 59 Points with strong two-way play.  After another 50-Point-plus year,   Barkov increased his production to 78 Points, and then to 96 in 2018-19.  Barkov, who also had impressed people with his clean style of play, won the Lady Byng Trophy.

Barkov built on that success with a Frank J. Selke Trophy in 2020-21, and a playoff appearance.  He would take them to Eastern Conference Semi-Finals in 2022-23, and last year his heart was on full display as he led the Panthers to their first Stanley Cup Championship, while winning his second Frank J. Selke.  Notably, he is on a nine-year streak of receiving votes for the Lady Byng and Frank J. Selke. 

As the heart and Captain of a young strong team, Barkov is a player whois likely one year away from being the greatest Florida Panther ever.   Maybe, he is already.

Jason Garrison was a Florida Panther for the first four seasons of his NHL career, the last of which is considered to be the most complete of his career.  Already possessing solid defensive skill, Garrison would add a bit of offensive flair with a 33 Point season in the 2011-12 campaign.

Kristian Huselius would actually have much better seasons in his NHL career with the Calgary Flames but he did string together two straight 20 Goal Seasons as a Panther and would finish third in Calder Trophy voting in 2001-02.  Huselius had 127 Points for Florida.

Bryan Allen had the best years of his career as a Florida Panther.  Allen who was always very good defensively, put together a 25 Point season in the 2006-07 campaign.  He was a Panther for three and half years.

Spending the last four seasons of his NHL career with the Florida Panthers, Defenseman, Terry Carkner brought a lot of toughness to the new team.  Carkner did not have the same scoring touch that he had previously but he played a role in the Panthers surprising run to the Stanley Cup in 1996.

Somewhat of a veteran by the time he arrived to Florida, Ray Sheppard would have a 60 Point season in 1996-97.  Sheppard brought a veteran presence to Florida, which was showcased on their run to the Stanley Cup Finals where he scored 16 Points in 21 Games for the ’96 run.

From the University of Minnesota, Nick Bjugstad played the first six-and-a-half seasons with the Florida Panthers, where the Center scored 191 Points for the team 

The former “Mr. Hockey” (in Minnesota) had a 20 Goal season in 2014-15, and he twice cracked the 40-Point mark with Florida.  He was traded to Pitsburgh during the 2018-19 Season.

A star at Michigan State, David Booth came to the Florida Panthers with fast skates and offense on his mind.  Booth is a three time 20 Goal scorer including a 31 Goal 2008/09 campaign, which was the best of his career.

Tomas Fleischmann had his best season in hockey setting career highs in Goals (27), Assists (34) and Points (61) in his first of three seasons with the Florida Panthers.  Fleischmann would not be able duplicate that scoring success again and would be shipped off two years later.

The best portion of Mike Van Ryn’s career was spent with Florida where he would put out three consecutive seasons of 20 or more Assists.  The Defenseman would be with Florida for four seasons and was known for putting together good effort behind the blue line.

Claimed by the Florida Panthers in the Expansion Draft, Bill Lindsay brought some necessary roughness to the upstart NHL Team.  Lindsay is one of the few players in franchise history to exceed 500 Games Played and he is best known for scoring the winning goal to secure the organization’s first playoff series.