The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team who play in the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida/Miami, Florida suburb of Sunrise. They play in the National Hockey League (NHL).

Founded: 1993-94 NHL season

Arena: BankAtlantic Center (Previously known as the National Car Rental Center, and later, Office Depot Center) (capacity 19,452)

Former Home Arena: Miami Arena (1993-1998)

Team color jersey: Navy blue jersey with white, red and gold stripes at the bottom of sleeve and torso with red and gold stripes over the shoulders. Team logo (a leaping panther) centered on chest.

White jersey: White jersey with identical striping and logo as team color jersey.

Third Jersey: Red jersey with navy, gold and white stripes at bottom of sleeve and torso with navy and white stripes over the shoulders. Team logo is identical to other jerseys with the exception of a broken hockey stick in the panther's paws.

Logo design: a Florida panther (puma subspecies)

Mascot: Stanley C. Panther

Conference Championships: 1 (1995-96)

Stanley Cup Finals appearances: 1 (1995-96; lost to Colorado, 0-4)

Rivals: Tampa Bay Lightning, Philadelphia Flyers

Blockbuster Video magnate Wayne Huizenga was awarded an NHL franchise for his native Miami in 1992. The team played at the Miami Arena, and its first major stars were New York Rangers goaltender castoff John Vanbiesbrouck, rookie Rob Niedermayer, and Scott Mellanby, who scored 30 goals. They had one of the most successful first seasons of any expansion team, finishing one point below .500 and narrowly missing out on the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

After missing another close brush with the playoffs in 1994-95, coach Roger Neilson was fired and replaced by Doug MacLean. They then acquired Ray Sheppard from the San Jose Sharks on the trade deadline in 1996 and they looked towards the playoffs for the first time.

The 1996 playoffs were a dream for the Panthers. They upset the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins to reach the Stanley Cup Final. South Florida was euphoric. Against Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, series comebacks were part of the astonishment. It came to an end in the Stanley Cup finals though. Their opponents, the Colorado Avalanche, would sweep the Panthers on Uwe Krupp's triple-overtime goal in Game 4. The next season, a team ravaged by injuries would lose to the New York Rangers on the first round. More injuries caused the team to have their worst record to that point in 1997-98.

The Panthers moved into the National Car Rental Center (now known as BankAtlantic Center) in 1998, the new arena being the result of bickering and threatening to move the team. In 1999, they acquired Pavel Bure (the "Russian Rocket"), in a blockbuster trade with the Vancouver Canucks. They would reach the playoffs again in 2000 riding on his 58 goals, losing in the first round to the eventual Stanley Cup Champion New Jersey Devils.

The team slumped in the 2000-01 NHL season despite a 59 goal season from Bure. The following season, 2001-02, the Panthers would have their worst record ever. Bure struggled despite being reunited with his brother Valeri, and was traded to the New York Rangers on the 2002 trading deadline.

In 1994, Miami businessman Cliff Viner, acquired a four percent stake in the Panthers.

In 2003, the Florida Panthers held the NHL All Star Weekend. In the abnormally high-scoring exhibition, the Western Conference earned a 6-5 victory after the first OT shootout in All-Star history. The West overcame a four-goal outburst by Atlanta's Dany Heatley, who took home MVP honors in his first All-Star Game.

On June 23, 2006, the Florida Panthers were again involved in a blockbuster trade with the Vancouver Canucks, sending Roberto Luongo, Lukas Krajicek and a 6th round draft pick in exchange for Todd Bertuzzi, Alex Auld and Bryan Allen.

On July 25, Florida signed free agent goaltender Ed Belfour to a one-year contract.

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

¹ Season was shortened due to the 1994-95 NHL lockout.

² Season was cancelled due to the 2004-05 NHL lockout.

³ As of the 2005-06 NHL season, all games have a winner; games ending overtime in a tie are decided by shootouts.

Goaltenders
#		Player	Catches	Acquired	Place of Birth
20		Ed Belfour	L	2006	Carman, Manitoba
35		Alex Auld	L	2006	Thunder Bay, Ontario
–		Craig Anderson	L	2006	Park Ridge, Illinois

Defencemen
#		Player	Shoots	Acquired	Place of Birth
2		Branislav Mezei	L	2002	Nitra, Slovakia
4		Jay Bouwmeester	L	2002	Edmonton, Alberta
5		Bryan Allen	L	2006	Kingston, Ontario
7		Steve Montador	R	2005	Vancouver, British Columbia
21		Alexei Semenov	L	2004	Murmansk, Russia
24		Ruslan Salei	L	2006	Minsk, Belarus
26		Mike Van Ryn	R	2003	London, Ontario
55		Ric Jackman	R	2006	Toronto, Ontario
–		Joel Kwiatkowski	L	2004	Kindersley, Saskatchewan
–		Ari Vallin	L	2006	Ylöjärvi, Finland

Forwards
#		Player	Position	Shoots	Acquired	Place of Birth
9		Stephen Weiss	C	L	2001	Toronto, Ontario
10		Gary Roberts A	LW	L	2005	North York, Ontario
12		Olli Jokinen C	C	L	2000	Kuopio, Finland
13		Juraj Kolnik	RW	R	2002	Nitra, Slovakia
15		Jozef Stumpel	C	R	2005	Nitra, Slovakia
16		Nathan Horton	RW	R	2003	Welland, Ontario
23		Martin Gelinas	LW	L	2005	Shawinigan, Quebec
25		Joe Nieuwendyk A	C	L	2003	Oshawa, Ontario
44		Todd Bertuzzi	RW	L	2006	Sudbury, Ontario
77		Chris Gratton A	C	L	2005	Brantford, Ontario
85		Rostislav Olesz	LW	L	2004	Bilovec, Czech Republic
–		Gregory Campbell	LW	L	2002	London, Ontario
–		Ville Peltonen	LW	L	2006	Vantaa, Finland