From Scott Mellanby and his famous ‘Rat Trick’ to 2021 Selke Trophy winner Aleksander Barkov, the Florida Panthers have had a lot of great players in their history. We at The Hockey Writers have searched far and wide through the Panthers’ 28 years of history since 1993 and picked the eight players we thought best represented the team. Now, you, the fans, get to select the player you think is the greatest player in franchise history.
My fellow Panthers writer, Joey Ganzi, and I picked the players we thought best represented the franchise by looking at their statistics as a Panther, their accomplishments, and the iconic moments that defined their careers with the team. We combined all those factors together and seeded them 1-8, as shown above.
The Matchups
In the first round, the following players will be facing off against each other. You can click on each player’s name to read about his career as a Panther and why he should be considered the best player in franchise history:
- (1) Aleksander Barkov vs (8) Ed Jovanovski
- (2) Jonathan Huberdeau vs (7) John Vanbiesbrouck
- (3) Roberto Luongo vs (6) Olli Jokinen
- (4) Scott Melanby vs (5) Pavel Bure
Semifinal Matchups
- (1) Aleksander Barkov vs (5) Pavel Bure
- (2) Jonathan Huberdeau vs (3) Roberto Luongo
Final Matchup
- (1) Aleksander Barkov vs (3) Roberto Luongo
Voting
Panthers fans, it’s now time for you to pick who you think is the greatest player in franchise history. From now until the end of the first round, you’ll be able to go to the Twitter account of our Florida Panthers podcast, Big Cat Banter, and vote. After the first round, we will tally the votes and advance the winners. We will continue narrowing the field until only two players remain and announce the champion.