For the third straight year, the Florida Panthers are in the Stanley Cup Final and Sunrise is at the center of the hockey universe. While some have taken issue with the perceived advantages the Panthers have and the lack of a huge American hockey market in the final, their success on and off the ice is good for the long-term health of the sport.
For roughly 23 years — from 1997-2020 — the Panthers wallowed away anywhere from the middle to the bottom of the NHL standings. To put it a little less politely, they were a forgettable franchise in a market where hockey was an undercard and not the main event.
That has changed in a big way over the last handful of years. With general manager Bill Zito at the helm, the Panthers have built a perennial contender that’s knocking on the door of its second straight Stanley Cup banner. Attendance has improved, and grassroots support for the team and hockey in general has exploded.
Despite what you may see online these days, the Panthers haven’t done this by leaning on tax advantages and good weather. Florida has pushed all the right buttons when it comes to roster-building, and it’s also put forth a major effort to make sure hockey is ingrained in the community for years to come.
The “Sun Belt problem,” even if it is a little tongue-in-cheek, has been made up out of whole cloth. The Panthers are a major success, both for the league and the sport, and it isn’t the result of tax codes.
Intelligent and aggressive roster building
You would need a microscope to find the flaws in this Panthers roster, and that’s because they’ve done a few different things at a high level. Florida has hit on its high draft picks, found some diamonds in the rough and been aggressive when elite talent hits the trade market.
Hitting the mark on first-round picks may sound easy, but teams miss there more often than you may expect. The Panthers aren’t an exception in that regard, but three key of the team’s key players are the result of home run selections at or near the top of the draft
Barkov is the straw that stirs the drink, and he just won his third Selke Trophy on Monday. Ekblad is a big part of the Panthers’ stifling blue line. Lundell is as good of a third-line center as you’ll find in the NHL, and he would have a bigger role on most other NHL teams.
That trio is vital to Florida’s success, but the team has really separated itself by finding undervalued players around the league. If any other franchises take issue with the Panthers’ tax advantages in Florida, I would suggest they stop giving the Cats bargains on impact players first.
Carter Verhaeghe, who led the Panthers in goals last postseason, was signed for two years and $2 million dollars in 2020 after the Tampa Bay Lightning released him as a restricted free agent.
How long was the line of teams hoping to give Gustav Forsling, now one of the premier shutdown defensemen in the NHL, a fair market value contract until the Panthers undercut everyone thanks to their lack of state income tax?
It was non-existent. Florida plucked Forsling off waivers prior to the 2020-21 season.
Eetu Luostarinen, a member of Florida’s dominant third line, was part of the package that came back from the Vincent Trocheck trade in 2020. Prior to that deal, Luostarinen had eight games of NHL experience with one assist.
Even Sam Bennett, who is about to become a very rich man this summer, was acquired in exchange for a second-round pick and the rights to Emil Heineman. That’s not exactly a king’s ransom for a player who has become a lynchpin in Sunrise.
Those players were initially acquired for well below their value, but even when Zito has gone big-game hunting, it has been worth the price. Two moves that essentially changed the fate of the Panthers organization were the acquisitions of Sam Reinhart in 2021 and Matthew Tkachuk in 2022.
Reinhart commanded a first-round pick and goaltending prospect Devon Levi. Decent compensation for the Buffalo Sabres, but they probably want a mulligan on that deal now. Only one player, Auston Matthews, has more goals than Reinhart since the start of the 2023-24 season.
Tkachuk was the missing piece of the puzzle in Florida, and it may look like a no-brainer in hindsight, but Zito really rolled the dice on that trade. He parted ways with Johnathan Huberdeau immediately following a 115-point season, top-pairing defenseman Mackenzie Weegar and a first-round pick.
The idea that teams like Florida, Tampa, Dallas and Vegas have a major advantage because they operate in states without an income tax is overblown and wasn’t an issue 15 years ago when these teams weren’t nearly as good.
Every market has its own advantages, but the Panthers are simply beating everyone else fair and square. Because of that, hockey is expanding into different parts of the country.
Growing the game
If the NHL is going to continue to grow its reach and its revenue, it needs teams in non-traditional markets to find success in a variety of ways. That includes winning on the ice, but it also means taking advantage of that winning and turning it into a grassroots movement.
That’s what the Panthers have been trying to accomplish for the last decade, Panthers vice president of community relations John Colombo told CBS Sports. When asked about the main tenants of growing hockey in South Florida, Colombo gave what might appear to be a simple answer.
“Getting sticks in kids’ hands,” he replied.
In a climate like Florida, most sports are year-round, and that makes it more of a challenge for hockey to really get a foothold in the market.
“In South Florida, you can play any sport you want 12 months out of the year,” Colombo said. “So it’s a conversation for us of, ‘How do you compete with soccer where all you have to do is find an open field and a soccer ball and you’re all set?’ Baseball is 12 months. Football is 12 months. How are you competing with all of those sports?”
One of the ways the Panthers have done that is by offering different kinds of hockey to young fans at little to no cost.
The team’s “Learn to Play” program offers kids ages 5-9 the chance to try hockey through a six-week program, and they get to keep the equipment once it’s over. That program saw a 12.25% increase in participation over the last year.
The Panthers Floorball Program is in 560 schools across the area, and it provides free floorball equipment as well as a curriculum for P.E. teachers. The team is also developing a ball hockey program, which means young fans can be introduced to the game in a variety of ways without even having to set foot on ice.
Additionally, the Panthers have developed a “Girls Only” youth program in which girls can learn the game of hockey outside of a co-ed environment if they so choose. Not only are the teams made up of all girls, but the coaches are exclusively women as well.
Those programs have yielded results, and the overall explosion of youth hockey has been staggering. Here are the numbers from USA Hockey.
- From 2022-23 to 2023-24, youth hockey participation in Florida grew by 8.4%, the biggest increase for any state.
- Youth female participation spiked by 9.4%, also one of the highest marks in the country.
- On the whole, youth hockey participation is up a whopping 73% in Florida since 2012-13.
That number should only get higher if the Panthers can keep this dynastic run going. Between that and the grassroots efforts conducted by teams like Florida, interest in hockey will keep growing.
“When we first got here (10 years ago), a lot of times you would talk to a kid and it was like, he played hockey but it wasn’t something he wore as a badge of honor or a sense of pride,” Colombo said. “For us, we wanted to create a culture where kids are proud to be Panthers. I think the on-ice product helps that. Obviously, more eyes on the Panthers is important. But I think continuing to do those grassroots efforts.
“I think it’s so critical to let these kids grow up Panther fans, which is our goal at the end of the day.”
Long-term gains for the NHL
Anyone concerned about what TV ratings might look like for a third straight Stanley Cup Final featuring the Panthers — and a sixth straight Final featuring a team from The Sunshine State — can’t see the forest for the trees.
If the NHL has any chance at all of climbing above its current spot in the pecking order of major North American sports, it has to branch out beyond the more traditional markets. Having an all Original Six Stanley Cup Final may be better for the TV and streaming numbers now, but it does little to peak the interest of fans outside those already developed hockey hotbeds.
The Panthers have built a fun team with legitimate star power, and the community continues to embrace the franchise and the sport. That should give the league some hope that it can expand its reach into less traditional hockey markets well into the future.
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