Florida Panthers - Beginnings and First Stanley Cup Match The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. The Panthers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference and initially played their home games at the Miami Arena before moving to Amerant Bank Arena in 1998. Located in Sunrise, Florida, the franchise is the southernmost team in the NHL. The Panthers are affiliated with two minor league teams: the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League (AHL) and the Savannah Ghost Pirates of the ECHL. Early Years (1992–2000) Blockbuster Video mogul Wayne Huizenga was awarded an NHL franchise for Miami on December 10, 1992, the same day the Walt Disney Company won the rights to start a team in Anaheim that would become the Mighty Ducks. At the time, Huizenga owned the newly founded Florida Marlins of Major League Baseball (MLB) and a portion of the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL). Huizenga announced that the team would play at the Miami Arena, sharing the arena with the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA) until a new arena was built. Vice President of Business Operations Dean Jordan admitted that "none of the businessmen, myself included, knew anything about hockey." The new franchise would be the first professional ice hockey team in Miami since the Tropical Hockey League folded in 1939. The Tropical Hockey League (THL) was a short-lived minor ice hockey league in Miami, Florida. Initially, it had four teams, all based in Miami, and lasted only one season, 1938–39, before folding; it was briefly revived in 1940 before closing for good the following year. Dubbed the Grapefruit League, it was the first attempt to establish professional hockey in Florida—or the southern United States in general—although it had minimal impact on popularizing the sport in the region. Huizenga initially wanted to name the team the "Block Busters" after his video rental chain. The team would have the same colors as the video rental chain (blue and gold), and a uniform concept was even designed. Ultimately, the NHL rejected the nickname. On April 20, 1993, a press conference in Ft. Lauderdale announced that the team would be called the Florida Panthers, with former New York Islanders general manager Bill Torrey as president and Bobby Clarke as general manager. The team was named after the Florida panther, an endangered species of big cat endemic to the nearby Everglades. As the logos and uniforms were unveiled on June 15, the team also announced its financial commitment to panther conservation. Huizenga had held the Panthers trademark since 1991, when he purchased it from a group of Tampa investors seeking to establish an MLB team in the Tampa Bay area. The new franchise joined the NHL for the 1993-94 season with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. The Panthers and Ducks' rosters were filled in both the expansion draft and the 1993 NHL Entry Draft in June 1993, hosted by Quebec City. The Panthers' first major stars were former New York Rangers goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck, rookie Rob Niedermayer, and forward Scott Mellanby, who scored 30 goals in Florida's inaugural season. Their first game was a 4-4 draw on the road against the Chicago Blackhawks, while their first win was a 2-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Thunderdome in front of an NHL-record crowd of 27,227. The Panthers had one of the most successful first seasons of any expansion team in league history, finishing just two points below .500 and narrowly missing out on the final Eastern Conference playoff spot in the 1994 season. Their first-year success was largely attributed to the trap defense implemented by coach Roger Neilson. This conservative style was widely criticized by NHL teams; some even suggested the Panthers were ruining the game. While team executives expected the attendance to be composed primarily of Canadian "snowbirds" living in Florida, the Floridian quickly embraced the Panthers. Helped by other middling Miami teams, the club averaged 94% capacity at the 14,500-seat Miami Arena and sold 8,500 season tickets within 100 days. In August 1994, general manager Clarke left to take a job with the Philadelphia Flyers; Bryan Murray was brought in from the Detroit Red Wings as his replacement. After flirting with the playoffs again, finishing the lockout-shortened 1994–95 season in ninth place again, Neilson was fired after an argument with Murray over Ed Jovanovski, whom the Panthers selected with the first overall pick in the 1994 NHL Entry Draft. Doug MacLean, who had been the team's director of player development, was promoted to head coach. The team then acquired Ray Sheppard from the San Jose Sharks at the NHL trade deadline. A very unusual goal celebration developed in Miami during the 1995–96 season. On the night of the Panthers' 1995–96 home opener, a rat entered the team's locker room. Scott Mellanby reacted by throwing the rat against the wall, killing it. That night, he scored two goals, which Vanbiesbrouck joked was "a rat trick." Two nights later, when the story became public, some fans threw rubber rats onto the ice to celebrate a goal. The rubber rat count rose from 16 in the third home game to over 2,000 during the playoffs. In the 1996 playoffs, as the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, the Panthers faced the Boston Bruins in the first round and won in five games. The Panthers defeated the first-seeded Philadelphia Flyers in six games, followed by the second-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins in seven (with Tom Fitzgerald scoring what would ultimately be the game-winning goal) to reach the Stanley Cup Finals against the Colorado Avalanche, another team making its first Finals appearance. The Avalanche, however, swept the Panthers in four games. Despite losing in the Finals, the Panthers set a record for most wins by an expansion team in their first postseason appearance with 12 victories (this record would later be broken by the Vegas Golden Knights during their inaugural season in 2017-18). For his team's surprising success, Bryan Murray was honored as NHL Executive of the Year. Alex