The Florida Panthers are a professional North American ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL). The Panthers play in the Atlantic division of the NHL’s Eastern Conference. The team was founded as an expansion team to the NHL in 1993. The Panthers have had very limited success since joining the league as they have won just two division championships, in 2011-2012 and 2015-2016. The team won their only playoff series in the 1996 playoffs when they advanced all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals before losing to the Colorado Avalanche. 

The Panthers play their home games at BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida. Despite having limited winning success as a franchise, the Panthers have had five NHL Hall of Famers play for their team. Hall of Famers Ed Belfour, Pavel Bure, Dino Ciccarelli, Igor Larionov, and Joe Nieuwendyk all played for the Panthers at some point during their careers. The Panthers retired the number 37 for former owner Wayne Huizenga and the number 93 for former president and general manager Bill Torrey. However, it took until 2020 for the team to retire the first number of a former player when they retired former goaltender Roberto Luongo’s number 1.