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The Florida Panthers Hockey Club
BankAtlantic Center*
One Panther Parkway
Sunrise, FL 33323
TEL: 954.835.7000
FAX: 954-835-7600 (Public Relations FAX: 954-835-7700)
TICKETS: 1-800-GO-PANTH
WWW.FLORIDAPANTHERS.COM

* formerly Office Depot Center, and before that National Car Rental Center and originally Broward County Arena

Rec-sport-hockey Florida contact: Eric A. Seiden

WHERE TO SEND FAN MAIL:
Letters to all Panthers Players should be addressed to the player's attention at the above address. All mail received after the conclusion of the season is held until the player/coach returns to Florida the following September. A self-addressed, stamped envelope expedites the return process. Players do not have public e-mail addresses, but they do have a generic address playermail @ floridapanthers dot com and you can e-mail them at that address by putting their name in the subject line. This is not a private e-mail box and someone will read your letter before it's printed and given to the player.

The Miami Arena (14,823 capacity) 305-530-4444 (200' x 85')

701 Arena Blvd

Miami, FL 33136

[Sellout capacity was 14,703 -- which excluded 120 seats in sky boxes]

 

 

 

Second Home Ice (SEP 1998-present):

Broward County Arena (200' x 85') [aka BankAtlantic Center]

One Panther Parkway

Sunrise, FL 33323

[Sellout capacity is now listed as 19,250 -- it was originally listed as 19,088 and then 19,200 -- which includes 2,236 Club Seats.]

Incredible Ice

3299 Sportsplex Drive

Coral Springs, FL 33065

Fox Sports Florida (with Denis Potvin, Steve Goldstein, Craig Minervini)

 

 

 

 

and also for national games on:

Versus at

The Ticket (790AM) with Randy Moller, Billy Lindsay

Team Colours: Red, Navy Blue, White, and Yellow-Gold

Team Mascot: Stanley C. Panther

PantherDivision: Eastern Conference -- SouthEast Division

First Year: 1993-1994 Inaugural Season

Current Year: 2009-2010 is the Panthers' Sixteenth NHL Season (Would have been one more except for the cancellation of the 04-05 season)

Minor League Affiliates: Florida Everblades (ECHL), Rochester Americans (AHL)

Previous Affiliates: Augusta Lynx (ECHL), Louisville Panthers (AHL), Miami Matadors (ECHL), Tallahassee Tiger Sharks (ECHL), San Antonio Rampage (AHL), Birmingham Bulls (ECHL), Cincinnati Cyclones (IHL), Carolina Monarchs (AHL), Fort Wayne Komets (IHL), and Port Huron Border Cats (UHL), Laredo Bucks (CHL), Texas Wildcatters (ECHL)

To save the beautiful Florida Panther, an endangered animal with less than fifty cats still in existence, send your contributions to this not-for profit organization: Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge and the Florida Panther Society. If you find a link is not working, please e-mail me and let me know which one is broken.

By far, the most common question I get is "What's the deal with the rats?" To put that to rest, I bring to you the final say in the matter; the real deal on how the rat tradition really began:

It was 1995, coincidentally also the Year of the Rat on the Chinese calendar. Specifically it was 8 October 1995, at approximately 6:30pm in the locker room. With an hour to go before face-off in the home opener against the Calgary Flames, a live rat dashed about the Panthers' locker room.

Scott Mellanby, the future captain, remembers, "Guys were jumping out of the way and screaming. It made a beeline right towards me." So Mellanby, armed with his stick, let his fine-tuned instincts take over. He one-timed the rat with a slap of his stick into the locker room wall. "I one-timed it," said Scott, "and it was dead."

Soon, a tradition would be born. That very night Mellanby scored two goals in a 4-3 win over the Flames. Goalie John Vanbiesbrouck called it a "rat trick." Later that night in the locker room, an as-of-yet still unidentified team member marked the spot on the wall with a circle and inscription "R.I.P. Rat 1." Two games later, on 13 October 1995, the team's third home game which was a 6-2 win against Ottawa, two rubber rats hit the ice after a Panther goal. This was the first recorded rat throwing. The next game the total was 16 and the game after that it was 50. By the time the playoffs began, the per-game rat count exceeded 2,000. The phenomenon became so disruptive, the NHL passed a rule prohibiting such displays the following season. Local fans were undeterred, throwing rats on the ice after every game. The tradition began to fade when the team moved into their new building some years later.

Mellanby quotes courtesy of Michael Mayo from a June 1996 issue of the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.

Special Inaugural (Expansion) Year Statistics

• Best expansion team in professional sports history: The Florida Panthers
• Most points of any expansion team in NHL history: The Florida Panthers
• Most road wins of any expansion team in NHL history: The Florida Panthers
• Longest unbeaten streak (9) of any expansion team in NHL history: The Florida Panthers

Special Statistics Statistics

Team Firsts

Significant Team Dates

All-Time Roster

Complete Panthers Personnel Directory

Training Camp Sites

1993. Miami, FL
1994. Peterborough, ON
1995. Greensboro, NC
1996. Summerside, PE
1997. Miami, FL
1998. Sunrise, FL
1999. Hull, PQ
2000. Hull, PQ
2001. Sunrise, FL
2002. Sunrise, FL (Rookie Camp Hull, PQ)
2003. Sunrise, FL
2004. Sunrise, FL (Rookie Camp Pierrefonds, PQ)
2005. No camp -- lockout
2006. Vail, CO and Sunrise, FL
2007. Toronto, ON and Sunrise, FL
2008. Vail, CO
2009. Sunrise, FL
2010. Port Hawkesbury, NS (Rookie Camp, Sunrise)

(All camp dates are year end dates, so 1993 is the 1992-1993 season)

Other Random Factoids

BARKY: If you're wondering what the deal with the famous Radek Dvorak avec chien picture is, you can now see it for yourself. This is the infamous photo in the 1999-2000 season calendar from the September page. I've scanned it in, cropped it, and added a caption. It was and is much talked about to this day. This photo is not the real reason he was traded, despite rumours to the contrary. (132K image will open in its own window).

ICE DANCERS: Many people have impugned the Ice Dancers (our "cheerleaders") and made comments about them with names ranging from "Pole Cats" to those that a family friendly website can't possibly print. Thanks to Evan we now know you can, indeed, buy them by the hour as many have long suspected. Here's a scan from the Panthers themselves as proof. (221K image will open in its own window).

PAUL LAUS: You can read our exclusive interview with Paul Laus and hear what he has to say about your Florida Panthers. Paul also uses our message boards sometimes.