Yahoo Sports NHL announces Florida Panthers’ Quarter-Century Team. Here’s who made the cut
The NHL on Friday announced the Florida Panthers’ Quarter-Century team, honoring a dozen players for their efforts for the franchise from 2000 to the present.
The 12 players — six forward, four defensemen and two goaltenders — include six players currently on the team who helped lead the team to its first-ever Stanley Cup last season.
The full team is as follows:
▪ First-team forwards: Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Jonathan Huberdeau
▪ First-team defensemen: Aaron Ekblad, Gustav Forsling
▪ First-team goaltender: Roberto Luongo
▪ Second-team forwards: Olli Jokinen, Sam Reinhart, Pavel Bure
▪ Second-team defensemen: Jay Bouwmeester, Robert Svehla
▪ Second-team goaltender: Sergei Bobrovsky
About the first-team selections
Barkov, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft, has been Florida’s captain since 2018 and owns the franchise records for games played (766), goals (277), assists (468), points (745) and power-play goals (80), among others.
Tkachuk, acquired in a blockbuster trade with the Calgary Flames for Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar ahead of the 2022-23 season, has made an instant impact on the Panthers since joining the team. He has 232 points (79 goals, 153 assists) in 193 regular-season games with the Panthers and was instrumental in both of their playoff runs that he has been part of — reaching the Stanley Cup Final before losing to Vegas in 2023 and beating Edmonton in seven games for the Cup in 2024.
Huberdeau, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2011 draft, had 613 points (198 goals, 415 assists) over 671 games with Florida before being dealt to Calgary in the Tkachuk trade.
Ekblad, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 draft, is Florida’s longest-tenured defenseman and owns club records for games played (715), goals (117), assists (250) and points (367) by a blueliner. He also won the Calder Memorial Trophy following his rookie campaign in 2014-15.
Forsling has emerged as one of the league’s best defensemen since being picked up off waivers by the Panthers in January 2021. He ranks second among all skaters in plus-minus rating over the past five seasons (+151) while logging 148 points (43 goals, 105 assists) in 314 regular season contests, as well as 26 points (7 goals 19 assists) in 61 postseason games in that span.
Luongo earned the second-most wins of any goaltender (486) from Jan. 1, 2000 to Dec. 31, 2024 while posting the best save percentage (.919) of any goaltender with at least 600 appearances. This included 572 games with the Panthers, during which he won 230 games and had a 2.61 goals against average.
NHL Quarter-Century team
Next up is a fan vote for the NHL’s overall Quarter-Century Team, which will take place from Feb. 12-26 after all 32 teams’ Quarter-Century Teams have been announced.
The fan vote will determine the top 25 players of the past 25 years, regardless of position. Voting will be conducted on both NHL.com and X. Fans will have 100 percent of the vote. Only players named to a club’s First Quarter-Century Team will be eligible for selection.
