Florida Panthers Loved Their Time with Jumbo Joe Thornton

The Florida Panthers had not quite arrived in 2021 when Joe Thornton all but declared them a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

During the pandemic-shortened 2021 season, the Panthers took a step forward.

They finished second in the reworked Central Division, and gave the Tampa Bay Lightning a fight in the first-round of the playoffs before bowing out in 6.

The Panthers looked like a team the NHL may need to take seriously.

Only they were, after all, still the Florida Panthers.

Then Jumbo Joe Thornton, a Hall of Famer who had never won the Stanley Cup, signed on to win a championship with the Panthers.

Yeah, the Florida Panthers.

Teams started to look at the Panthers a little differently.

After all, if Joe Thornton was going to go ring chasing with the Panthers, perhaps they really were a contender.

“We wanted to win for him,’’ Aaron Ekblad said, “just as much as we wanted to do it for ourselves.”