George Richards, FHN Publisher
The Florida Panthers made a number of changes to their roster for the upcoming season.
That means, there will be new players wearing new numbers once training camp starts in about five weeks.
Of course, these new Panthers are not the first to wear their new numbers — and, with only three numbers retired in franchise history, there were plenty of digits to choose from.
There is one who wore his number here before.
Chris Driedger returns to the Panthers and, once again, will wear No. 60.
Is Driedger the best player in Florida Panthers history to wear that number?
He just might be.
Read on to find out:
No. 8
Who Wears It Now: D Jaycob Megna
Who Wore It First: Dallas Eakins, Magnus Svensson, Craig Martin, Jaroslav Spacek, Peter Worrell, Valeri Bure, Joel Kwiatkowski, Tim Kennedy, Wojtek Wolski, Dylan McIlrath, Jayce Hawryluk, Matt Kiersted, Kyle Okposo
Who Wore It Best: All things being equal, there is only one player who wore No. 8 with the Florida Panthers and won the Stanley Cup in Sunrise — and that is Kyle Okposo.
Use GEORGE10 at Checkout
For $10 Off a Season Ticket to Florida Hockey Now!
But he did not wear it very long here in South Florida having come to the team at the 2024 trade deadline.
So, we will give this honor to Peter Worrell who was not only a fan favorite during his playing days, but remains an important part of the franchise as he helps grow the game through the youth hockey ranks here in South Florida as an accomplished junior coach.
No. 10
Who Wears It Now: F A.J. Greer
Who Wore It First: Dave Lowry, Esa Tikkanen, Pavel Bure, Gary Roberts, David Booth, John Madden, Mike Mottau, Joey Crabb, Brett Connolly, Anthony Duclair, Vladimir Tarasenko
Who Wore It Best: Unlike some numbers, there is actually a solid bit of depth to No. 10.
Considering some think this number should be retired by the Panthers due to his two full seasons in Sunrise, there is no doubt the best to ever wear No. 10 with the Panthers is Pavel Bure.
With 58 goals in 1998-99, and 59 in 1999-2000, ‘The Russian Rocket’ has the top two goal seasons in franchise history with Sam Reinhart the first to even challenge it this past season.
No. 34
Who Wears It Now: D Adam Boqvist
Who Wore It First: John Vanbiesbrouck, Mathieu Biron, David Shantz, Alexander Salak, Patrick Rissmiller, Nolan Yonkman, Tim Thomas, James Reimer, Alex Lyon
Who Wore It Best: See the Pavel Bure post above; although No. 34 does not have the quality depth of past performances as No. 10 does, there is an argument it should be retired in honor of the team’s first star, goalie John Vanbiesbrouck.
Plucked out of the expansion draft, Vanbiesbrouck was the backbone of the scrappy team in its early years at Miami Arena and helped carry them to the 1996 Stanley Cup Final.
No. 34 probably will not be retired by the Panthers, but the fact it is even a talking point makes ‘The Beezer’ the only candidate for ‘Best of 34.’
No. 44
Who Wears It Now: F MacKenzie Entwistle
Who Wore It First: Rob Niedermayer, Sandis Ozolinsh, Gregory Campbell, Todd Bertuzzi, Nick Boynton, Jordan Leopold, Erik Gudbranson, Kevin Connauton
Who Wore It Best: For a quick minute, it looked like Todd Bertuzzi would be the top Panthers player to ever wear No. 44.
Remember his first game with the Panthers?
No?
OK.
Anyway, Bertuzzi was part of the Panthers’ return in Vancouver’s heist of Roberto Luongo back in 2006. In Florida’s home opener that season, Bertuzzi killed, scoring a goal with three assists as Florida hammered Boston 8-3.
The good times would not last.
Bertuzzi played just seven games with Florida (adding three assists to his Opening Night total) before a back injury sidelined him. By the time he was close to a return, Florida was circling the drain of the Southeast Division standings and he was traded to Detroit.
Rob Niedermayer was a big part of Florida’s expansion years and gets this one over Sandis Ozolinsh and Nick Cousins’ pal Erik Gudbranson.
No. 60
Who Wears It Now: G Chris Driedger
Who Wore It First: Jose Theodore, Chris Driedger
Who Wore It Best: Um, how about Chris Driedger?
Truth is, Jose Theodore was a big part of Florida returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2000 when he backstopped the Panthers to the Southeast Division title (the team’s one and only) and a spot in the 2012 postseason.
Driedger spent parts of three seasons with the Panthers and was terrific at times (he got a shutout in his first start for Florida in 2019) before being lost to Seattle in the 2021 expansion draft. He’s back with the Panthers and will battle Spencer Knight for the backup job here in training camp.
No. 70
Who Wears It Now: F Jesper Boqvist
Who Wore It First: Riley Stillman, Patric Hornqvist
Who Wore It Best: Flip a coin on this one folks. Heads?
OK, it is Patric Hornqvist.
You can read all about him HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Riley Stillman, to be fair, was an up-and-coming prospect who spent some time at the NHL level before being traded to Arizona in a cap-clearing move early in Bill Zito’s tenure. But even had he stayed, he would not eclipse Hornqvist.
Like his dad Cory, Riley Stillman also wore No. 61 with the Panthers.
No. 88
Who Wears It Now: Nate Schmidt
Who Wore It First: Peter Mueller, Jamie McGinn
Who Wore It Best: Peter Mueller gets the nod here even though he was only here for one season (2013) and scored eight goals in 43 games of a lockout-shortened season.
The Panthers went from first place in the Southeast back to last in that one season with many of the same players.
Perhaps adding Mueller was the magic sauce to that season — one in which Florida got the second overall pick in the NHL draft and took one Aleksander ‘We Call Him Sasha’ Barkov out of Finland.
Truth is, Mueller played pretty well that season.
But man, did that team stink.
Worked out in the end, however.
No. 92
Who Wears It Now: Tomas Nosek
Who Wore It First: Kyle Rau
Who Wore It Best: Kyle Rau, who is 31 now, was a third-round pick of the Panthers and a close friend and teammate of Nick Bjugstad at the U of Minnesota.
There were high hopes among the Panthers for Rau, especially after he captained the Gophers for two years.
But, alas, he only played in 31 games for Florida before landing back in Minnesota in 2017.