Changing the Game

by Stephen Laroche

  Most important, however, was that he began to carve out a niche as a budding defensive forward and earned praise from teammates.

  “Robbie was a good two-way player,” said Brian Bradley. “He played on a line with Johnny Tucker and that kick-started his career. I didn’t know much about him at the time, but he worked hard.”

  Roman Hamrlik

  The Lightning had the pleasure of having the first overall selection in the 1992 NHL Entry Draft and they decided to go with Hamrlik, a young Czech defender who had made a great impression at the IIHF World Junior Championship earlier in the year.

  Hamrlik was ready to start the season with Tampa Bay, and his first goal came during his sixth outing on October 20, 1992, when he put the puck by Bill Ranford of the Edmonton Oilers. A week later, he recorded a goal and an assist against the Quebec Nordiques, and on November 9, the New York Rangers fell victim to the first game-winning goal of his career.

  Roman Hamrlik

  Rob Ramage

  A former first overall pick who turned out to be a solid All-Star defenceman, Ramage had a reputation for being a respected leader. After spending an injury-shortened 1991–92 season with the Minnesota North Stars, he was on the move again through the expansion draft.

  Ramage’s first offensive output of the 1992–93 season came on October 20, 1992, with two power-play goals and an assist in a clash with the Edmonton Oilers. Two nights later, he scored again while facing one of his old clubs, the Toronto Maple Leafs. As the Montreal Canadiens geared up for the playoffs, he was traded for some younger players, but he made some decent contributions on the way to a Stanley Cup championship.

  “Rob was like our captain,” said Brian Bradley. “I played with him in Calgary and Toronto. He was a good leader on our team and I can’t say enough about Rob. He really took control of the team.”

  Pat Jablonski

  On June 19, 1992, Jablonski came to the Lightning as part of a deal with the St. Louis Blues where he and three other players were picked up for future considerations. As a result, Tampa Bay now had a player in their fold who could potentially take over the role of starting goaltender, since he had shown some promise in the minors.

  After teammate Wendell Young started the team’s first two games, Jablonski’s debut was a 4–4 tie against Chicago on October 11. By November, it looked as if he was going to take over the starter’s role and he put together a personal six-game undefeated streak that was capped by the first shutout in franchise history on November 13 — a 1–0 win over the Ottawa Senators. In spite of all the early success, he was struck with the kind of futility that often arises while playing for an expansion team, and he earned a victory in just two of his next 31 appearances.

  EXPANSION YEAR RECORD: 33–34–17

  (83 points — fifth in Atlantic Division)

  COACH: Roger Neilson

  GENERAL MANAGER: Bobby Clarke

  FIRST GAME: October 6, 1993 —

  4–4 tie vs. Chicago Blackhawks

  FIRST GOAL: October 6, 1993 by Scott Mellanby

  FLORIDA

  PANTHERS

  The concept of hockey in Florida shocked the hockey world in the early 1990s. But with the NHL courting deep-pocketed potential owners and wanting to expand southward, it was only a matter of time before Miami got a chance to get a team of its own. After a chance encounter by Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall and a follow-up meeting with then–league president Gil Stein, they landed a major player in H. Wayne Huizenga, who was the chairman of Blockbuster Entertainment and a budding south Florida sports magnate. He was awarded an expansion franchise on December 10, 1992, and was set to hit the ice for the 1993–94 season.

  It was not the first attempt to bring big-league hockey to Miami, as the WHA tried to start a club there when the league opened for the 1972–73 season. The Screaming Eagles failed to take off, though, and ended up as the Philadelphia Blazers instead. There was also a bid for an NHL expansion club in 1990 by Godfrey Wood, but the deal fell through at the last minute when his group was not prepared to give the $50 million entry fee up front. That bid actually had one of the best chances among the candidates at the time, but the nod went to Tampa Bay and Ottawa instead.

  On April 19, 1993, the new club was dubbed the Florida Panthers — much to the chagrin of many locals who were not pleased about the name. There was some consolation, however, in the fact that the Panthers and their expansion cousins in Anaheim were given a fairer shake when selecting players from the established teams. The Lightning and Senators were not able to get much for their initial rosters, so Florida could at least have a decent shot at being competitive in 1993–94.

  Another thing that helped on the hockey operations side was that the Panthers could not have been better managed, with three Hall of Fame talents in team president Bill Torrey, general manager Bobby Clarke and coach Roger Neilson. Under Torrey’s guidance, every attempt was made to emulate the success of the Stanley Cup–winning New York Islanders teams he built. Clarke had a great deal of success as GM of the Philadelphia Flyers and Minnesota North Stars, and Neilson ranked among the most respected coaches in the game.

  One thing holding the Panthers back, at least financially, was a very unfavourable lease on the Miami Arena. The NBA’s Miami Heat were the main tenants and they held on to such things as advertising and luxury box revenues and were not about to share any of that with Huizenga, since he had beat out their ownership in a bid for an NHL franchise. As a result, Florida ended up with a very poor lease and remained there until getting an arena of their own in 1998.

  After much internal debate, the team unveiled its logo and uniform and it was a hit with local fans and received positive media attention. Soon after, the Panthers went into the 1993 NHL Expansion Draft with the goal of selecting character players. Clarke felt that the team’s first few years in the league were going to be rough and he wanted men with the experience and ability to deal with adversity. The list of unprotected players was released on June 21, 1993, and three days later, they made their picks in Quebec City, where the 1993 NHL Entry Draft was also being held.

  The Panthers won the coin toss to get the chance to select the first goaltender and they plucked John Vanbiesbrouck away from the Vancouver Canucks — a team that had picked him up from the New York Rangers to protect other netminders. “Beezer” proved their franchise player in the team’s early years and he was to be backed up by Mark Fitzpatrick. Daren Puppa was also taken from the Toronto Maple Leafs, but the Tampa Bay Lightning claimed him soon after in the second phase of the expansion draft, which was meant to help out the previous year’s new teams. Dominik Hasek of the Buffalo Sabres was also available, but Florida and Anaheim passed on him and, of course, he won the Vezina Trophy for the first time in 1993–94.

  The first skater Florida picked was a bit of a head scratcher, as they took Milan Tichy from the Chicago Blackhawks. Their second selection, tough-as-nails Paul Laus from Pittsburgh, was much better. From there, they focused on getting defencemen, and while they were not exactly offensive stars, players like Joe Cirella and Gord Murphy were respected and knew how to keep the puck away from the net.

  In the coin toss to see who was to take the first forward, Anaheim won, but the Panthers did not seem to mind as they began adding more gritty talent to their roster. They selected Tom Fitzgerald, who had played for Torrey on the Islanders, and went on to choose players like Dave Lowry, Brian Skrudland and Scott Mellanby instead of high-dollar veterans who were available, like Guy Carbonneau, Michel Goulet and Denis Savard.

  When it came to the Entry Draft, the Panthers picked fifth overall and took Rob Niedermayer of the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers in the hope that he could become a franchise player in time. Over the summer months, the Panthers added only a handful of free agents to their roster, but they started to make some big deals during training camp and brought in more defensive skill in Brent Severyn and Keith Brown.

  On October 6, the Panthers made their first NHL appearance and
skated to a 4–4 tie with the Chicago Blackhawks. Their first victory did not come until the third game of the year and it was hosted by their closest rivals, the Lightning. In front of a then-record 27,227 fans at the Thunderdome in St. Petersburg, Florida, they refused to back down and got a big 2–0 win. From there, they headed home and lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in their debut at the Miami Arena by a score of 2–1.

  What became apparent early in the 1993–94 season was that the Panthers were one of the most competitive teams in the NHL — even without a host of household names. After 21 games, they looked solid at the quarter-way mark with a record of 8–10–3 that included a three-game winning streak. Among the vanquished were the defending Stanley Cup champs, the Montreal Canadiens. Fans were kept cheering as the wins kept piling up and players like Stu Barnes and Bob Kudelski were acquired.

  At the halfway point, the Panthers were at .500 with 42 points over 42 games and were in the midst of a nine-game undefeated streak that had opponents starting to take them seriously. Things looked grim for a while when Vanbiesbrouck sustained a major cut to his hand, forcing him to miss nearly a month of action during the race to the playoffs. Fitzpatrick played valiantly in his absence, but in the end, Vanbiesbrouck’s rush to get back to the lineup had a serious impact on their postseason chances. Over the last 10 games of the year, Florida went 2–4–4 to finish just a win short of a playoff spot, but there were not too many disappointed fans or players, and the team had set a record for the best finish by an expansion club in NHL history.

  In 1994–95, the Panthers were close to making the playoffs once again. They were surprisingly successful the following year, however, as they made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, only to lose to the Colorado Avalanche in four straight games. Over the next few seasons, the club made the postseason twice before missing the playoffs for a record 10 straight years from 2000–01 to 2010–11.

  The fortunes of the Florida franchise began to turn around again once they hired Dale Tallon as general manager in 2010. He has helped the team rebuild and they finally made it back to the playoffs with a Southeast Division title in 2011–12 under new coach Kevin Dineen. The success was short lived, however, as they missed the playoffs once again the next year.

  Paul Laus

  Scott Mellanby

  Mellanby had a disappointing season with the Edmonton Oilers in 1992–93, missing 15 games and putting up the lowest point totals of his career to that point, outside of his injury-shortened 1989–90 campaign. But he had started his NHL career in Philadelphia under the watchful eye of Bobby Clarke, and with an opportunity to pick up a known talent, the Panthers’ GM made sure to acquire him through the expansion draft.

  Given a chance to bounce back, Mellanby made club history on October 11, 1993, when he scored Florida’s first-ever goal on the power play against Chicago’s Ed Belfour at 12:31 of the first period. From then on, he had his best season yet and he led the Panthers in goals and points during their first year in the league. Used extensively on the power play, he scored 17 goals with the man advantage and four of his tallies proved game-winners.

  Over the course of the 1993–94 season, Mellanby had a dozen multi-point games. In one of them, an 8–3 drubbing of the Montreal Canadiens on January 24, 1994, he scored twice and added an assist. A little more than a week later, he was briefly forced out of action when a puck broke his nose and orbital bone on a clearing attempt by Pittsburgh’s Larry Murphy. He missed only four games but had some trouble producing after the injury.

  Mellanby remained in Florida until midway through 2000–01, but he was responsible for one of the most interesting chapters in franchise history when he killed a dressing room rat in the 1995–96 season and went out to score two goals that night. The phenomenon quickly became known as the “Rat Trick” and fans began showering the ice with rubber rats whenever a goal was scored during the team’s run to the Stanley Cup Final that year. Unfortunately, the NHL swiftly nixed the practice and hockey was never the same for many fans in south Florida after that.

  Scott Mellanby

  Jesse Belanger

  A free agent scoop by Montreal in 1990, Belanger was signed after two 100-point seasons with the QMJHL’s Granby Bisons. He followed that up with three solid years in the AHL with the Fredericton Canadiens. Occasionally called up to the big club Habs, he saw limited action during the team’s run to the Stanley Cup in 1992–93, but the presence of a bunch of talented centres in the organization forced them to leave him open in the expansion draft, where Florida was able to obtain his rights.

  Over the first half of the season, Belanger was one of the league’s top-scoring rookie performers and had 44 points to his credit by the end of January. One of his best games was against his old club on January 24, 1994, when he scored once and threw in a couple of assists for good measure in a shocking 8–3 victory. His fast start was met with a dramatic crash, however, as he went scoreless in February before missing a month of action. Once he returned, his output was fairly limited until the final stretch of games, when he put up five points over his last seven.

  Brian Skrudland

  Skrudland’s reputation as a defensive forward was established in his days with the Montreal Canadiens, but the club dealt him away to the Calgary Flames for Gary Leeman during the 1992–93 season. He finished the year out west, but the Panthers took him in the expansion draft and named him their first captain soon after.

  Not long after scoring a goal in the season opener, Skrudland put together a four-game point streak between October 26 and November 2, 1993, including multi-point efforts against Winnipeg and Philadelphia. On February 2, 1994, he scored the game-winning goal as the Panthers rolled past the dismal Ottawa Senators, but his greatest offensive output of the year came in March as the club strived to make it into the playoffs.

  Skrudland’s hard work in keeping the puck out of Florida’s net was recognized by voters for the Selke Trophy, and he finished third behind Doug Gilmour and winner Sergei Fedorov.

  Brian Skrudland

  Stu Barnes

  At one time, the Winnipeg Jets had high hopes for Barnes, the fourth overall pick in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft, but he got lost in the shuffle of youthful players as the team added talents like Teemu Selanne, Alexei Zhamnov and Keith Tkachuk to the lineup instead of making extensive use of his skills. In order to get him and a sixth-round draft pick, the Panthers had only to give up Randy Gilhen. They were excited to see if Barnes could live up to his potential.

  It took a few games for him to adjust to playing for Florida, but Barnes was starting to produce in mid-December, scoring goals in back-to-back games against Montreal and Boston. His first of three game-winning tallies came in a 5–3 win over the Hartford Whalers on December 29, 1993, and he also assisted on Scott Mellanby’s opening goal during the first period. His hottest month came in February, when he earned 12 points over 14 games and three of his five goals were scored in power-play situations.

  Rob Niedermayer

  Niedermayer was the first amateur player ever selected by the Panthers when he was taken fifth overall in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. He had just finished three solid seasons with the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers and also wowed scouts as part of the gold medal–winning Canadian squad at the 1993 IIHF World Junior Championship.

  After some tough contract negotiations, Niedermayer joined Florida in time for the season opener and that night he recorded an assist on the franchise’s first goal by Scott Mellanby. His own first goal on October 14, 1993, came against Craig Billington of the Ottawa Senators and it gave the Panthers a 5–4 edge and the victory. Two weeks later, he scored on the power play against the New York Islanders and secured another win for the first-year club.

  His hot start saw him rack up 14 points over his first 20 games, but Niedermayer battled injuries early on and sat out for several weeks before he returned to action on January 3, 1994, in a road game with the New York Rangers. For the rest of the season, his production was not the same, but he
did manage a two-goal effort against Ottawa on February 2.

  Over eight seasons with the Panthers, Niedermayer contributed strongly on the ice before he was traded to Calgary at the end of the 2000–01 campaign.

  John Vanbiesbrouck

  The debacle known as the 1992 NHL Expansion Draft forced some serious changes the following year, when existing teams were only allowed to protect two goaltenders instead of three. As a result, a lot of teams scrambled in the weeks before the 1993 selections were to be made. The New York Rangers were in a position to deal away Vanbiesbrouck because of their depth in the crease, and the Vancouver Canucks grabbed him to protect their resources.

  With “Beezer,” the Panthers were able to draft a franchise goaltender. He was in net for their season opener before securing their first victory on October 9, 1993, in a 2–0 blanking of the Tampa Bay Lightning. From then on, he ensured Florida could contend for a playoff spot. Vanbiesbrouck was also named to the Eastern Conference squad at the 1994 NHL All-Star Game, where, taking to the ice for the third period, he became the second goalie in a row from a first-year club to earn a victory in the mid-season classic.

  On February 1, 1994, he suffered a laceration on his hand in a loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins and did not return to action for another 17 days. With Florida in the hunt for a playoff spot, he gave a tremendous effort despite being embroiled in some public debate regarding a new contract. In his final 20 games, Vanbiesbrouck went 5–12–3 and the Panthers’ fairy tale debut ended with them out of playoff contention. His efforts were recognized with a spot on the NHL’s Second All-Star Team and he also finished third in voting for the Hart Trophy as the league MVP.

  John Vanbiesbrouck

  EXPANSION YEAR RECORD: 33–46–5

  (71 points — fourth in Pacific Division)

  COACH: Ron Wilson