Only two hockey teams earned a spot on FanSided’s 2024 Fandoms of the Year, and the Florida Panthers were one of them. There was no way the team that plays its home games in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida, wasn’t earning a spot on this list, considering their memorable 2023-24 season.
The Panthers, a franchise that had been historically bad apart from a run at the 1996 Stanley Cup, had come a long way. Besides the warm weather that the state guarantees all year round, the franchise wasn’t a hot spot for hockey, considering just how irrelevant the team was.
But at the turn of the decade, a league-best points total of 122 at least let them get an idea of what it was like to win a championship, albeit a regular-season championship. Yep, the Panthers won their first Presidents’ Trophy, an honor that goes to the team that snagged the highest points total.
But, they just couldn’t get past their in-state rival and what had long been the superior team in Florida, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Still, the Panthers stormed back in 2022-23 when they snuck into the playoffs and upset three teams that included a pair of division rivals, winning them the Prince of Wales Trophy for the first time in nearly three decades.
Florida Panthers resilience earned them a 2024 FanSided Fandom of the Year spot
During the 2023 Stanley Cup Final, someone was hoisting that trophy for the first time. It was either going to be the Panthers or the Vegas Golden Knights, a team that seemed destined to win a Cup at some point in their first decade.
Unfortunately for Florida, they ran out of steam and watched Vegas lift the trophy. But it wouldn’t be long before the Panthers found themselves back in the Final, as they snagged the Prince of Wales Trophy again in 2024.
This time, they looked to be in full control during the Stanley Cup Final, but their opponent, the Edmonton Oilers, stormed back and made it a series. It looked as though the Panthers were going to run out of steam again after being so close once more, but an epic Game 7 solidified them as the NHL’s best team.
Because of their resilience through one of the bleakest stretches in league history that culminated with a Stanley Cup title, there was no way the Panthers weren’t getting a spot as one of the Fandoms of the Year. Their story was too inspiring, and in 2024-25, they once again look like a force to be reckoned with.