It is safe to say that the Florida Panthers classes of 2024, and 2025 have all made a case to be Hall of Fame candidates, but five or six players in particular are already on the road to the hall, goal scoring machine Sam Reinhart being the more interesting candidate of them all. First ballot Hall of Famer? Or just one of many bright sparks on the team?
Matthew Tkachuk, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Aleksander Barkov are all players who immediately come to mind when we think of future Hall of Famers out of the Panthers dual cup winning line ups, however Sam Reinhart, a once forgotten man in Buffalo is as close to the Hall as the others, if not closer. Sure Bobrovsky was a brick wall in between the posts, and Tkachuk was a freight train force. Barkov was the leader they couldn't have done it all without, carrying the team on his shoulders and giving them a true identity as a hard working, blue collar force. But one man bought the goals, and some pretty big ones needless to say.
Reinhart was nothing but a goal-scoring force for the Panthers across all three of their consecutive Stanley Cup finals performances, scoring 8 in 2023, 10 in 2024, and 11 in 2025, making him one of the more important pieces of the team, not to mention the game-winning goal against the Oilers in Game 6 to clinch their second straight Stanley Cup victory. But not only was it goal scoring which made Reinhart such a massive part of the team in Florida. Scoring over 20 points in this year's playoffs really highlights how important he was a point producer, and who knows what kind of an impact his absence may have had.
As far as being a first ballot Hall of Famer goes, does Reinhart make the cut? We aren't sure. Winning no major individual awards, no major scoring titles, and simply just being a perfect piece in a team of perfect pieces doesn't necessarily make you a first ballot player, but what he did in the finals, and what could have been different if he wasn't there is what makes him the player he is. In the four years he has spent in Florida so far, his role in bringing home their first Stanley Cup in history is massive, and more than people appreciate, and what he did in their second title winning finals deserves even more appreciation.
Nevertheless, winning two consecutive cups, scoring major goals in the finals, and being an intangible piece of a team doesn't always mean you're a first ballot player, and given a few more years of improved performances, he could get there, but hundreds of players have gone unrecognised for their major effort in the finals, and Sam Reinhart may end up being one of the unlucky ones who may have to wait longer than expected to hear his name inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.