Mike Matheson was a First Round Pick (23^rd Overall) from Boston College, and after appearing in three Games in 2015-16, the Defenseman was in a permanent pairing as a Florida Panther.

Matheson emerged as a prototypical defender, focusing on his side of the ice.  While he would be mistake prone on occasion, he did have back-to-back 27 Point years (2017-18 & 2018-19), the former year seeing him score 10 Goals.  Traded to Pittsburgh before the 2020-21 Season, Matheson had 94 Points as a Panther.

While it can be argued that Matheson’s accomplishment as a Panther did not live up to the potential, on an expansion team with no Stanley Cups, Matheson belongs on this list.

Drafted late in the Seventh Round in 2013, Defenseman MacKenzie Weeger plied his trade in the minors for three years before he appeared in three Games for the Panthers in 2016-17.  Just doing that was an accomplishment considering where Weegar was selected, but he had bigger things in mind.

Weegar made the Panthers roster going into 2017, and for three seasons, he provided steady blueline work on a deep defensive pairing. In 2020-21, Weegar had a breakout year, showing full offensive skills with 30 Assists and 36 Points in only 54 Games, and was eighth in Norris voting and second in Plus/Minus.  Weegar had 44 Points in his follow-up with a fourteenth-place in Norris voting, and he was a large part of Florida's huge success in the regular season.  As good as Weegar was, the Panthers sent him, along with Jonathan Huberdeau, to the Calgary Flames in the off-season.

After five-and-a-half years with Toronto and a cup of coffee with San Jose, James Reimer signed with the Florida Panthers in 2016 to share the goaltending duties with Roberto Luongo.

Reimer was with the Panthers for three years, though it was during his first two years that he was mostly effective.  In his first year with Florida, Reimer played in 43 Games with a solid 2.53 GAA and a .920 Save Percentage.  The following year wasn’t as good, but the numbers were still respectable with a 2.99 ERA and a .913 Save Percentage.  Reimer’s play dropped off in his third year in Florida, and he was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes during the offseason.

With the Panthers, Reimer had a record of 53-42-16 and a GAA of 2.85.

In the 2017-18 Season, it felt like Evgenii Dadonov came out of nowhere, but the reality was that he had already been a Panther.

The Right Wing was a Third Rounder in 2007, and he would play 55 Games for Florida, though mostly he was in the minors.  He was traded to Carolina, but he never played for the Hurricanes, just their minor league team.  He returned to Russia and played in the KHL, where his skills improved. Without any affiliation with an NHL team, he was signed back to the Panthers for the 2017-18 Season.

In his return season, Dadonov scored 65 Points, erasing the memories of his play in Florida before, that is, for those who remembered his first run.  Dadonov had an even better 2018-19, posting a career-best 70 Points and equalling his 28 Goals.  He had 25 Goals in 2019-20, though his Assists plummeted to nearly half of what he had.  

This was it for Dadonov as a Panther, as he signed with Ottawa as a Free Agent.  He would score 202 Points for Florida.