Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present our post 2021/22 revision of our top Florida Panthers.

As for all of our top 50 players in hockey we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National Hockey League. 

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Last year, the Panthers were Stanley Cup contenders, but they were eliminated in the second round.  As this is a young and loaded team, this led to three new entries on our top 50 and multiple elevations.

As always, we present our top five, which changed significantly from last year:

1. Roberto Luongo

2. Alexsander Barkov

3. Jonathan Huberdeau

4. John Vanbiesbrouck

5. Aaron Ekblad

You can find the entire list here.

Barkov, who won the Frank J. Selke in 2021 and the Lady Byng in 2019, moved to the #2 spot from #3.

Huberdeau, who was traded to the Flames in the off-season, and was a Second Team All-Star last year, also went up one rung with his new rank being #3.

Ekblad is the third mover withing the top five, with the Defenseman also edging one spot from #6. 

Defenseman, Mackenzie Weegar, reaches #19 from #33, but was also traded to Calgary along with Huberdeau.

Former Vezina Trophy winner with Columbus, Sergei Bobrovsky, enters the list at #23.

The other debuts are Defenseman, Gustav Forsling at #45 and Right Wing, Anthony Duclair at #48.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.

From Michigan, Alex DeBrincat set goal-scoring records for the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League, leading the Winger to be drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks early in the Second Round of the 2016 Draft.  After completing one more year in the OHL, DeBrincat was ready for the big time.

DeBrincat had a solid rookie year, scoring 52 Points, and he broke out with a 41 Goal/76 Point year where he was sixth in Goals.  He experienced a third-year slump, dropping to 45 Points, but was an over a Point-per-Game player in the COVID-stricken 2021-22 campaign, with his 31 Goals good enough for third in the league.  

By this point, DeBrincat emerged as the team’s top scorer, and he was named an Alternate Captain.  He matched his 41 Goal output from before in 2021-22, and he was an All-Star for the first time, though despite his success, Chicago was a bad team looking to rebuild.  DeBrincat was surprisingly traded to the Ottawa Senators for three Draft Picks.  With Chicago, DeBrincat scored 307 Points and less than 100 Penalty Minutes in five NHL Seasons.

All-Rookie player in 2018-19, Finnish Defenseman, Miro Heiskanen, is living up to the hype that a Third Overall Pick should be.

Heiskanen, who has played five years for Dallas to date, has managed to score at least 30 Points in four of them, and had it not been for the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign, he would have made it five-for-five  Finishing 12^th in Norris voting in both 2019/20 and 2021/22, Heiskanen broke out offensively n 2022-23 with a 73 Point performance netting him a seventh-place Norris Trophy finish, but he has not been able to replicate that since, and last season, he only scored 25 Points in 50 Games.

Heiskanen has a lot more good hockey in him, and we think he will rocket up this list if he stays in Dallas.

Gustav Forsling was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks, but the Chicago Blackhawks were the first to sign him, as his rights were traded to the Windy City.  The Swedish Defenseman played three years for Chicago before he was again traded, this time to Carolina, where he never played.  When the Hurricanes waived him in January of 2021, Forsling was picked up by the Florida Panthers.

Forsling had 17 Points for Florida that year, helping the Panthers reach the playoffs.  He had a breakout 2021-22, where he saw more ice time, scored 10 Goals with 37 Points, and was sixth in plus/Minus (+41).  He was even better in 2022/23 with 13 Goals and 41 Points, helping the Panthers reach the Eastern Conference Finals. In 2023/24, Forsling had his best year to date.  The blueliner had 39 Points, was ninth in Norris voting (his first top ten finish), and led the NHL in Plus/Minus (+56) and defensive Point Shares (8.0).  More importantly, He was a star in Florida's run to their first Stanley Cup.  Last season, Forsling was again a defensive rock and helped Florida win their second Stanley Cup.

He is a potential top ten player on this team.