The Florida Panthers may not be in this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs, but there are plenty of alums on the rosters of the 16 playoff contenders who are playing right now.
Some have won the Stanley Cup with the Panthers; som have not.
There are also some who never played in a playoff game with the Panthers before moving on.
The most prominent names are with the Utah Mammoth.
Nate Schmidt and Vitek Vanecek hoisted the Stanley Cup after Game 6 of the Final last June in Sunrise.
Schmidt, as a veteran, received the first handoff from captain Sasha Barkov. Vanecek received an early handoff as well, part of the group a newcomers who were awarded early handoffs.
Kevin Stenlund of the Mammoth was on the 2024 championship team.
MacKenzie Weegar was part of the growth of the Panthers to Stanley Cup champions but was traded to Calgary as part of the Matthew Tkachuk deal the year before Florida made its first run to the Final in 2023.
Lawson Crouse, a Utah/Arizona mainstay, was a first-round pick by Florida in the 2015 Sunrise draft, but was traded to Arizona in the Dave Bolland cap dump in 2016 before playing a game for the Panthers.
Minnesota has several former championship Panthers as well.
Vladimir Tarasenko and Nico Sturm were rentals on the 2024 and 2025 Cup winners. Jeff Petry was on the Panthers this season until his deadline trade to the Wild. Matt Kiersted spent several seasons in the organization but the closest he came to playoff action was the Black Aces in 2024.
Ottawa has Nick Cousins who was on the 2024 Cup team. Claude Giroux was a late season rental pickup and played in the 2022 playoffs for Florida. James Reimer missed the playoffs in his three seasons in Florida as Roberto Luongo’s backup.
Here are the other teams with Panthers in the playoffs:
- Philadelphia has Owen Tippett who was a prime prospect when he was dealt to Philadelphia in the Giroux trade. He found success with the Flyers and is in his first playoff. Noah Juulsen only played a few games for Florida in 2020-21 before becoming a regular with Vancouver and then Philadelphia.
- Montreal’s Mike Matheson and Sam Montembeault were Florida draft picks who had short but eventful tours with the Panthers. Matheson participated in the 2016 and 2020 playoffs for Florida. He was traded to Pittsburgh for Patric Hornqvist in Bill Zito’s first transaction as general manager. Montembeault was considered Florida’s goalie of the future but never quite made it. He had a few appearances over two seasons but was lost on waivers to Montreal just prior to the 2021-22 season.
- Reilly Smith of the Vegas Golden Knights came to Florida via trade from Boston prior to the 2015-16 season. He spent two productive seasons in Florida and participated in the 2016 playoffs. Smith was traded to Vegas at the 2017 Expansion Draft.
- Anaheim’s Radko Gudas and Frank Vatrano were fan favorites during their time in Sunrise. Gudas, another Zito free agent signing, performed in the playoffs for the Panthers for three consecutive years, ending with the dramatic run to the finals in 2023. Vatrano spent parts of five seasons in Florida and participated in the two postseasons.
- Tampa Bay has backup goalie Jonas Johansson who played just two games for Florida after being acquired from Colorado via waivers during the 2021-22 season.
- Buffalo’s Alex Lyon spent the latter part of the 2022-23 season with Florida after being elevated from the AHL to replace Spencer Knight who took a leave of absence. He helped rally the Panthers into the 2023 playoffs and in so doing, secured his position as a full time. NHL goaltender.
- Pittsburgh’s Noel Acciari came to the Panthers as a UFA and a heralded fourth liner prior to the 2019-20 season. He had an outstanding 2018-19 playoff run with Boston, helping them to get to the Stanley Cup Final where they were defeated by St. Louis in seven games. Although not known as a scorer, the highlight of his three Florida years was when he scored hat tricks in consecutive games during the 2019-20 season.
- Carolina’s Mike Reilly was a free agent signing prior to the 2023-24 season. He only played in two games and could never quite break into the Panthers’ lineup. When Florida wanted to send him to the AHL to get playing time he was lost on waivers to the Islanders.
- The Hurricanes also have goalie Brandon Bussi who was signed by Florida as a free agent last summer after spending five seasons in the AHL as a Bruins’ farmhand. He never played a game for Florida and was claimed off waivers by Carolina before the regular season began. He had an excellent regular season, filling in for Frederik Andersen when he was injured. During the playoffs he has been relegated to backup duty.
- Finally, there is Alexander Petrovic who spent parts of seven seasons as a Panther. After being traded to Edmonton during the 2018-19 season he bounced around, mainly in the minors, before resurfacing with Dallas full time this season. Thus far he has been a healthy scratch in the playoffs.
