NHL Countdown: No. 21 Florida Panthers

Luke DeCock, Sporting News Yearbooks Leading into the Oct. 1 season openers, Sporting News will preview one NHL team per day, counting backward from our preseason No. 30-ranked team to No. 1. For the past four years, the Panthers have been knocking on the door of the playoffs. And for the past four years, they have fallen short — although never by more than nine points. Last season, a playoff spot was denied only by a tiebreaker when Florida finished with 93 points, its highest total in nine years. Now everyone wonders whether this is the season the Panthers get over the hump and back to the playoffs for the first time since 2000. They'll have to do it without cornerstone defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, who was traded during June's draft because the Panthers could not re-sign him. But that's nothing new for this franchise. During the 2006 draft, they traded franchise goalie Roberto Luongo when they couldn't re-sign him. At the 2008 draft, Florida traded captain Olli J...