Panthers Find Themselves Atop Changing South Florida Pro Sports Landscape
With a dark cloud surrounding both the Dolphins and Heat, the Panthers are seemingly the kings of professional sports in South Florida.
In the space of a couple of days, the landscape of South Florida sports has changed drastically.
This past week, Jimmy Butler officially asked out from the Miami Heat — ending a long saga between the two sides and an era that saw the Heat make two NBA Finals appearances — and the Miami Dolphins suffered an embarrassing loss to the New York Jets to extend their drought without postseason wins to 25 years.
(A Denver Broncos blowout of the Kansas City Chiefs made any result from that Jets game moot, but it’s the Jets. C’mon, man.)
And Tyreek Hill may be on his way out soon, too.
Two franchises that have been the toast of the town for the bulk of the past few decades both suddenly find themselves in dysfunction, with neither of them seeming to have a path out of it anytime soon.
The Dolphins made sure of it when they announced that they will be retaining both general manager Chris Grier and head coach Mike McDaniel not even four hours following the loss after three seasons of perpetually failing to compete in the playoffs with teams that were touted to have talent and potential.
That leaves one organization left to be the face of South Florida sports: the Florida Panthers.
Yes, the Panthers who once were the laughing stock of the metro South Florida area for much of the 2000s and early 2010s delivered with the area’s first championship in 11 years last year and has solidified itself as a contender for years to come.
And it’s because it has something that both of these teams (and especially the Miami Marlins, who I refuse to even acknowledge past this sentence just like they have refused to acknowledge free agency this offseason) do not have: A winning culture.
The Heat preached culture for much of Pat Riley’s tenure as an executive of the organization, but it lost its touch in recent years when Riley fell short of fixing the shortcomings in the team’s roster following each of its two Finals appearances in 2020 and 2023.
Yes, those were successful seasons, but in that span, the Heat whiffed on multiple trades for stars like Kevin Durant, Donovan Mitchell, and most notably, Damien Lillard to pair with Butler and Adebayo to compete for a championship.
There was also the discussion of Butler’s lack of effort in the regular season — one that manifested itself into finishes in lower seeds during the regular season — that caused a rift between the star and the organization.
As successful as that organization was in this Butler era, the issues that seemed to have been bothering both sides — the lack of the big move to put the Heat over the top and the alleged lack of effort in regular season games — was straining on the culture and it has manifested itself at times this season. Just like when the Heat were walloped by the Utah Jazz just days after the Heat suspended Butler to finalize the split.
It’s not to say that a Bam Adebayo-Tyler Herro duo under legendary coach Erik Spoelstra won’t be competitive — especially after the Heat get whatever they can for Butler — but there is a fracture in that organization, which has seemingly felt untouchable lately.
The Dolphins are a more complicated story. One that spans for much longer than the author of this column has even been alive.
In short, the Dolphins’ lack of a winning culture has been visible in big games for years now. They routinely lose to teams with winning records, have put in pitiful efforts on the road when the temperature dips below 40 degrees and the recent antics of Hill have perpetuated that.
And after two seasons of first-round exits in seasons where quarterback Tua Tagovailoa missed significant time (and a playoff game) with injury, Grier opted to extend him to a massive deal paying him over $50 million per season. Then proceeded to do a lackluster effort in building an offensive line in front of him.
Seemingly every move that team has made has blown up in its face, and still, owner Stephen Ross opted to retain both coach and general manager following a disappointing 8-9 season where the franchise quarterback missed significant time yet again.
So, why do I bring all of this up on a hockey website?
Well, it’s because the hockey team is the antithesis of all of these issues the other big name professional sports teams in the South Florida area are struggling with.
When the Panthers had their best season in franchise history in 2021-22 — securing their first Presidents’ Trophy in franchise history and its first playoff series win since 1996, boasting a star player who finished in the Top 3 in points and MVP votes and an interim coach who finished third in Coach of the Year voting after taking over for a legendary coach who resigned amid his (in-)action a sexual assault scandal —they were not satisfied after they were swept in the second round by the rival Tampa Bay Lightning.
Management saw the writing on the wall from a fast-paced team that couldn’t hack it in the playoffs, so they did something about it.
They opted to move on from interim coach Andrew Brunette, hiring coach Paul Maurice who predicated his system on structure and a heavy forecheck — which thrives in the postseason.
When Matthew Tkachuk became available, they pounced on that opportunity. Even if it costed MVP candidate Jonathan Huberdeau and star defenseman MacKenzie Weegar to do so.
Why? Because he played a chippy, physical game that translated to the playoffs while also being just as dynamic offensively as Huberdeau was during his peak as a Panther.
Both of those moves led directly to the Panthers making back-to-back Finals appearances before winning it all in 2024.
It’s not to say the ballsiness of being able to address weaknesses and fill them is the only thing that separates the Panthers and their culture from the rest of the area’s teams.
Because their culture is, pretty much, untouchable.
As general manager Bill Zito has said on occasion, not a single player in the team’s locker room has complained about anything. From the coach being hard on them to the pizza in the locker room, there was not a single complaint from either of the teams that made the Cup Final.
It says a lot about the players themselves — a group that prides itself on doing whatever it takes to win and getting along while doing it — but also management and ownership itself.
And because of the way they run things, for the foreseeable future, the Florida Panthers are the kings of professional sports in South Florida.