Luongo and Barkov seem obvious. I’m surprised I’m the only one who voted for Vanbiesbrouck. He was the team’s first star and had the best playoff run by far in team history in the finals run. His ‘94 season was also arguably the best in team history as well, finishing 2nd in Vezina and 3rd in Hart with two great seasons by Hasek and Fedorov ahead of him.
I understand the Bure votes, as he was their first star skater, and had the huge goalscoring years, but he also really only has two full years with the team so it’s a tough one. Ended up going with Huberdeau for 10 years with the team, and the team leaders in both games played and points. He and Barkov have also been the main components in the team’s most successful regular season period, and it’s not like his peak isn’t strong as well.
Beezer to me just screams "Panthers Rushmore". He's one of, if not the first guy i think of with the team. Alongside Jokinen and Mellanby. Mellanby is iconic for his rat-killing exploits, which are a core piece of the fabric of the team tbh. Sometimes hockey is more about the stories than just purely producing points and stuff.
Fill it out with Barkov as probably the best Panthers player of all time. Bouwmeester gets some consideration, but was always so completely unassuming as a player, i don't think he'd even want to be on a Mount Rushmore.
I have a hard time with both Luongo and Bure as Panthers. Even though both contributed well there, and Luongo for a very long time...i still have some bias i guess, in that i very much think of them both as Canucks Rushmore candidates. Which kind of disqualifies them from the Panthers unit for me.
Caveat though...Vanbiesbrouck has to go on the Rushmore wearing that dope ass mask he had. When someone says "Panthers" that's honestly one of the very first things that comes to mind for me, to this day. Probably played too much NHL97 as a kid. But even outside of that, it was pretty iconic.
