Panthers Put Home Opener Streak and Carter Verhaeghe’s Record Chase in Focus

Florida’s 2026-27 home opener offers two tests of the Panthers’ history: whether they can keep winning their first game at home, and whether Carter Verhaeghe can move into sole possession of a notable scoring mark. Minnesota is the visitor as Florida looks to extend its home opener winning streak to eight seasons.

The Panthers enter with a 21-7-2-2 all-time record in home openers, a .656 winning percentage. Their current run has given the occasion a reliable pattern: Florida has won its first home game in each of the past seven seasons. A win over the Wild would extend that streak, though the historical record makes clear that a strong run is only one part of a much longer ledger.

There will be no banner raised before this opener, ending a four-year stretch of home openers that included a banner ceremony. Florida unveiled its 2023 Eastern Conference championship banner, followed by Stanley Cup championship banners in 2024 and 2025. This time, the attention shifts to the ice and to a team trying to keep its opening-night home success intact.

Verhaeghe’s chance to join Mellanby

Verhaeghe is the active Panther with the clearest individual milestone in reach. He has scored Florida’s first home goal twice, and another would give him three such goals, tying Scott Mellanby for the most in franchise history. Mellanby reached that mark three times; Pavel Bure and Evgenii Dadonov each did it twice.

The distinction is narrow, but it gives the opening goal extra history to chase. Verhaeghe is not the only current Panther who has scored the club’s first goal at home: Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad have also done it. Last season, A.J. Greer opened Florida’s home scoring. He has since departed for the Anaheim Ducks, leaving a different group of candidates to take the first step this time.

That first goal has usually arrived early. Florida has scored its opening home goal in the first period 24 times, compared with four second-period goals and two in the third. Four Panthers have scored within the first two minutes of a home opener; the source lists Vincent Trocheck at 1:23, Corey Stillman at 1:50 and Brad Boyles at 1:55 among them.

Those figures describe a historical tendency, not a guarantee for this matchup. The Panthers have also scored 10 power-play goals as their first home goal, so special teams have supplied a meaningful share of those opening strikes. They have never opened their home scoring shorthanded or in overtime. Florida has been shut out in two of its 32 home openers: by the New York Islanders in 2002 and the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010.

Records that stretch beyond the opening goal

Nathan Horton remains the benchmark for speed in a Panthers season opener. In Florida’s first game after the 2004-05 NHL lockout, Horton scored the team’s first goal of the season and its first at home at 1:08 of the first period. The opponent was the Atlanta Thrashers, with Mike Dunham in goal. More than two decades later, that mark still stands.

The home opener has also produced rare late-game finishes. Only three Panthers have scored an overtime winner in the team’s home opener: David Booth in 2008, captain Aleksander Barkov in 2016 and Verhaeghe in 2021. Florida has one home opener victory decided in a shootout, with Marcel Goc scoring the deciding goal against Tampa Bay in 2011.

That history gives the Minnesota game several possible storylines, but the central one is straightforward: Florida has a chance to extend its home opening run, while Verhaeghe can join Mellanby at the top of a franchise list with a single goal. Whether the milestone arrives early, late or not at all, the Panthers’ first home strike will be the number to watch as they begin another season on their own ice.