NHL Sun Belt teams in spotlight, making history in conference finals

Shayne Gostisbehere knows the impact of the NHL's so-called nontraditional-market teams, and not just because he plays for the Carolina Hurricanes.

When the 30-year-old defenseman was growing up in Pembroke Pines, Florida, he attended almost every Florida Panthers home game with his grandparents, who had season tickets.

A hockey seed was planted.

"I'm a product of what that organization brought to South Florida," Gostisbehere said. "It's not a traditional market, but it definitely gets kids playing the game. … A lot of my career is definitely a compliment to that organization."

Gostisbehere's Hurricanes trail the Panthers 2-0 in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference Final, while the Vegas Golden Knights lead the Dallas Stars 2-0 in the Western Conference Final, marking the first time that the final four playoff teams are from the Sun Belt.

These playoffs shine the spotlight on the Sun Belt teams that have worked diligently to create a passionate fan base and exponentially grow the game in their markets, including building rinks and developing youth and adult leagues.

In the process, each market has made hockey its own, from the elaborate theatrical pregame show in Las Vegas to the on-ice postgame storm surge celebration in PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, the loud crowds at Dallas' American Airlines Center, and the Panthers fans waving plastic rats at FLA Live Arena.

"I think it's phenomenal," said Florida center Eric Staal, who won the Stanley Cup with Carolina in 2006. "I think they're all great markets in their own way. There's a hockey passion in all of those places. …That's the realities of the game going south, getting to this point with playoff runs and players that have been there for a long time. There's an attachment and a following that occurs."

Bill Lindsay, who was a forward on the Panthers' inaugural 1993-94 team and the 1996 team that reached the Stanley Cup Final, likens the impact the four conference finalists have had on hockey to when Wayne Gretzky was traded by the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings on Aug. 9, 1988.

"He changed the face of hockey, made it popular in L.A.," said Lindsay, who is the Panthers' radio color commentator, an NHL Network analyst and a Learn to Play ambassador. "With these four teams now, in the finals you sort of have that trajectory where you change the course and get more and more young players involved in hockey."

Preliminary 2022-23 registration statistics from USA Hockey show that evolution is well underway. In Florida, home of the Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning (who entered the NHL in 1992-93), the number of players of all ages surged to 19,435 this season from 5,606 in 1998-99. The number of players in Texas, where the Stars franchise relocated from Minnesota in 1993-94, grew to 16,287 from 5,932 in the same period.

North Carolina's player population mushroomed to 7,654 this past season from 2,149 in 1998-99, the second season after the Hartford Whalers relocated to the state and became the Hurricanes.

Nevada had 4,972 players this season, up from 1,592 in 2017-18, the expansion Golden Knights' first season in the NHL.

And the markets have begun producing elite players -- men and women -- who've gone on to play in college, internationally and even the NHL.

Forward Stefan Noesen, Gostisbehere's Carolina teammate, is from Plano, Texas, and fondly remembers Dallas winning the Stanley Cup in 1999 when he was 6 years old.

Chicago Blackhawks defensemen Seth Jones and Caleb Jones, who are Arlington, Texas, natives, and Calgary Flames forward Blake Coleman, who like Noesen is from Plano, all played in the Stars' youth hockey system. Minnesota Wild forward Brandon Duhaime was born in Coral Springs, Florida, near the Panthers practice facility, and began playing hockey with Ottawa Senators defenseman Jakob Chychrun, a native of Boca Raton, Florida, in South Florida when they were 4 or 5 years old. Forward Gage Quinney, who grew up a Las Vegas rink rat, played three games for the Golden Knights in 2019-20. Hannah Bilka, a forward from Coppell, Texas, played for HC Dallas' Under-13 AAA team, was captain of Boston College's women's team this season and played on the U.S. women's national team that won the 2023 IIHF Women's World Championship in Brampton, Ontario, in April.

"It's been a long time coming," Noesen said. "Growing up, we always had the Stars. Same thing with 'Ghost' and the Panthers. It's good for the game. It's definitely growing in the right direction."

Hockey has taken such a hold in Dallas that Lucas Reid, the Stars vice president for amateur sports and partnership development, said he tells NHL and USA Hockey executives in business meetings that the city is now a traditional market.

"I don't know if there's any other NHL club that has the number of facilities that we have and put as much interest in the sport, the recreational, and grassroots level as we do, and we're proud of that," Reid said.

There were two indoor ice facilities when the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas in 1993, Reid said. Today, there are eight facilities under the Stars umbrella and two other privately owned rinks in the Dallas area.

"The crazy thing with us is we're sold out in all our facilities, we need more ice," he said. "We have men's league games ending at one in the morning and then we're opening back up at 6 a.m. for figure skating. We're working hard at getting some new buildings done just for the sheer necessity."

It's a refrain from all the conference finalist markets. Quinney remembers the days when he and his buddies could play hockey uninterrupted for hours at the Las Vegas Ice Center.

Those days were over after the Golden Knights reached the Stanley Cup Final in their first season, going on to qualify for the playoffs in five of their first six seasons.

"Growing up, maybe we'd have maybe 10 kids on each team, and now they have to turn away kids because they have too many because of the growth of hockey," said Quinney, a 27-year-old forward who had 64 points (25 goals, 39 assists) in 66 games this season with Vegas' American Hockey League affiliate in Henderson, Nevada. "Obviously, making the Stanley Cup Final their first year, everyone's hockey-obsessed now and the expectations are now high here. Sometimes I think it's just fun to sit back and be a fan and watch."

Retired NHL goalie Eldon "Pokey" Reddick has also had a ringside seat to hockey's growth in the desert. He coached Las Vegas' Faith Lutheran Middle School & High School boys team, which in 2018 became the first high school hockey program in Nevada.

Now a private coach, Reddick said he looks out the windows of his home some days and marvels at what he sees.

"Your neighbor's kid plays hockey and he's out there in the driveway with a hockey stick and it's 100 (degrees) outside," said Reddick, who played 132 NHL games for the Panthers, Oilers and Winnipeg Jets. "It kind of gives you kind of a gauge when you see more kids out and about with a hockey stick like that."

NHL.com senior director of editorial Shawn P. Roarke, staff writer Tom Gulitti and independent correspondent Kurt Dusterberg contributed to this report

Photos: Florida Panthers