John Vanbiesbrouck's original Panthers mask remains one of the best goalie paint jobs out there

Back in 2008, The Hockey News came out with one of the better issues of its existence.

Sure, I’m a biased goaltender, but my opinion still counts for something, right?

Nevertheless, it was on Jan. 1, 2008 that The Hockey News put out its Greatest Masks of All Time issue.

It featured some of the best looking and historically significant goalie masks and helmets that have ever been worn.

The issue also went team by team and looked at a few of each club’s best from over the years.

For the Florida Panthers, there is always one goalie helmet that takes the cake and stands above the rest, and that’s the OG.

The Panthers mouth helmet that original netminder John Vanbiesbrouck proudly wore during his five seasons in South Florida has remained an iconic part of team history.

As story author and former Panthers beat writer for the Palm Beach Post Brian Biggane wrote in the THN issue, Vanbiesbrouck saw the original team logo and fell in love.

John Vanbiesbrouck was still kicking around ideas for the mask he would wear as the Panthers’ first No. 1 goaltender in 1993 when the team unveiled its logo featuring a Florida Panther in full growl. That did it.

“I was like, ‘What a great logo, how do I get that on my mask?’” recalled Vanbiesbrouck, who backstopped Florida to the Stanley Cup final in 1996.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25pUZ_h3AgE[/embed]

THN Archive is an exclusive vault of 2,640 issues and more than 156,000 for subscribers, chronicling the complete history of The Hockey News from 1947 until today. Visit THN.com/archive and subscribe today at subscribe.thehockeynews.com. 

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