The Port Moody Panthers originally joined the PJHL, previously known as the West Coast Junior Hockey League (WCJHL), in the late 1980s as the Port Coquitlam Buckeroos. Their logo was Looney Tunes character Yosemite Sam on skates.
Their most notable season was in 2000-01, when the Buckeroos finished first in league play. They made it all the way to the league championship series that year, falling just short of the title.
Before the 2006-07 season, the Buckeroos moved to their current home of Port Moody, and were renamed the Port Moody Black Panthers. This also came with a logo change, inspired by the Florida Panthers logo with red features.
When the league acquired enough teams a couple years later, it split into two divisions, settling the Black Panthers into the newly-minted Harold Brittain Conference. Three out of their first four years in the Brittain Conference, the Black Panthers made it to at least the division semi-final.
In 2012, the Black Panthers became just the Panthers, which prompted another logo change to the “creeping” panther, and the addition of maroon to the colour scheme.
More teams joined the league and conference restructuring saw the Panthers switch to the Tom Shaw Conference in 2014, joining the Delta Ice Hawks, North Vancouver Wolf Pack, Richmond Sockeyes, Grandview Steelers, and eventually, the White Rock Whalers.
The Panthers updated their logo in 2016, going from the “creeping” panther to the fiercer “lunging” panther.
A secondary logo was added a couple years later, a red circle logo with the lunging panther clawing through to reinforce the current colour scheme: red, white, and black, similar to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Notable NHL players that have come out of the Panthers organization include: Colin Fraser, Zach Hamill, Andrew Ladd, Jeff Tambellini, Mike Santorelli, and David Jones.
