The Panthers have 16 members enshrined in the British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame and have had 34 players represent Great Britain at the World Championships and in Olympic qualifying.

A team was assembled and brought to the United Kingdom from Canada to compete in the 1939–40 English National League season but were promptly sent home having not played a single game due to the outbreak of World War II.

With a team of Canadians largely from Winnipeg, Manitoba, the Nottingham Panthers played their first competitive game on 22 November 1946 with a 3–2 home victory over the Wembley Monarchs.

Despite a lack of success in their formative years the team had a number of players who would become local heroes including forwards Les Strongman and Chick Zamick.

Zamick became one of the most prolific scorers in the league and won the Nottingham Sportsman of the Year award on two occasions, defeating sportsmen such as the Notts County and England international footballer Tommy Lawton.

Nottingham won the Autumn Cup at the beginning of the season before clinching their third league title on goal average ahead of the Wembley Lions.

[citation needed] Blaisdell assembled a strong team for the 1994–95 season and led the Panthers to the Benson & Hedges Cup with a 7–2 victory over the Cardiff Devils in the final.

Many of Nottingham's British players, who had risen through the ranks of the club's youth development system, were dropped in favour of North American imports.

[20] The Panthers began the season by qualifying for the Benson & Hedges Cup final for a third straight year following a 6–3 aggregate victory over archrival Sheffield at the semi-final stage.

Only in the sixth period of overtime, with the two-hour mark of the match nearing, did Jeff Hoad finally score a shorthanded winner for Nottingham ending the game after 115 minutes and 49 seconds.

[28] Players were asked to take a wage cut, leading to the departure of Trevor Robins, Mike Bishop, Mark Kolesar, Eric Dubios and record goalscorer Paul Adey.

The club fared better in the Challenge Cup where it made the final for the second successive year but the team was defeated 2–1 at London Arena by Mike Blaisdell's Steelers.

Form improved during the second half of the season with the team winning five of their first seven home games during 2001, including a 6–4 victory over the Sheffield Steelers marred by a violent bench clearing brawl.

After 53 seconds of the extra session Kim Ahlroos scored the winning goal, ending an eight-year wait for the Panthers to beat the Steelers in a showpiece final and securing the club's first silverware since 1998.

[58] Other new additions included forwards David Ling, Patrick Galivan and Bruce Graham, while Jason Beckett and Eric Werner were brought in as new defencemen.

This prompted Neilson to re-sign defenceman Guillaume Lepine as well as Anthony Stewart, then of the Carolina Hurricanes, on a short-term deal due to the NHL lockout.

[65] By contrast, the 2013–14 season was plagued by injuries, suspensions and a high turnover of players,[66] and the Panthers fell to fourth in the final league table.

They once again reached the Challenge Cup final, but were considered outsiders against a Belfast Giants team that comfortably won the league championship and finished 32 points ahead of Nottingham.

When that finished goalless, goaltender Craig Kowalski saved all three Belfast penalty shots and Petr Kalus scored to give Panthers a 7–6 aggregate victory and a fifth consecutive Challenge Cup.

The club entered the Champions Hockey League in its inaugural season, and, although they were eliminated in the group stage, they did secure a 3–1 victory over the Hamburg Freezers.

[74] In 2019, the club appointed former player Gui Doucet as Director of Hockey and his first move was to hire former NHLer Tim Wallace as head coach.

[80][81] On 5 January 2022, Nottingham parted company with head coach Tim Wallace following a poor run of form that saw the club slip to sixth in the Elite League standings with a 9–10 record.

[85] The club subsequently appointed former Dundee Stars head coach and general manager Omar Pacha into a newly created role of chief executive officer.

[89] Nottingham finished the 2022–23 season in 7th place with 47 points and a 21–28–5 record from 54 games, after which Neilson stepped down as head coach to take up an opportunity elsewhere in Europe.

[92] Following the incident the Panthers would sign free agent Simon Després, Austin Farley from HC Nove Zamky and young English defender Joseph Hazeldine from the Fehérvár Hockey Academy 19.

[102][103][104] It was founded in 1959, by young car mechanic workers who were fans of Nottingham Panthers after a tour in Scania, where the English team impressed the Scanian boys.

[4] The building reopened on 31 August 1946 and hosted another game between the Greyhounds and Racers before the Panthers made their competitive debut on 22 November, defeating the Wembley Monarchs 3–2.

[5] The Nottingham Panthers have held continuous membership of British ice hockey's highest division since the foundation of the Premier League in 1983 and are the only team to have this distinction.

[citation needed] On 9 March 2014, David Clarke registered his 600th EIHL point in his career and, in the same game, Corey Neilson also became Nottingham Panthers most successful coach, overtaking Mike Blaisdell.

Former players George Beach, Rick Brebant, Johnny Carlyle, Stephen Cooper, Jack Dryburgh, Art Hodgins, Chris Kelland, Jimmy Spence and Mike Urquhart are also members of the Hall of Fame.