The Florida Panthers are back to back Stanley Cup champions.

2024-2025 Likely Wrong NHL Predictions
Midway Through 2024-2025 NHL Season
End of Season NHL and Playoffs
NHL Playoffs 2nd Round
NHL Playoffs 3rd Round
Stanley Cup Final

It’s kinda fun to be right.

Victory run

— Aaron – GrapPro.com (@aaron.wrotkowski.ca) 2025-06-18T02:40:19.839Z

I wasn’t right about everything. Heck I had the Tampa Bay Lightning defeating the Florida Panthers. I had the Carolina Hurricanes defeating the Florida Panthers! That said, I only picked Carolina because I was annoyed by Darren Dreger of TSN completely writing the Hurricanes off and the Panthers losing three games to the Leafs.

Those three losses now have Maple Leaf fans in a tizzy how they gave the Florida Panthers their biggest challenge. Yeah. I’ve been there before. Remember when the Boston Bruins won the Stanley Cup? Swept the Flyers. Shut out the Lightning in game seven of the Eastern Conference final. Then shut out the Vancouver Canucks in game seven as well! There was a team they didn’t shut out once that took them to seven and only lost on an overtime goal by Nathan Horton. That was the Montreal Canadiens without Max Pacioretty.

Do you know what it meant to be closest against the eventual Cup winners?

Zip. Zero. Nadda.

But enough about Leaf fans. We’re tired of them. The Florida Panthers have won again.

Florida Wins

There will be a lot made about a lot of things. I feel like we need to give credit to a few people specifically.

1. Bill Zito

Bill Zito didn’t come from a franchise with success. He came from the Columbus Blue Jackets. More accurately he made his start as a sports agent and often represented goaltenders. He didn’t join the Columbus Blue Jackets until after getting Tuukka Rask his big eight year deal in Boston. He spent a lot of time with the Cleveland Monsters and never actually ran the Blue Jackets. In 2020 he became the general manger of the Florida Panthers to replace Dale Tallon.

Zito’s first deal was acquiring Patric Hornqvist of the Pittsburgh Penguins, a deal Hornqvist wasn’t happy about. This one isn’t important, I just enjoy the story of Hornqvist leaving all of his Penguins memorabilia on his front lawn. His first significant trade was acquiring Sam Bennett for Emil Heineman and a 2022 2nd Round Pick. He then acquired Sam Reinhart from Buffalo for Devon Levi and a 2022 1st.

These deals represent the magic of Bill Zito. He trusts his pro scouting staff, and is likely a great pro scout himself, to recognize players who are being under utilized in other markets and could be stars in his market.

Bennett’s best year in Calgary was his rookie season of 36 points in 77 games in 15-16. He’d break that in every season with the Panthers so far as their second line centre. He’s now a Conn Smythe trophy winner and an unrestricted free agent. My guess is he re-signs.

Reinhart had better production in Buffalo as a former 2nd overall pick but instead of signing him to a long term like he wanted they gave him a bridge and he wanted to leave after. His best year in Buffalo was 65 points and his best goal total was 25. In Florida he’s had 82, 67, 94, and 81 points. His best goal total was 57, only a few away from matching his best point total. He scored four goals in the Cup clinching game.

It’s not always perfect. He traded for Olli Juolevi and ended up giving him away on waivers. He tried acquiring Ben Chiarot and Claude Giroux and didn’t keep either despite high prices for both. It’s okay to make mistakes.

He didn’t make a mistake on Matthew Tkachuk.

That trade has helped Florida make the Stanley Cup final and now back to back Stanley Cup championships. People will always take the wrong lesson from it. It’s not trading small Huberdeau and a defenceman for a big power forward. It’s about telling the locker room that it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in Florida. You need to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. Tkachuk has excelled in Florida.

I favoured Florida in that trade when most, especially hockey media, favoured Calgary.

Bill Zito knew that he was giving up a very good defenceman and giving up a great forward they drafted. He knew the risk with Tkachuk. He bought in and was awarded.

2. Eetu Luostarinen

The Finn had 24 points in 80 games in the regular season. In the playoffs he had 19 points in 23 games. Only five points off from his regular season total in 57 less games.

The Barkov line wasn’t scoring much due to its assignments to shut down the top line of the Edmonton Oilers. That means the other lines in Florida had to perform. And perform they did. Luostarinen was a great bottom six centre for Florida and it’ll be interesting to see if he takes a larger role with the Panthers next season.

3. Sergei Bobrovsky

I’ve already heard people trying to say you can’t blame the Edmonton Oilers goaltending too much because they got to the Cup final and Stuart Skinner had some great games with shutouts. He did. The Oilers did that. But the lack of confidence the Oilers players have in Skinner absolutely dictates the way they play. They lack that, “let’s go all for it because we trust our goalie to make the saves” that you need to win the Stanley Cup.

Florida, on the other hand, has that.

Top Cop deserves his flowers, especially since when this run started for Florida he wasn’t the default starting goaltender. He had to earn the spot himself when he was a $10 million player. He’s been consistent enough to give Florida a chance to win, and I bet he stays with the organization until he’s ready to retire. Funny that Bill Zito trusts in the former franchise goalie of the Columbus Blue Jackets but here we are.

Edmonton Loses

So where do the Oilers go from here? First team to lose back to back Cup finals since Boston in the 1970s. Evan Bouchard is a restricted free agent. Connor McDavid a free agent next summer. What do you do?

Their general manager, Stan Bowman (who should have never been allowed back into the league) said at the trade deadline that Edmonton was confident in their goaltending going into the playoffs.

This is no surprise. You see, Canadian teams love to hire the discarded remains of championship teams from years ago. Bowman was the GM of Chicago for their two Stanley Cups so surely he’s going to be smart enough to get Edmonton over the top, right? He replaced Ken Holland. Holland, the former general manager of the Detroit Red Wings who also won Cups and did nothing for Edmonton because the game passed him by. He’s retired, right? Oh wait, getting word he’s now the general manager and vice president of the Los Angeles Kings. Awesome.

Who did Holland replace? Peter Chiarelli, who won a Cup as the general manager of the Boston Bruins. Who was terrible as Edmonton’s general manager. Another former Cup winner thrown away by the Cup winning team because he was bad at his job now. Edmonton has been doing this for a decade and wondering why they can’t get over the hump.

I talked about Zito earlier to help magnify the fact that hiring former Cup winners does not guarantee success, and often it ensures failure. If they were still great general managers they would have still been employed. You have to do serious scouting on a next general manager to find the next best person. Bill Zito won very little in Columbus, aside from a Calder Cup championship with the Cleveland Monsters of the AHL. But he’s now the best GM in the league.

Where does Edmonton go? They might take another crack at the Cup, but it’s just as likely that Connor McDavid might decide it’s time to try another team to win a Stanley Cup. And if that happens? Call it a night. Trade Leon. Move Evan. Start all over. Getting all the first overall picks in the world couldn’t win you a Cup because you didn’t do enough to build your blueline and goaltending out.

It’s funny because when a team wins everyone just agrees they did everything right, even if they didn’t. But when a team is only two wins away from winning the Stanley Cup? Everything is potentially wrong. Goaltending wrong. Defence wrong. Scorers bad. Superstars didn’t show up. Coaching bad. Everything bad.

Maybe it’s just easier to blame Corey Perry.

People are already doing it.

The Stanley Cup 2026

So let’s get stupid! Who wins next year?

People are already predicting a three-peat for the Florida Panthers because if there’s one thing media and fans love to do? It’s immediately assume something will just keep happening because they were wrong about it not happening twice. People LOOOOOOOOVVVVEEEE to try and claim we’re about to witness a DYNASTY even though the definition is four champions in five years for the NHL. Nope, two Cups? Dynasty in the making.

Or their favourite one: MODERN DYNASTY.

Now could the Florida Panthers win again? Absolutely they could. The team is young enough. The team has enough pieces returning. But that’s now three years of everyone knowing the way Florida plays and how to counter them. People were shy for three years. They won’t be shy for a fourth. They know Florida now plays with an edge and they just need to beat them up first.

Or at least, you’d hope that’s the case. This is often a soft mentality league. I’m so tired of hearing people talk about the advantages of the Florida Panthers. Oh, no tax state? That doesn’t stop you from acquiring players, drafting players, and trading for players. There’s bargains everywhere. Start pro scouting better. Oh, the referees weren’t calling them? Then play with an edge like they do. Hit their goalie. Hit their best players. Play dirty. There’s no asterisk going next to the Cup for Florida’s win.

I think the three year window is what Florida has, and Florida has used their window. They could absolutely repeat next season, but I think teams are going to build themselves to stop Florida in the East. It’s also why I think the Cup is returning out West.

Dallas, Colorado, Vegas, and maybe a darkhorse (Edmonton? Calgary? Winnipeg? Nah more like Minnesota, Los Angeles, or Nashville) coming through to be absolutely ready to play the best the East has in store. I think the East gets dirty to keep Florida out of ever repeating here.

Maybe LA gets Marner and now doesn’t have the same scoring issues. Maybe Minnesota loads up on guys now that Parise and Suter’s buyouts aren’t costing them such a huge hole on the cap and they can finally build something to get out of the first round. Maybe Nashville gets their shit together? I mean, just as likely as a Canadian team doing it.

The pressure for me is more on if the next coach of the Dallas Stars is someone who can do what Pete DeBoer could not. If Jim Nill can build a good defence this time. If they make some trades to get stronger when playing someone like Edmonton.

The pressure is on Vegas to ask themselves if Tomas Hertl was the right guy to make their new 2C or if they need something else. If Adin Hill is enough. If Ivan Barbashev had a bad season or if he isn’t a fit in Vegas (I thought he’d be perfect for them so his performance this season was a surprise.)

The pressure is on Colorado, finally with Gabe Landeskog healthy and Brock Nelson officially replacing the 2C role that has needed filling since Nazem Kadri left (and never should have left), if they can build a team to win the Cup with Mikko Rantanen. Are you keeping Charlie Coyle? Do you really think Ross Colton at $4 million is worth it? Is Samuel Girard enough?

I really think if the East builds itself up to destroy Florida it’s an open door for a West team to play clean up. That’s why I don’t see Florida repeating. If the East ends up choking this opportunity to stop Florida and cares about the wrong things? Sure. I could see a third Stanley Cup in Florida’s future. I just know that usually? A league that sees one team have so much success starts building themselves to beat that team. That’s what Florida did with Tampa. It’s time for someone to do it to the Panthers.

Here’s to the NHL off season. Congratulations to the Florida Panthers. You earned it. Anyone who doesn’t like that? They need to tell the team they cheer for to want it more.

“Stanley C. Panther, the mascot of the Florida Panthers” by pointnshoot is licensed under CC BY 2.0 .