The Florida Panthers once again reached the mountaintop as Stanley Cup champions, claiming a second straight victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
It was the first Stanley Cup Final rematch since 2008 and 2009, but unlike those series, where the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins each won once, Florida completed a clean sweep over the Oilers.
It also marked the sixth straight season in which a Florida-based team has reached the Stanley Cup Final for three consecutive years. The Tampa Bay Lightning advanced from 2020 to 2022, winning twice, while the Panthers have now made the Final from 2023 through this past season, capturing the last two championships.
Perhaps almost equally impressive was the fact that the Panthers managed to retain all three of their high-priced free agent players. Sam Bennett, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the postseason's Most Valuable Player, signed an eight-year contract extension worth $64 million. Longtime Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad, whom many insiders believed was most likely to be on the move, signed an eight-year extension worth $48.8 million.
Additionally, former Boston Bruins team captain Brad Marchand, who was acquired at the NHL trade deadline, signed an eye-popping six-year contract extension worth $31.5 million.
To say that the Panthers are well-equipped to make a run at a third straight title would be an understatement.
Sergei Bobrovsky begins to show his age
As it does for all players eventually, Father Time is going to catch up to goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who has put on a ton of mileage over the last several seasons. He's played in a total of 228 games over the last three seasons, both regular season and postseason combined. And he's going to be 37 years old when the new season begins.
Now, Bobrovsky could ultimately surprise and become the next Martin Brodeur and play well into his 40s, but that remains to be seen.
The Panthers took a calculated risk when they dealt away goaltender Spencer Knight, who many believed was going to be the goaltender of the future for the club, to the Chicago Blackhawks as part of the blockbuster deal that sent defenseman Seth Jones to Florida. While Vitek Vanecek served as Bobrovsky's backup during this most recent postseason run, he's since moved on with a free-agent deal with the Utah Mammoth.
Currently, the Panthers have young Daniil Tarasov, whom they signed from the Columbus Blue Jackets this offseason, as backup. He has only 65 career games of NHL experience under his belt, and may not be fully trusted to shoulder a more considerable load of the playing time.
Bobrovsky has firmly wrestled the title of best goaltender in Panthers history away from Roberto Luongo, who had his jersey No. 1 raised to the venue's rafters. There's no doubt that Bobrovsky will have the same honor at some point after his own retirement.
He's set to enter the final season of his current contract he signed in 2019, and depending on his performance this season, it could result in a new short-term extension. Fans can be excused if they bet that he'll begin to slow down this season.
The Panthers won't miss Matthew Tkachuk
The bad news for the Panthers is that they won't have assistant captain Matthew Tkachuk for the first several months of the season. He played through some astounding injuries throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which included a torn adductor and a sports hernia. He's since undergone surgery and is expected to be unavailable through at least January.
“I wouldn’t be here without the trainers and the doctors and those people, and that’s what makes this Cup more special for me is how hard it was just to be out there and to get to the point of playing,” Tkachuk said during the on-ice celebration via NHL.com. “I owe those guys. This Cup is because of them for me, and I’m so lucky.”
The good news is that the Panthers boast some of the best depth of any team in the NHL, a natural reason why they are the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champions.
Not only were they able to retain all of their top free agents from the summer, but their entire playing core sans Bobrovsky is under contract through at least the 2030 NHL season. They also brought in additional depth pieces in recent months, including center Luke Kunin up front and defenseman Jeff Petry on the back end.
Look for the Panthers to be able to weather the storm of having an even bigger target on their backs until Tkachuk's return to the lineup.
