Panthers Training Camp Day 1: Roster Predictions

FORT LAUDERDALE — The summer as champions has come to an end for the Florida Panthers — now they’ll get to work to ensure there’s no Cup hangover. 

 

Training camp began Thursday at the Baptist Health IcePlex, this is how the 2024-24 Panthers roster could shake up on opening night. 

 

Forwards

Florida’s top-nine was one of, if not the best forward groups in the entire league last season and nearly everyone is returning this yearThe lone departure from that group is winger Vladimir Tarasenko, who signed a two-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings this offseason. 

 

Tarasenko, 32, scored five goals and nine points last postseason, spending most of the time on the third line with Anton Lundell  and Eetu Luostarinen. 

 

The rest of the forward departures were important pieces to the championship team, but inevitably replaceable depth players in a hard capped NHL. 

 

 

The locks: Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett, Matthew Tkachuk, Evan Rodrigues, Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen (all played in top-nine last season). 

 

No surprise, the Panthers’ top-nine won’t be seeing too much change from last season. 

 

Other than Tarasenko, eight of the top-nine that played in last season’s Stanley Cup Final will be back — leaving one spot open for competition come training camp. 

 

Tarasenko’s replacement

The ball is in 21-year-old Mackie Samoskevich’s court to win a job out of camp. 

 

Last season, Samoskevich made the Panthers opening night roster and played three NHL games in October. He was sent down to AHL Charlotte that month and had one more cup of coffee with the Panthers at the end of January before finishing his season with the Checkers, where he led the team in scoring with 54 points. (22 goals, 32 assists)

 

With already a full year of professional hockey under his belt, a good camp and preseason would not only give Samoskevich a roster spot, but it should see him play way more than seven games with the Panthers. 

 

Samoskevich didn’t skate on Thursday’s opening day of training camp. He is dealing with a “minor upper-body injury”, per Paul Maurice. They will IR skate him and hope he’s good for full sessions on Tuesday. 

 

“There’s opportunities and he had a really good first year in pro,” Maurice answered when asked about Samoskevich slotting  into the top-9. “We have a lot of faith in the young man as a player and as you saw today we also got a number of other players that are going to compete for that job. So there is competition there.”

 

Like Samoskevich, 22-year-old Justin Sourdif made the 2023-24 Panthers opening night roster and played three games with the team before spending the rest of the season in the AHL. 

 

Sourdif will be an interesting player come training camp. 

 

He’s already cracked an opening night NHL roster and has two years of AHL experience (62 points  106 games). It also wouldn’t surprise me if Sourdif plays some fourth line minutes this season. 

 

Important to note, both Sourdif and Samoskevich are waiver eligible.

 

A new fourth line 

Florida’s fourth line is where the largest amount of jobs will be won and lost in camp.

 

The team lost Ryan Lomberg, Kevin Stenlund, Steven Lorentz and Nick Cousins to free agency, while Kyle Okposo just announced his retirement from the game on Wednesday.

 

Jonah Gadjovich is the one fourth liner who returned this season from the Cup team and he should once again make the team out of camp.

 

Penciling in Gadjovich, there will be two open spots on the fourth line, plus any scratches for the 23-man opening night roster. 

 

The Panthers retooled over free agency, bringing in depth players like A.J. Greer, Jesper Boqvist, Tomas Nosek and MacKenzie Entwistle. Will Lockwood, who played 26 games with Florida last season, is another player who will be in contention for a spot.

 

Who replaces Ekman-Larsson, Montour 

Florida will miss Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who both left on July 1 after playing every playoff game in 2024.

 

The other four defensemen who played in the Stanley Cup Final — Gustav Forsling, Aaron Ekblad, Niko Mikkola and Dmitry Kulikov — all return and are locks for the opening night lineup. 

 

After splitting the season between the Panthers, and AHL Charlotte and then joining Florida for their Cup run, Uvis Balinskis — who the team highly rates — is too good to not be on the team this season.

 

Like Balinskis, it would be hard to not see 12-year NHL veteran Nate Schmidt make the team. 

 

The 33-year-old has appeared in 661 NHL games and played for Paul Maurice when he was with the Winnipeg Jets in 2021-22.

 

Florida will need to make a decision on whether they take seven or eight defensemen on its final roster, and if they go with the former, there will be some tough cuts to be made. 

 

Tobias Bjornfot, Adam Boqvist, Matt Kiersted and Jaycob Megna will all be fighting for the final spot(s) on the blueline. 

 

Bobrovsky and Knight duo returns?

Sergei Bobrovsky will be the starter next season, that isn’t up for discussion. As for his backup, all signs point to 23-year-old Spencer Knight reclaiming his spot as the NO.2 now that Antony Stolarz is in Toronto. 

 

The Panthers also brought back Chris Driedger, who played for the team from 2019-2021. He spent most of last season with the Seattle Kraken’s AHL affiliate. He is most likely going to be in the AHL next year with Charlotte as the Panthers’ NO. 3.

 

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Takeaways from Panthers Media Day

FORT LAUDERDALE — The bell rang for the first day of classes in South Florida on Wednesday as the Florida Panthers’ school of hockey welcomed its students for the 2024-25 season. The first day of classes being media day and the students being the Panthers’ players.

 

The defending Stanley Cup champions put on their jerseys for the first time this season as they get prepared for the upcoming season and plenty of familiar faces returned to the Baptist Health IcePlex in Fort Lauderdale — 17 being from last season’s Stanley Cup winning team.

 

Training camp starts on Thursday, which means the summer of fun is over. Excitement wouldn’t be the way to describe head coach Paul Maurice’s infamous preseason skates, but the Panthers are ready to get back to work for its title defense. 

 

Here’s three takeaways from media day. 

 

Schmidt excited for fresh start, reunion with Paul Maurice

The Panthers’ defense will have two open spots in the top-six with the offseason departures of Brandon Montour and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. 

 

With little money to spare, Panthers GM Bill Zito went to work as he searched for viable replacements on his Stanley Cup winning blueline. His specialty since arriving in South Florida four years ago has been taking fliers on low-cost, under the radar players and turning them into important roster pieces. 

 

The Panthers hope 12-year NHL veteran Nate Schmidt will be its next success story.

 

Schmidt, 33, has provided his services to four organizations — most recently for the Winnipeg Jets — where he had Paul Maurice as his head coach for part of the 2021-22 season. When the opportunity came to reunite with Maurice in Florida, Schmidt couldn’t pass it up. 

 

“It was a pretty quick decision on my part. I was going through the free agency process and had this place highlighted as somewhere that I really wanted to go and hopefully it would work out,” Schmidt said. “I’m pretty blessed to be here and given how things have gone with Paul and myself — it felt so reenergized when I had him my first year in Winnipeg — just  his style and how he treats players. Understanding what you need to do for him to get the most out of you and the most out of your group.

 

As for his excitement to join the Panthers d-corps, Schmidt had high-praise for Forsling, one of Bill Zito’s greatest acquisitions. 

 

“Don’t tell goose but he’s one of my favorite defensemen to watch,” Schmidt said of the Panthers’ star defenseman. “I ran a camp this summer and I was teaching kids how to serve up and use their sticks, and about thirty of the hundred clips were him.”

 

Reinhart enjoys day with cup, talks extension

Sam Reinhart shouldn’t have to buy a drink in South Florida for the rest of his life — that’s perk you get if you score the game winning goal in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. 

 

Just a few days after burying the biggest goal of his life and biggest in Panthers’ history, the 28-year-old signed a max term extension — keeping him in Sunrise for the next eight years.

 

“As a player there’s a lot of boxes you try and tick off. Florida for me just happened to be at the top of each category,” Reinhart said when asked about re-signing with the Panthers. “First and foremost being my life, where I wanted to essentially start a family and live, Florida being at the top of the list. We’ve loved it here, we loved our three years here and really (didn’t) see ourselves wanting to go anywhere else.” 

 

Having your name on the greatest trophy in sports is something that all hockey players dream of, but only so many can actually say they did it.

 

A cool ‘tradition’ the NHL started in 2023 after the Vegas Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup was engraving the winning team’s names on the Cup before the players had their day with it. The Panthers’ players were afforded that opportunity this year as well.

 

“To see the name on there was very cool. For my whole family,” Reinhart said,” Being in a hockey family my dad had been there, he had lost it in the finals. Both my brothers have played, haven’t quite reached it, so to be there as a family and see ‘Reinhart’ on there was pretty cool to experience that with them all.”

 

Barkov reflects on summer in Finland

In June, Panthers’ star Aleksander Barkov became the first captain from Finland to win the Stanley Cup and he had quite the summer after. Being named to team Finland for the 2025 NHL 4 Nations’ Face-Off, selling out an arena in his hometown for his day with the Cup and then taking the trophy with him into a sauna was just part of his entertaining but short offseason.  

 

Hailing from Tampere, a city of just under 350,000 that sits two hours north of the Finnish capital Helsinki, Barkov was and still is a star when he returned home as a champion. He spent some of his media availability on Wednesday reflecting on everything that transpired this summer.   

 

“It was a special and amazing moment for me. Forever thankful, grateful for that city, the city of Tampere, to be that kind and letting me celebrate that big moment of my life,” Barkov said. “Having the chance to take the Stanley Cup from place to other place and obviously the big celebration at the arena with all my teammates from Finland and the coach [Panthers assistant coach Tuomo Ruutu]. Not enough words to say how special that moment was for me.”

 

The Panthers will head to ‘Barkov city’ in November for the NHL Global series, where they’ll play two games against the Dallas Stars at Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland. 

 

“It means alot as well to go there in two months and play two games there,” Barkov said.

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Atlantic Division teams take page out of Panthers’ book this offseason

To be the champs, it’s not a bad idea to learn from the champs first. 

 

Quite a few Atlantic Division teams took that same approach when building their teams this offseason. 

 

For the past two years, the path to the final in the East has run through Sunrise as the Florida Panthers made back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances in 2023 and 2024 — winning the franchise’s first Stanley Cup last June. 

 

When the 2024 NHL free agency period opened on July 1, a few of the Panthers’ divisional opponents jumped at the opportunity to bring in players from the champions. 

 

Florida lost nine members from their Stanley Cup winning team, five of which signed with Atlantic Division teams. 

 

Here’s where they went.

 

Toronto 

The Toronto Maple Leafs and their GM Brad Treliving made the biggest dent out of all the teams this offseason when it came to adding former Panthers.

 

When free agency opened, the Leafs acquired two of the more underrated players from the Stanley Cup winning team, signing defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson to a four-year, $14M deal and Florida’s backup goaltender Anthony Stolarz to a two-year, $5M contract.

 

Ekman-Larsson was a stalwart on the Panthers blueline, specifically at the beginning of the season when he took on an increased role in the absence of Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour. 

 

Between the pipes, Stolarz had the best season of his career. He appeared in 27 regular season games, posting a 16-7-2 record with a 2.03 GAA and a .925 save percentage. 

 

On Sept. 3, it was reported that the Leafs would also be offering 28-year-old forward Steven Lorentz  a professional tryout offer (PTO), per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. 

 

Lorentz, an Ontario native, played in 16 of Florida’s 24 playoff games, scoring two goals and three points — mostly as a fourth-line winger.

 

Detroit 

The Detroit Red Wings narrowly missed the playoffs last year.

 

They finished tied for eighth most points in the East alongside the Washington Capitals, but lost out on the final wildcard spot due to a tiebreaker. 

 

In July, GM Steve Yzerman got to work, signing two-time Stanley Cup champion Vladimir Tarasenko to a two-year, $9.5M deal. 

 

A Stanley Cup champion with the St. Louis Blues in 2019, Tarasenko brought championship pedigree and more offensive firepower to a deep Panthers squad when he waived his no-movement clause to join the team at the 2024 trade deadline.

 

The 32-year-old had five goals and nine points during Florida’s Stanley Cup run. 

 

Ottawa 

Nick Cousins will be on the opposite side of the ‘Tkachuk Bowl’ next season as the 31-year-old Belleville, ON. native signed a one-year, 800k deal with the Ottawa Senators last week.

 

Cousins spent two seasons with the Panthers, putting up 42 points in 148 games. 

 

As he heads to Ontario, Ottawa’s cross province rivals in Toronto won’t forget Cousins for his Game 5 overtime winner in the 2023 playoffs — which eliminated the Leafs in the second round.

Legacies cemented after Panthers win Stanley Cup

Florida’s Game 7 Stanley Cup Final win will be remembered forever.

 

It was a truly historic day in Panthers history as the franchise took home its first Cup in their 30 years of existence.

 

The win was the first Cup for all but two players (Vladimir Tarasenko, Carter Verhaeghe) and it cemented the legacies of many within the Panthers organization. 

 

Aleksander Barkov became the first captain from Finland to win the Stanley Cup, 17-year NHL veteran Kyle Okposo finally attained hockey’s greatest prize, Oliver Ekman-Larsson became a champion just a year after being one of the largest buyouts in NHL history, Dmitry Kulikov returns to win where he was drafted 15 years before — the storylines were plentiful. 

 

 Now that they’ve finished the job, a few Panthers should expect to see their name among hockey’s greatest sometime in the near future.

 

 Bobrovsky, you’re on the Cup

 

35-year-old Sergei Bobrovsky had nearly everything you could ask for as a goaltender. Over his 14-year NHL career, the Russian native had been a first team All-Star twice, an NHL All-Star three times, a two-time Vezina winner, is 14th all-time in wins — and has the most by a Russian — holds three World Championship medals and was an olympian.

 

The one achievement that was missing from his Hall of Fame resume was a Stanley Cup — now he has it. 

 

 

“It means a lot, it’s a dream come true,” Bobrovsky told TSN after winning the Cup . “I’m so happy to be here. It’s an amazing moment. It’s the hardest trophy to win and for a reason. We’re happy.” 

 

Posting a 2.32 GAA and .906 save percentage this postseason, Florida doesn’t win the Cup this year without Bobrovsky and they certainly wouldn’t have made the Final last year either. 

 

When Bobrovsky retires, there’s no doubt that he will be elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame and it seems almost certain that he should get in as a first-ballot Hall of Famer.  

 

By the time he calls it a career, Bobrovsky should finish top-10 all-time in wins (needs 27 more) and he still has the chance to win more hardware. But even if he walked away from the game tomorrow, he’d still be getting the call from the Hall. 

 

Paul Maurice finally did it

 

The other Panther that will be seeing his name enshrined within the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Esso Great Hall for the rest of time is the man who led his group of men to hockey immortality — head coach Paul Maruice.

 

A proud son of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Paul Maurice has been one of the most prominent figures in the National Hockey League for the better part of 30 years.

 

After getting his first NHL head coaching job at the fresh age of 28 back in 1995 with the Hartford Whalers, Maurice has waited a long time to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup. 

 

With 24-seasons as a head coach under his belt between Hartford, Carolina, Toronto, Winnipeg and Florida — Maurice’s name is near the top of the coaching record books. 

 

He’s coached the second most games in NHL history (1,848) and has the fourth most wins (869). Despite the plethora of experience in the NHL, Maurice was still searching for his Stanley Cup. 

 

“I need to win one,” Maurice said on June 7, just a day before Game 1 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final. “That’s the truth, that’s how I feel. I’m 30 years into this thing, I wouldn’t mind winning one — how about that?”

 

Maurice came close twice to winning it all, making the Cup Final in 2002 with the Hurricanes and then last year in 2023 with the Panthers — losing both of those series.

 

Entering Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, Maurice was 4-0 in his career in a Game 7. 

 

In by far the most important Game 7 of his career, Maurice kept that undefeated streak alive and finally won the Stanley Cup. 

 

On Monday night after all the players took their lap with the Cup, 23-year-old Spencer Knight came over to Maurice mid-interview and said “here you go,” handing over the Cup to a man who got his start in the NHL nearly six years before he was born. 

 

With his eyes closed, Maurice hoisted the Cup over his head as cheers poured down from the stands at Amerant Bank Arena and his players watched nearby. 

 

“F– yeah,” Maurice shouted as he pumped the Cup in the air. He finished the job. 

 

“It’s for my mom and dad in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario,” Maurice told Sportsnet’s Kyle Bukauskas postgame. “All of the people that suffered through 30 years of me losing and making excuses. Mom and dad especially.”

 

“Hey dad, your name’s going up with your heroes,” an emotional Maurice added. “Beliveau, Richard, Howe, Lindsay, Maurice.” 

 

The once young man behind the bench is now a grizzled 57-year-old vet and he finally has his Stanley Cup. 

 

Like Bobrovsky, this should all but guarantee Maurice — the second winningest coach in NHL history —  a spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame. 

 

Who’s next?

 

I think it’s clear that if Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov continues producing at the same rate, he’ll hit 1,000 games and 1,000 points in the NHL — he’s already surpassed 700 for both of those at 28. Just the tenth player ever to win the Selke trophy more than once, Florida’s  franchise leader in virtually every record and now the first captain in Panthers history and the first captain from Finland to win the Cup, Barkov is on the right path for a Hall of Fame career.

 

“It’s incredible,” Barkov said after Florida won the Cup. “It’s hard to describe what’s going on and what just happened.” 

 

Aaron Ekblad, a former first-overall pick and the second longest tenured Panthers after Barkov, will more than likely see his name hang from the rafter at Amerant Bank Arena once he retires. The holder of most games, goals, assists and points by a Panthers defenseman across his 10-years in Florida — No. 5 should belong to Ekblad and Ekblad only.

 

“They always say you can’t f—ing get the words out man, it’s incredible, this is amazing” Ekblad said on Sportsnet after Game 7. “Sorry for swearing but this is the best moment of my life so far. Nothing tops it.”

 

Whether they find themselves in  the Hall of Fame, in the rafters or just in an alumni suite, the 2024 Florida Panthers are the greatest team in franchise history and will be remembered for eternity as the very first team to bring the Stanley Cup to South Florida.

Coach Paul Maurice hoists the Stanley Cup for the first time in his career after the Florida Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7. (Craig Davis)

Pressure Point: Zito, Maurice show Panthers the way to joyous Stanley Cup win

Watching the newly champion Florida Panthers posing with their kids with the Stanley Cup and beginning a summer fling with the most tradition-rich sports trophy, I was reminded of looking down on this same sheet of ice in 2013.

Nobody was skating. It was preseason. But Lord Stanley’s ornate punch bowl was a focal point of the gathering.

The Panthers were introducing new owner Vinnie Viola, who was making bold promises. Like new team owners always do.

“We are committed to provide the resources to the Florida Panthers necessary to win the Stanley Cup,” Viola vowed.

He concluded by saying, “We’re going to win. Put the word out, we’re going to win.”

Viola makes championship vow a reality

Eleven years later, Viola proved to be a man of his word Monday night after the Panthers somehow protected a one-goal lead over the final period to hold off the resurgent Edmonton Oilers 2-1 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

The keys were that Viola did provide the financial resources and he ultimately found the right leader when he hired Bill Zito as general manager in 2020.

Never mind that the Conn Smythe Trophy went to Edmonton’s Connor McDavid in a losing effort. That’s a rarity, but the award is for MVP of the entire playoffs. So, well, fine.

The award travesty of this NHL season was that Bill Zito got snubbed again as top GM. Dallas’ Jim Nill got it for the second year in a row. Inexplicably, Zito wasn’t even second in the voting.

What an absolute joke.

In four years, Zito, a first-time GM, reshaped a sad-sack franchise into a champion.

Zito dramatically transformed Panthers into champs

The ballsy trade to acquire Matthew Tkachuk from Calgary for cornerstone Panthers Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar in 2022 was the turning point.

But the volume of personnel moves that Zito got right is staggering. Acquiring high-scoring forwards Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart, who scored the goals in the Cup clincher, were among the most important.

Others weren’t as obvious. Such as the waiver claim for defenseman Gustav Forsling, who had the NHL’s best plus-minus rating this season and is signed through 2031-32. Zito hit on trades for Sam Bennett and Brandon Montour, who have been significantly more productive with the Panthers than they were with previous teams.

After the Panthers were blown out of the 2023 Cup Final by Vegas, Zito added a number of role-player types – defensemen Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Dmitry Kulikov and Niko Mikkola, forwards Evan Rodrigues and Kevin Stenlund, goalie Anthony Stolarz, – who filled remaining needs that led to Monday’s celebration. The trade-deadline additions of veterans Vladimir Tarasenko and Kyle Okposo helped as well.

The other vital move was hiring Paul Maurice as coach after the 2021-22 Panthers won the Presidents’ Trophy but got swept in the second round of the playoffs by Tampa Bay.

Maurice instituted a defense-first approach best suited to success in the playoffs. Perhaps more important he was able to bring the right balance of tough love and humor – as he famously said about one outburst, he felt the players “needed some profanity in their life.”

Championship void ends for Maurice, Panthers

Recalling the call he received from Zito about the Panthers’ coaching vacancy, Maurice said he sensed “something different about these guys.”

There was something similar about the Panthers franchise and Maurice’s coaching career before they came together for what culminated in Monday’s ultimate hockey achievement. Both were star-crossed.

Monday’s win means Maurice no longer has to answer to having coached the most games in the NHL without winning the Stanley Cup.

The Panthers spent much of their 30-year history lost in the woods. There was the remarkable Year of the Rat in their third season of existence that began with forward Scott Mellanby killing a rat in the locker room before the home opener and ended in a run to the Cup Final before getting swept by Colorado. Plastic rats rained on the ice after goals and wins that season and it seemed like every other car in South Florida had Panthers flags flapping from the rooftops during the playoffs.

And then nothing. For way too long.

After that 1996 season, star center Stu Barnes was traded for Chris Wells, who flopped, and futility followed. Worse was the trade that sent future Hall-of-Fame goalie Roberto Luongo in his prime to Vancouver for forward Todd Bertuzzi in 2006.

Viola’s ownership had its share of blunders

While a loyal corps of fans remained, the euphoria of 1996 faded and was mostly forgotten. The arena many nights was a dead zone, except around the holidays when visiting Canadians and New Yorkers showed up to cheer when their teams visited. Calls to move the team to Canada persisted.

The effort by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman to facilitate Viola purchasing the Panthers probably saved the franchise for South Florida. The previous owner didn’t have the resources to keep the team afloat and needed to bail.

But it wasn’t a smooth ride to success under Viola. The first season they were seventh of eight teams in the Atlantic Division.

Maurice is the eighth coach under Viola, and at times this ownership appeared as clueless as its predecessors. That peaked with the shameful firing of Gerard Gallant on a road trip and ill-fated stint of Tom Rowe as interim coach as well as general manager while Dale Tallon was shoved aside.

Eventually Tallon was restored to command and got the Panthers back on track. But in 10 years Tallon never produced a playoff series win. He did leave a foundation for Zito, including captain Aleksander Barkov and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.

Zito faces challenge as players wait to get paid

It is said that the Stanley Cup is the toughest trophy to win in sports. Barkov, Bobrovsky, Maurice and the whole sordid history of the Panthers franchise can be cited as evidence.

Somehow Zito, in his fourth year as general manager, put all the pieces in place to get it done.

A case could be made for Bobrovsky for the Conn Smythe, and Zito certainly was the most effective team architect of this season in this league.

But both of them got what they wanted most Monday night. Bob, who figuratively – and at times literally – stood on his head throughout the playoffs, got to hoist the Cup over his head. Zito, who is emotionally driven, wept openly in celebration.

With only $20 million in cap space and 11 unrestricted free agents, Zito faces another big offseason challenge in keeping as much of the team together as possible and finding replacements as needed. Reinhart, who scored 57 goals in the regular season and 10 more in the playoffs, including the Game 7 winner, will be a free agent.

Panthers begin summer fling with Cup

But none of that matters right now. The Panthers began their summer fling with the Cup by taking it to the beach Tuesday morning. A parade is scheduled for Sunday morning along Fort Lauderdale Beach.

There is a fine line between joy and despair in sports. One shudders to think of the long-term impact on the franchise if the Panthers had lost the Cup Final after winning the first three games. They ended up thwarting the McDavid-led Oilers by the slimmest of margins.

Maurice managed to get them back to playing without fear at just the right time.

“At no point did we say, ‘We better win this one or we’re gonna suck forever,’ ” he said.

Instead, plastic rats showered down amid the frenzy on the ice after time expired. They were shoveled aside and could be seen massed together along the boards as players took turns skating with the Cup.

Maurice got to lift Lord Stanley’s unwieldy trophy over his head for the first time after 29 years of coaching. He recounted the experience in an interview with ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt late Monday:

“I closed my eyes and I wanted to feel it. … I’ll never forget the weight of it and how I felt. And then I opened my eyes and all the players were in front of me smiling, and that’s when the profanity came out.”

He wasn’t alone in that. Fourth-line forward Ryan Lomberg blurted out an F-bomb during the celebration while being interviewed by Miami’s Channel 10. It came through on the broadcast.

Surely we can all use some profanity and joy in our lives. So go ahead, Panthers fans, shout it out as loud and often as you want.

F%*K, YEAH!!

Craig Davis has covered South Florida sports and teams, including the Panthers, for four decades. Follow him on the site formerly known as Twitter @CraigDavisRuns.

‘We’re going to try to drag them back to Alberta’: The Oilers look to play spoiler again on the Panthers Cup dream

SUNRISE —  The Edmonton Oilers were successful in keeping their season alive after winning Game 4 on Saturday.

 

Still down 3-1 in the series, they have a new goal entering Game 5 in Sunrise — get the Panthers back to Alberta — or drag them there. 

 

The Oilers fed off the home crowd at Rogers Place on Saturday night, thrashing the Panthers 8-1 as they won their first game of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final. 

 

“Everytime you’re back in Edmonton it seems to get louder and louder when you didn’t expect it could get any louder,” Oilers forward Connor Brown said on Tuesday. “That’s the goal. We’re going to try to drag them back to Alberta.”

 

Still facing elimination the rest of the way out, the Oilers have to take it one game at a time as the Panthers will have two opportunities to win the Cup at home if this series does drag out to a Game 7. 

 

Oilers captain Connor McDavid said the same phrase on Saturday as Connor Brown did, they want to drag the Panthers back to Alberta. 

 

While Edmonton has looked into their mindset for Tuesday’s elimination game, the Panthers are going to do everything they can to make sure the next bus they take is to a Cup celebration on Las Olas, not to the airport for a flight back to Edmonton. 

 

The Stanley Cup will be in Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday night as the Panthers will try again to win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history — this time in front of their home crowd. 

 

“It’s another opportunity right?” Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad said going into Game 5. “Another brilliant chance, an opportunity to realize our dream. We’re excited and anxious to get it going.”

 

Florida will need to be better than they were in their last game, but the team has been successful this postseason and controlling their emotions after losses — including blowouts. 

 

The Panthers are undefeated this playoff run after losing an elimination game (2-0), they are also 4-1 after a loss. 

 

“Worrying is more important than forgetting,” Panthers head coach Paul Maurice said when asked about the last game. “We had two other games I think that were very similar to that and both in similar situations. So we have to learn from it. The gift of Game 4 is a brand new experience that really maybe one or two other players have had and coaches… Once that is learned, then the entire ideas come back to form that our team — this is what we’re good at, this is what we do.”

 

As for what is expected in terms of lineups going into Game 5, the Panthers will be making a change on the fourth line with the reinsertion of Ryan Lomberg.


Lomberg has appeared in five games this postseason but has not seen the ice so far in the Stanley Cup Final. Who he is replacing has not been confirmed, but it is expected that Steven Lorentz will come out of the lineup.

 

Edmonton’s room was once again more secretive on who they will ice in Game 5.

 

Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said “you’ll have to wait” when asked about his lineup for Tuesday night’s matchup.

Puck drop for Game 5 will be just after 8 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. MT from Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, FL.

Maurice, Okposo and Ekman-Larsson among Panthers veterans searching for first Stanley Cup

EDMONTON —  The Florida Panthers can make history on Saturday night in Edmonton.

 

Holding a 3-0 series lead over the Oilers, their next win means they’ll take home the Stanley Cup — the first in the team’s 30 year history.

 

All but two players on the Panthers are searching for their first Stanley Cup; Vladimir Tarasenko (2019, St. Louis) and Carter Verhaeghe (2020, Tampa) being the only guys with rings on the roster.

 

While everyone on the team wants it, 17-year NHL veteran Kyle Okposo might be more desperate than others to lift Lord Stanley’s Cup. 

 

Okpsoso, 36, had been the Buffalo Sabres’ captain since 2022-23. In what could possibly be the final year of the NHL veteran’s career, Okposo wanted a chance to play for the Cup — so he requested a trade to Florida at the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline. 

 

 “It’s been a journey, that’s for sure. Obviously been in the league for parts of 17 seasons now and had a lot of ups and downs, personally and team wise. But over the last few years trying to turn buffalo around and get that organization going in the right direction, It was definitely challenging but extremely rewarding at the same time,” Okposo said of his career. “This year I wanted to make sure that I was going to put myself in a position — no matter what — to play in the playoffs and compete for a Stanley Cup. I wasn’t going to compromise in that goal. It was a difficult decision for me to do, but I felt like Florida was going to give me the best chance to reach the ultimate goal and now I just have to take it one more game at a time.”

 

Over the course of his career appeared in 1,054 NHL regular season games — but had only seen 24 postseason games — the last being in 2016 with the New York Islanders .

 


Before joining the Panthers in March, Okposo went eight years between playoff experiences, but the drive was always there for him to get back there and make a run at in. 

 

“I think it’s something that’s interesting in our league that if you don’t have playoff success a lot of the times that’s looked at as a negative when so much of this league is timing and the teams that you play on through no fault of our own as players sometimes,” Okposo said when asked about his lack of playoff success. “You have to look at the person and you have to look at the type of player that they are and if they’re capable of being part of a team…Sometimes they (players) get labeled as ‘oh we don’t want this guy because they haven’t played in the playoffs’ . Well there’s so many guys that haven’t played in the playoffs that would be absolute dogs in the playoffs and I think that we have a team that has a lot of dogs.”

 

If the Panthers were to win it all, Okposo would become the 20th player in NHL history to play more than 1,000 regular-season games before winning his first Cup

 

“For me personally, I’ve just been soaking up everyday and just trying to consume the moment,” Okposo added.

 

Like Okposo, Oliver Ekman-Larsson is another NHL veteran who has long awaited his chance to play for the Stanley Cup.

 

The 32-year-old defenseman played in 982 NHL regular-season games — the second most on the Panthers — across his 14 season career. 

 

A former captain himself with the Arizona Coyotes, Ekman-Larsson went from being at the lowest point in his career after the Vancouver Canucks bought out the remainder of his $19.3M contract — the largest ordinary buyout in the NHL’s salary cap era. 

 

One day before the one year anniversary of the buyout, Ekman-Larsson will be playing for a chance to lift the Stanley Cup. 

 

“I’m just super, super happy to be in this situation,” Ekman-Larsson said. “Obviously having a couple rough years in Vancouver — getting bought out– but I think just to be in this position with this organization, this team, there’s so many special guys in that room. I think we’re just trying to take one day at a time, soak it in and have fun with it.”


Okposo and Ekman-Larsson aren’t the only players with plenty of NHL experience on the Panther that are looking for their first Cup. Dmitry Kulikov — a Panthers draft pick in 2009 — and Sergei Bobrovsky both have been in the NHL for over 14 seasons, while Aleksander Barkov and Aaron Ekblad have been with the Panthers for the better part of a decade. 

 

But the man that has been searching for his Cup the longest is their coach, Paul Maurice. 

 

Maurice, 57, got his first NHL coaching gig in 1995-96 with the now relocated Hartford Whalers (moved to Carolina in 1997). 

 

The Sault Ste. Marie native has coached the second most games in NHL history with 1,848 and is fourth in wins with 869. His 24 season NHL career is certainly Hall of Fame worthy, but he is still looking for the ultimate prize.

 

“I need to win one,” Maurice said last week when speaking of his career and his desire to win the Cup. 

 

With Game 4 just hours away, the Panthers can win the first Cup in their franchises’ history and become the first team to do so in a sweep since the Detroit Red Wings in 1998.  

 

“If you can’t enjoy this morning, what the hell are you doing, what’s the point of this thing?” Maurice said the morning of Game 4. “The feet are flying underneath this table. There hasn’t been a lot of days in here so, we have to keep this in context, right? It’s 11 o’clock in the morning, my brain’s going to shift pretty hard in about four hours, and it won’t be conversations and casualness by any means. But I’ve been selling ‘enjoy your day’ for two years here, probably before that, and I believe it. I’ve had enough of the other days that aren’t good and I’m damn well going to enjoy morning skate on a day like today. I refuse not to be in a good mood. “

 

Game 4 will be on June 15, 6 p.m. MT, 8 p.m. ET from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta.

‘I need to win one’: Paul Maurice wants his Stanley Cup and his best chance is now

After stepping down on his own accord from his position with the Winnipeg Jets in December 2021, Paul Maurice didn’t know if he’d coach again.

 

24 seasons behind an NHL bench and no Stanley Cups to his name, Maurice’s chance to win the greatest prize in hockey looked to be behind him.


That was until Bill Zito called.

 

“I had four phenomenal days of fishing — and this is the absolute truth. My phone rings and it’s a number I don’t know so I never answer that,” Maurice said. “ Then I get a text from somebody that says ‘answer your phone’.” 

 

Maurice obviously picked up his phone. 

 

“Bill and I get on the phone and it starts there. It starts with just a conversation and it’s not even really about the job, it’s just the interest level I had and I was good — then we start talking hockey and that was it.”

 

Content may not be the best word to describe it, but Maurice said a few times “he was good”, as he looked back at the half a year he was away from the game.

 

But something about Florida was right. 

 

“It’s the connection between two people and you feel it or you don’t — and I was good. I had given all that I thought I had to give, certainly been fortunate in the game and received far more than I gave,” Maurice told the media as he reminisced on his first conversation with Zito. “But there’s just these strange little things that meant Florida was right and it was where I was supposed to be next.”

 

Zito was able to convince Maurice to step away from his cottage on the lake and make his way over to South Florida. Now nearly two years later they are trying to finish off this historic journey together as the Panthers are set to take the ice in their second consecutive Stanley Cup Final.

 

Maurice, 57, has an extensive and impressive coaching record — one that will make him go down as one of the most recognizable coaching figures in the game’s history.

 

After starting his NHL career as a youngster back in 1995-96 with the Hartford Whalers, Maurice sits atop most of the all-time coaching records, including Fourth most wins with 869 and second most games coached at 1,848. 

 

The one thing that’s missing from his potential Hall of Fame career is the biggest achievement in the game — a Stanley Cup. 

 

The question of legacy was brought up and if Maurice believes you need to win if you want to go down as an all-time great. Unsurprisingly, the ever straightforward Panthers coach was clear in what he believed the answer was for himself.

 

“I need to win one.”

 

“That’s the truth, that’s how I feel. I’m 30 years into this thing, I wouldn’t mind winning one — how about that,” Maurice laughed after answering. “When it’s over, because I thought it was… I understand what it feels like to feel like it’s over and you didn’t win. I know coaches that feel the opposite. Maybe it’s a function of I think I carry the losses and that goes back to starting very very young. I’m going to know when this thing’s all over — either how good I got or how good I was. I won’t need somebody else to tell me that or to value my career. I’m not saying I’m going to value it really high, I’m not telling you where I’ll value it. I have a pretty good idea of the job I’ve done when it’s over. Ya, I’d really like to win one man.”

 

The 26 season NHL veteran said that every coach is different when it comes to if they need a cup or not for legacy. Losing twice in the finals, once back in 2002 with Carolina and then last year with Florida, the good ole Canadian boy from the Sault is looking to hoist Lord Stanley’s prize over his head. 

 

”Every coach is different. It seems to me as you age you get a different perspective on life and what’s important, and valuable,” he added. “I need to win one. It’s not going to change the section of my life that’s not related to hockey at all.”

 

Just two years into his tenure, Maurice is already the most successful coach in Florida Panthers history. His 25 postseason wins is 12 more than the man in second place — and he’ll hope that number is at 29 once the summer rolls around. 

 

When the puck drops just after 8 p.m. ET on Saturday for Game 1 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, both Maurice and the franchise — who entered the league around the same time (Panthers two years prior to Maurice)  — will start the final step of the journey, in hopes of winning their first Stanley Cup.  

‘There’s 27 of you, everybody’s important’: Panthers bonds play big factor in reaching Stanley Cup Final

Before walking out of the room following their second consecutive Eastern Conference Final win, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice left a message for his team

 

“You’re all f*ing brilliant, I love every one of ya.”. 

 

The Panthers are set to open the 2024 Stanley Cup Final at home on Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers and they’ll have 13 returnees from the 2023 team that fell short in the Final to Vegas. 

 

After retooling in the offseason to make a deeper and stronger team, the Panthers have shown they have a special group of players in Sunrise. But it’s not just the on-ice product. 

 

This year’s Panther team is as close of a group as you’ll see in professional sports. They ride and die together and it has been that way all season.  

 

“It starts at day one of training camp when Mo (Maurice) sets the standard of how hard things are gonna be,” Steven Lorentz said on when the team started to get close. “It’s not always going to be the most fun, but when you see a group of guys buy in, it doesn’t matter what your background is or where you’re coming from, where you played before. As long as you got that number of guys — whether it’s 20-25 guys — pulling on the same rope, eventually you’ll come together, and you form bonds and friendships that last a lifetime.”

 

Before Game 5 of the ECF in New York, the Panthers group were their usual selves at morning skate. 

 

The team was loose; they laughed, cheered and joked around while taking their line rushes. 

 

They weren’t in an easy situation — tied in the series, on the road at Madison Square Garden. Yet the calmness of the team was backed up by a message that the team has made clear all season.

 

“We really like each other,” Gustav Forsling said after the Game 5 morning skate. “[We] like to hang out with each other, we care about each other. So I think that goes on the ice too.”


Forsling was right. The bond they have clearly shines on the ice and it has elevated as the playoffs continue. 

 

Playing on the road isn’t easy, especially in the postseason. But Florida truly hasn’t seen a drop off in their play when they leave Sunrise, if anything, they’ve been even better away from home.. 

 

Winning six out of eight road games over this playoff run — compared to a 6-3-0 record at home, the Panthers haven’t strayed away from their game when they leave the sunshine state and a lot of that can be relayed back to the team’s closeness. 

 

Between the chartered flights, team meals and most importantly, the poker games, the guys love being on the road together. 

 

“One of my favorite things to do is just play poker in the team suite and on the plane. I think about those times being the things that I’ll remember most about my time in the NHL,” said Aaron Ekblad, the second longest tenured Panther. “Especially on runs like this and last year where you’re together so much. Those moments are definitely one’s I’ll never forget.”

 

What jumped out to me the most and what I believe truly ties this group together is when Niko Mikkola awarded Jonah Gadjovich the game puck following their Game 5 win over the Rangers. 

 

Gadjovich, who was a fairly consistent face in the lineup when healthy during the regular season, hasn’t appeared in a playoff game to this point. He was away from the team for pretty much the entirety of the Conference Final as his partner was giving birth to twins. On the night that he returned, he was presented the game puck from his teammate,

 

In Paul Maurice’s nearly minute long post ECF win speech, he told the team there’s two things that he takes away from that part of the journey (the ECF) they are on.

One takeaway was their great third period to clinch their second consecutive Stanley Cup Final berth, the other was when Jonah Gadjovich was given that puck. 

 

“There’s 27 of you, everybody’s important,” Maurice said to his team after the ECF. “Everybody’s a lead dog, we’re all part of the pact.”

 

From captain  to the 27th skater that hasn’t touched the ice — everyone in that room is treated the same. 

 

The Panthers have created something special in Sunrise and this team won’t go down without a fight. 

 

And if that fight becomes a war when the Stanley Cup Final rolls around later this week, you better believe they are fighting that war together. 

Three Stars from the 2024 Eastern Conference Final

As the Florida Panthers celebrate their Eastern Conference championship and the more important Stanley Cup Final berth, let’s take a step back and appreciate the great series saw.

 

In the six games of the ECF, three straight went to overtime, five were one-goal games and the road team won three times.

 

The series was tight, fast, physical and most importantly — highly entertaining. 

 

Here’s my three stars — from each team — in the 2024 Eastern Conference Final. 

New York Rangers 

 

3. Vincent Trocheck 

 

The former Florida Panthers was a scary force to go up against this postseason. 

 

Trocheck finished the series with six points in six games, playing over 20-plus minutes a night. 

 

He was noticeable all over the ice, not just in the offensive zone. The centerman was 56.9% in the faceoff circle (70/123) and was great off the puck.

 

Trocheck finished the postseason with 20 points (8G, 12A) in 16 games. 

 

2. Alexis Lafreniere 

 

The first-overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft had a disappointing run in the 2022-23 postseason, going pointless in seven games. He completely changed the narrative this year. 

 

Lafreniere was a thorn in the Panthers’ side, scoring four goals of the series — with a two-goal night in Game 3. 

 

The 22-year-old was flying every time he came through the neutral zone and he scored a few unbelievable, highlight-reel goals because of it.

 

 Lafreniere is barely old enough to drink, but he sure can show up in the playoffs. 

 

1. Igor Shesterkin

Shocker, I know. Igor Shesterkin wasn’t just the best Ranger on the ice, he was probably the best player in the series.

 

The majority of the games were close in the ECF, but don’t get it twisted, Florida heavily outplayed New York. The Panthers outshot the Rangers in all but one game, and dictated the flow of play in the later stages of nearly every game.

 

The only reason the series went six games is because of Shesterkin’s play. The Russian goaltender did everything he could to will his team throughout the series, but the offensive support just wasn’t enough. 

 

Shesterkin had a .930 save percentage in the six games against the Panthers — stopping 186 of the 200 shots he faced.

 

Panthers head coach had a lot of praise for the Rangers goalie, saying he hasn’t “seen a series by a goaltender like that since Jose Theodore in 2002.” 

 

Goaltending isn’t the reason New York lost, it’s the reason why they weren’t going home earlier. 

 

Florida Panthers 

 

3. Anton Lundell 

 

There’s a few players from the Panthers that are well deserving to have this  spot.Aleksander Barkov had a few big games in the series, Gustav Forsling should be in contention for the Conn Smythe the way he’s been playing and obviously Carter Verhaeghe was very good. 

 

But, the third star must go to the youngest player on the Panthers’ playing roster — Anton Lundell. 

 

The 22-year-old had three points in the series,which doesn’t jump out compared to some of his teammates, however his offensive contributions were beyond clutch — possibly series saving. 

 

He scored the ‘de facto’ game winner in Game 5 at MSG — putting the Panthers up 2-1 in the third, which set up the opportunity for Sam Bennett’s empty net game winning goal./ 


In Game 6, he set up Vladimir Tarasenko’s eventual series clinching goal by blocking a shot at the point, chipping the puck into the Rangers before feeding a cross crease pass through three defenders to hit Tarasenko. 

 

Within the South Florida media circle, we’ve been calling the young Finn ‘Baby Barkov’, and it’s true.  

 

“I have absolutely no idea how good he can be,” Paul Maurice said of Lundell after Game 5 in New York. “But we’re going to find out, it’s just going to take a little while.”

 

He plays a 200-foot game that guys with a decade of NHL experience could only dream of and he’s only in his third season. 

 

2. Sam Bennett 

NO. 9 has been a wrecking ball all postseason long for the Cats and the Eastern Conference Final was his best showing yet. 

 

The Panthers missed Sam Bennett when he was out with an apparent hand injury after absorbing friendly fire from Brandon Montour in Game 2 of the first round against Tampa. Once he made his return in the second round against Boston, playoff Sam Bennett was on full display. 

 

“I started to feel a little bit more like myself as the series went on,” Bennett said of his play after returning from the injury. “It was nice to be able to stickhandle a little better than I was earlier. It feels good to be back to feeling right.”

 

Bennett, 27, had four goals and six points in the Eastern Conference Final — which is the most points he’s put up in a single playoff series in his career. Bennett scored in every single one of Florida’s wins, including a huge goal to tie Game 4 — with the Panthers trailing 2-1 in the series. He is currently riding a three game goal streak into the Stanley Cup Final.

 

 

1. Sergei Bobrovsky 

 

It was only right to put Bobrovsky first on this list. 

 

We spoke about how good Igor Shesterkin was in the Rangers net, but Sergei Bobrovsky also put forth an elite performance between the pipes for the Panthers.

 

Florida prides itself on being a defense first team, which is why they were able to keep Bobrovsky’s workload to under 30 shots for all but one game of the series. 

 

While he didn’t see as many pucks as Shesterkin, his play in the ECF shouldn’t be diminished because of that. 

 

The 35-year-old gave up two or fewer goals in all but one of the six games against the Rangers. In 17 games this postseason, he’s done that 13 times.

 

It’s remarkable. He’s been an absolute stud all year and especially in the biggest games,” Sam Bennett said of Bobrovsky. “That seems to be when he’s playing his best hockey, which is incredible.”

 

Florida’s netminder gave up just 12 goals on 151 shots in the series — posting a very impressive .921 save percentage and also picking up a shutout. 

 

Great goaltending can keep you in a series you probably shouldn’t be in, which was the case for the Rangers. While the Panthers were the force carrying most of the play in the Conference Finals, Bobrovsky was there to make the timely saves in these close games. 

 

He also gave up just one power play goal on 15 attempts to a Rangers team that entered the series with a 31.4% success rate on the power play.