A modern-day NHL dynasty is quickly developing, one that could have been all but unthinkable just a few years ago.
The defending-champion Panthers clinched a third-straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final on Wednesday, closing out the Hurricanes in five games in the Eastern Conference final. Florida’s back-to-back-to-back berths to the Final mark the NHL’s first such trifecta since the Lightning’s run from 2020–22, and the Panthers are just the ninth franchise in league history to do so.
The circumstances by which the Panthers achieved the feat, however, and the nature of modern hockey economics, make the team’s achievement even more remarkable. Tampa Bay’s run included two pandemic-shortened seasons, while Florida has been able to keep the core of its team together despite the NHL salary cap rising only 8% over the last five years in advance of a much more aggressive coming escalation.
Long struggling in a Sun Belt market that wasn’t a traditional one for hockey, the Panthers went through a 26-year stretch without a playoff series victory until that finally happened in 2022. Since then, the Vincent Viola–owned Panthers franchise has engaged in a comprehensive franchise overhaul that has included new local media-rights deals with over-the-air and streaming operators, a sizable attendance boost, and a new training facility, the Baptist Health IcePlex.
In the process, the team’s estimated franchise value has reached $1.4 billion, nearly five times the comparable $295 million in 2020.
“There’s been a lot of work put in by this organization to become better and reach the level where we want to win Stanley Cups, we want to compete for Stanley Cups every single year,” said Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov. “There are 31 other teams in the league, and it’s hard every single year. They want to do that, too, so it’s not easy. But we’ve managed to do it three years in a row, which is, I think, an incredible achievement so far.”
Barkov, meanwhile, also extends a still-active streak of 45 years in which former NHL star Jaromír Jágr has a teammate playing in the Stanley Cup Final.
The Panthers will face a repeat in the Stanley Cup Final against the Oilers, the matchup from last year. Edmonton eliminated the Stars Thursday night in a five-game Western Conference final. Last year’s Game 7 of the Panthers-Oilers matchup garnered the NHL’s best U.S. television audience in five years as well as the largest viewership for Canada’s Sportsnet in the network’s 26-year history to that point.
The NHL had not had a repeat matchup in the Stanley Cup Final since the Red Wings and Penguins in 2008 and 2009.
