Panthers Repeat as Stanley Cup Champs, Buoyed by Bold Deadline Move

The Panthers are back-to-back Stanley Cup champions. Hoisting the cup on their home ice in Sunrise, Fl. after a rematch of the 2024 Finals, Florida became the 10th NHL franchise to win two consecutive championships. 

Panthers center Sam Reinhart scored 4:36 into the game. It was the only goal Florida would need in a 5–1 win, but Reinhart added three of the other four.

Sam Bennett won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but the Mar. 7 trade that sent Bruins captain Brad Marchand to the Panthers also proved to be key for Florida. Marchand, who helped lead Boston to the 2011 Stanley Cup win early in his 16 years with the Bruins, landed in the Sun Belt in exchange for a conditional second-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft. The cap hit for the Panthers was about $3.1 million, as the Bruins retained 50% of Marchand’s $6.125 million salary.

The roster move defined the Panthers’ regular-season push into the playoffs and their Stanley Cup–winning postseason run: the 37-year-old Marchand finished the postseason with 10 goals and 10 assists, including two goals in Saturday’s penultimate game. Marchand’s Game 5 performance marked an NHL record: the forward became the first player to score at least five goals in two different Stanley Cup Finals series with two separate teams.

Yet the dramatic Finals—which included three overtime games, heated and high-scoring performances, the first Cup rematch since 2009, and the star power of Connor McDavid and Matthew Tkachuk—delivered uneven ratings in the U.S.

Through Game 5, overall viewership has averaged about 2.5 million—down 28% from a year ago and 5% from 2023, when the network last carried the Stanley Cup Final. Compared to the 2024 postseason, TNT and ESPN each saw viewership declines; both conference finals, for instance, experienced double-digit dips. (Canadian audiences, however, have been strong, with Sportsnet and CBC viewership seeing a 2% bump over last year.) Conspicuously absent from the playoffs were the major television markets of New York, Boston, and Chicago—no U.S. Original Six franchise made the postseason.

The declining ratings are particularly pertinent because of February’s 4 Nations Face-Off, which replaced this year’s All-Star Game. The international best-on-best tournament, featuring Canada, the U.S., Sweden, and Finland, drew massive audiences; the final on ESPN between Teams Canada and USA became the NHL’s biggest U.S. broadcast ever with 9.3 million viewers. But the event’s runaway success—alongside the completion of Alex Ovechkin’s GR8 Chase to become the top-scoring NHL player—did not result in increased postseason viewership.

Florida’s continued dominance, however, could be a boon for the growth of hockey in the American South—a significant opportunity for the NHL—especially as Atlanta pushes to secure a new franchise in the potential next era of league expansion.