The Florida Panthers made history once more in the NHL by winning the 2025 Stanley Cup, wrapping up an impressive playoff journey with a 5-1 win against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6. The win, celebrated in front of an enthusiastic home crowd in Sunrise, was a special moment—back-to-back championships for the club, a feat we haven’t seen since the Tampa Bay Lightning’s consecutive victories in 2020-21. Sam Reinhart really took charge in the game, scoring four goals in the clincher. He’s the first player to do that in a Final game since Maurice “Rocket” Richard back in 1957. Pretty impressive, right?

Sam Bennett really stole the show in the postseason, racking up an impressive 15 playoff goals, with 13 of those scored on the road. His performance earned him the Conn Smythe Trophy, which is quite the honor for playoff MVP. With the experienced trio of Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, and new addition Brad Marchand leading the way, the Panthers really showed off their tough style. They played hard, using their physicality and strong penalty killing to take down Edmonton and prove they’re a force in the NHL right now.

But, you know, there are some standout players like Marchand, Bennett, Ekblad, and a few others who have reached their UFA status. There were quite a few questions about their future, especially Marchand, whom the Panthers picked up from the Boston Bruins just before the NHL trade deadline. It seems like general manager Bill Zito is feeling pretty good about bringing the players onto the team. While talking with the TSN Hockey panel, he mentioned, “I think we can bring them all back.”

Coming from the general manager of the Florida Panthers, this is a massive message. It seems a bit unrealistic for Florida to sign Marchand, Bennett, and a few others, especially since they only have $19 million in cap space to play with. Why is that? So, it looks like Bennett is likely to get around $8-9 million AAV according to the reports, and Marchand might be in line for a similar AAV when he hits the open market. Therefore, if the Panthers decide to give Bennett and Marchand $8 million each, that would eat up $16 million right off the bat, which means there’s only $3 million left for all the other signings. This feels pretty tight.

So, after snagging the Stanley Cup for the second time in a row, Zito shared some insights about the new players Florida brought in during the trade deadline. He mentioned, “As impactful as they are on the ice, the fact that if you came into our room this morning and you’ve never been, you didn’t know, you wouldn’t have been able to tell that those were the new guys, and so the way they’ve figured a way to fit in and the way that their teammates have pulled them in, it’s still the team, the single entity. I think that speaks volumes as far the character of those guys and the character of the room.”

Zito mentioned that even though they were new to the team, they seemed like familiar faces in the locker room—nobody would have thought they had just joined. He was really impressed by how well they fit in, both on the ice and in the locker room. The way their teammates embraced them without messing with the team’s chemistry says a lot about the newcomers and just how strong the team environment is. So, what did Marchand say after winning the Stanley Cup with his new NHL team?

Brad Marchand opens up about his Florida Panthers’ future

While interacting on the ice with NHL reporter Jackie Redmond, the Florida Panthers’ star forward was asked if he’d be interested in returning to South Florida to build on his first-year success with the team. He mentioned, “We’re going to see what happens here soon.” Marchand didn’t really say much about his future with the Panthers, but he also didn’t rule out the possibility of signing a deal with them if the opportunity comes up.

“Everyone had written us off at every round of the playoffs. We were beaten in every round,” the seasoned vet said with a smirk, pointing out how the experts and pundits didn’t believe in Florida’s push to keep the Cup. For sure, there were a lot of speculations going around; even NBA legend Charles Barkley chimed in, saying that the Tampa Bay Lightning would come out on top against the Panthers in just the first round.

But, clearly that wasn’t how it turned out, since Florida ended up winning the Stanley Cup by taking down Tampa Bay, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Carolina Hurricanes, and then wrapping it up against the Edmonton Oilers in the Final. It was definitely a wild ride for the team to snag their consecutive Cup! Now, we just have to wait and see if a player like Marchand, who made a big impact in his short time, will get signed or not.