The date is June 17, 2025: Game 6 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final between the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers and the previous year’s runners-up, the Edmonton Oilers. With a little under a minute remaining in the first period of a 1-0 game led by the Panthers, Anton Lundell picks the pocket of Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard and dishes it off to Eetu Luostarinen, who’s off to the races. As he enters the zone, an overly aggressive backcheck from Connor McDavid allows Luostarinen to find Matthew Tkachuk in the high slot. With all the time in the world, Tkachuk makes no mistake, beating Stuart Skinner’s short side to give the Panthers a 2-0 lead heading into the intermission. That goal would become the Stanley Cup winning goal, as the Panthers cruised to a 5-1 victory and their second championship in just 12 months.
How did we get here? What happened to put the Panthers in this position, allowing them to win back-to-back titles?
Sorry, Flames fans, but you might know where this is going. July 22, 2022, was a day that will live in infamy throughout Alberta. On the heels of Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau signing in Columbus, his linemate and fellow Flames superstar began questioning his place in Calgary as the team entered a new era. General manager Brad Treliving made a move out of necessity that looked incredible at the time, securing a strong return for a player who had tanked his own value through the media, but one that has since evolved into one of the most immediately lopsided trades in NHL history.
The trade is as follows:
Calgary Recieved:
W Jonathan Huberdeau
D Mackenzie Weegar
C Cole Schwindt
2025 1st Round Pick (F Cullen Potter)
Florida Recieved:
F Matthew Tkachuk
2025 4th Round Pick (W Mads Kongsbak Klyvo)
Let’s break this down piece by piece, starting on the Calgary side. Jonathan Huberdeau, at the time of the trade, was coming off one of the best seasons by a winger ever: 85 assists in the 2021-22 season and 115 points overall. Stapled to him was MacKenzie Weegar, one of the best two-way defensemen in the league. 44 points and a +40 rating is nothing to scoff at. Cole Schwindt was a strong AHL player and had been called up for a total of three games prior to the trade. The first-round pick ended up becoming Cullen Potter, the 32nd overall selection in 2025 out of Arizona State University. So far, Potter has tallied 48 points in 59 NCAA games in his college career.
On the Florida side, the Panthers received Matthew Tkachuk, who put up 105 points in his final year in Calgary, and Mads Kongsbak Klyvo, who is still playing in Europe. Surely the Flames got the lion’s share of the value, right? After all, they landed the best defenseman and the top prospect in the deal.
Well, to put it simply: no.
Huberdeau took a nosedive into the deep Atlantic in terms of production, as both his goal and assist totals were nearly cut in half, finishing with just 55 points after previously posting 115. Weegar also saw a dip in offense, registering only 31 points on a Flames team that was comfortably worse than the year before. The Panthers, on the other hand, couldn’t have extracted more value from Tkachuk. Another 40-goal season and 109 points for the older Tkachuk brother, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.
In the playoffs, Tkachuk recorded 24 points in 20 games en route to a Stanley Cup Final appearance, including 11 goals and four game-winning goals, tied for the most during that run. It’s safe to say the Panthers got the better of the Flames in the deal in Year 1, but let’s see how the next few years unfold.
Tkachuk alone recorded 20 points in each of the next two playoff runs, helping propel the Panthers to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships. While Weegar and Huberdeau have both improved in Calgary as the years have gone on, it ultimately hasn’t mattered. In terms of team success, Calgary hasn’t made the playoffs in three years with its new shiny toys, while the Panthers have been the best team in the Eastern Conference in all three seasons – and the inarguable best team in the league over the last two.
So what is it about Florida that brings this level of sustained success? Tkachuk isn’t the best player in the league, and he certainly doesn’t do it alone. So why do the Panthers keep winning?
The Panthers are the most violent team the NHL has seen since at least the 2019 St. Louis Blues – and probably longer. They are a group of 25 barbarians who don’t care what they have to do to win; they just win. Well-adjusted people rarely hoist the Stanley Cup. Just look at recent champions and the leaders who drove each of their runs
2025 – Florida – Matthew Tkachuk – Crazy Person
2024 – Florida – Matthew Tkachuk – Crazy Person
2023 – Vegas – Mark Stone – Crazy Person
2022 – Colorado – Nathan MacKinnon – Crazy Person
2021 – Tampa Bay – Nikita Kucherov – Crazy Person
2020 – Tampa Bay – Nikita Kucherov – Crazy Person
2019 – St. Louis – Alex Pietrangelo – Crazy Person
Violence and insanity may be two of the ingredients required to build a Stanley Cup champion, but what else is needed? One of the most widely considered violent or dirty teams in the NHL is the Boston Bruins, and they aren’t listed on that page anywhere. There has to be something more.
The ability of head coach Paul Maurice to roll four lines that can all play at a high level is admirable. No line on the Panthers ever gets outplayed. Sure, the likes of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl can expose the AJ Greer’s and Jesper Boqvist’s of the world once or twice a game. But if you translate the style of hockey the Panthers play over a seven-game series, there isn’t a team in the NHL I’m putting money on over them.
To quote Paul Maurice during their 2023 series against Boston: “F*** the plays. Pound their f***ing D so in Game 7 they have nothing left.” That quote perfectly encapsulates what it takes to win in the NHL.
It’s not about how much talent your team has. If you aren’t willing to make the plays you don’t want to make, you’re going to get hurt. But when you force the opponent to work harder than they want to, those moments become investments over the course of a seven-game series. Every time the puck hits their stick, run through them. Any time there’s a battle in the corner, you win it. If the puck comes to you in front of the net, it better go in. If it goes to their point and the defenseman winds up for a slapshot, that puck better not reach the net.
Every single opportunity you have to beat the guy lined up across from you, you take it. Because by Game 5 and Game 6, they stop going into the corners with you. They stop trying to get shots through from the point. They’re late getting a stick on you in front of the net. You break their will.
That is what playoff hockey is about. And that is why the Florida Panthers win.