2023 Stanley Cup Final

Florida Panthers

This was the second Final appearance for the Panthers. Their only previous appearance was in 1996, which they lost in a four-game sweep to the Colorado Avalanche.^[5]

During the offseason, former Winnipeg Jets head coach Paul Maurice was hired as the Panthers head coach.^[6] The Panthers made a large offseason acquisition, trading Jonathan Huberdeau, who led the team in points the previous year, along with MacKenzie Weegar to the Calgary Flames for Matthew Tkachuk.^[7] Tkachuk led the team in points this year with 109. Through free agency, the team acquired forwards Nick Cousins,^[8] Colin White,^[9] and Eric Staal,^[10] defenceman Marc Staal (Eric's brother),^[11] and goaltender Alex Lyon.^[12] The team also opted to re-sign forward Eetu Luostarinen and goaltender Spencer Knight.^[13][14] Midway through the regular season, the team claimed defenceman Casey Fitzgerald off of waivers.^[15]

The Panthers finished with a 42–32–8 record and obtained the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference with 92 points, the lowest point total of any playoff team. In the first round, the Panthers overcame a 3–1 series deficit against the Presidents' Trophy-winning Boston Bruins, who had set the NHL season records for points and wins, and defeated them in a game seven overtime.^[16] They then eliminated the Toronto Maple Leafs in five games during the second round and swept the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference final.^[17][18] The Panthers became the fourth eighth seed to reach the Final, following the Edmonton Oilers in 2006, the Los Angeles Kings in 2012, and the Nashville Predators in 2017.^[19]

Vegas Golden Knights

This was Vegas' second Final appearance. Their only previous appearance was in 2018, which they lost to the Washington Capitals in five games.^[20] The Golden Knights experienced immediate success after beginning play in 2017, reaching the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season and qualifying for the playoffs in their first four. However, they missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history the previous season, which led to the firing of head coach Peter DeBoer.^[21]

During the offseason, the Golden Knights hired former Boston Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy as their head coach.^[21] They also acquired goaltender Adin Hill in a trade,^[22] re-signed Brett Howden,^[23] Reilly Smith,^[23] Keegan Kolesar,^[24] and Nicolas Roy,^[25] and also signed Phil Kessel, a two-time Stanley Cup champion during his time with the Pittsburgh Penguins, during free agency.^[26] At the trade deadline, the Golden Knights acquired forwards Ivan Barbashev (reuniting him with Alex Pietrangelo from the 2019 Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues) and Teddy Blueger,^[27][28] as well as goaltender Jonathan Quick who was flipped by the Columbus Blue Jackets from the Los Angeles Kings (reuniting him with defenceman Alec Martinez, both two-time Stanley Cup champions with the Kings).^[29]

The Golden Knights finished first in the Pacific Division and the Western Conference with 111 points via a 51–22–9 record. Vegas defeated the Winnipeg Jets in five games during the first round,^[30] triumphed over the Edmonton Oilers during the second round in six games,^[31] and knocked off the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference final in six games.^[32]

Game one

In game one, Florida began the scoring with a shorthanded goal by Eric Staal, scored on a wrap-around attempt. Vegas tied the game on a separate power play with Chandler Stephenson setting up Jonathan Marchessault's wrist shot beating Sergei Bobrovsky.^[33] In the second period, Shea Theodore's long range shot found its way past Bobrovsky, giving Vegas a 2–1 lead. With ten seconds remaining and a faceoff in the Golden Knights zone, the Panther's Anthony Duclair picked up a loose puck and fired a wrist shot past Hill to make it 2–2. In the third period, the Golden Knights led a rush into the Panther's zone with a shot by Ivan Barbashev deflecting back to Zach Whitecloud who scored for Vegas to make it 3–2. Later in the period, Matthew Tkachuk's clearing attempt was knocked down by Vegas captain Mark Stone, who shot it past Bobrovsky for a 4–2 lead. Florida challenged the play as Stone's stick could have been above his shoulders, which would have been a stoppage of play. Florida was unsuccessful in their challenge and assessed a minor penalty.^[34] With frustrations boiling over for Florida, both Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett were called for misconducts for attempting to fight some of the Golden Knights.^[35] Reilly Smith then sealed Vegas' victory with an empty net goal to make it 5–2. The victory broke Florida's road-winning streak at eight games.^[36]

Game two

In the first period of game two, the Golden Knights scored first on the power play as Jonathan Marchessault shot through a screen to beat the Florida goaltender over the shoulder. Later in the period, with Vegas in possession in the Florida zone, Alec Martinez shot past Josh Mahura's block attempt and the puck went to the top of the net for a 2–0 lead.^[38] During the second period, Nicolas Roy gave Vegas a 3–0 lead, shooting the puck under Sergei Bobrovsky's blocker.^[39] Brett Howden then forced Florida to swap Bobrovsky for backup Alex Lyon, scoring forehand-backhand on Vegas' thirteenth shot.^[40] Following a hit on Jack Eichel, Matthew Tkachuk and Ivan Barbashev both exchanged misconduct penalties for fighting after the whistle.^[41] In the third period, the Panthers ended Adin Hill's shutout bid as Anton Lundell scored just 14 seconds in. Vegas regained their four-goal lead as an all-alone Marchessault received a pass from Mark Stone and wristed a shot past Lyon.^[42] Michael Amadio then provided the sixth goal for Vegas, beating Lyon for a 6–1 lead.^[43] Tkachuk then brought the lead back down to four as his first goal of the series beat Hill. Later in the period, with Florida releasing their frustration, Vegas gained a power play.^[44] During the power play, Howden's second goal of the game ended any hopes of a Florida comeback, scoring to give Vegas a 7–2 lead, also the final score of the game.^[45][46]

Game three

Matthew Tkachuk (left), shown with Calgary, scored the game-tying goal, while Carter Verhaeghe (right) scored the overtime winner in game three.

Back in Florida for game three, Brandon Montour began the scoring for the Panthers in the first period as his shot from the left circle beat Adin Hill. Vegas was able to tie the game during a 4-on-3 power play when Jonathan Marchessault's shot got tipped in by Mark Stone. In the second period, Vegas gained another power play, during which Jack Eichel passed across to Marchessault who shot past Sergei Bobrovsky into the top-left corner for a 2–1 Golden Knights lead. In the third period, with the Florida goaltender pulled for an extra attacker, Matthew Tkachuk scored on a rebound from Carter Verhaeghe to tie the game 2–2. With the game in overtime, Verhaeghe fired a wrist shot past Hill giving Florida a 3–2 victory and their first win in the Stanley Cup Final in franchise history.^[48]

Game four

In game four, Vegas began the scoring 1:39 into the first period as Zach Whitecloud made a cross-ice pass to Chandler Stephenson, who maneuvered through all Florida defenders and shot the puck past Sergei Bobrovsky.^[50] Stephenson continued his scoring into the second period as a pass by Mark Stone found its way to the forward whose one-timer beat Bobrovsky for a 2–0 Vegas lead. Following soon after, William Karlsson picked up Nicolas Hague's rebound shot and gave the Golden Knights a 3–0 lead. With less than four minutes remaining in the period, Florida defenceman Brandon Montour shot the puck at the net and it deflected off Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore past Adin Hill to cut Vegas' lead to two goals. Florida then cut their deficit to one goal as the Panthers rushed into the Vegas zone, Montour backhanded a pass to captain Aleksander Barkov whose fired past Hill from the right circle. Vegas maintained their 3–2 lead, including fending off a power play with 17.4 seconds left, as Hill stopped 29 of 31 shots to give the Golden Knights a 3–1 series lead.^[51]

Game five

Mark Stone (left) scored a hat trick, while Reilly Smith (right) scored the Stanley Cup-clinching goal in game five.

In game five, the Golden Knights began the scoring on a shorthanded rush as Mark Stone outwaited Sergei Bobrovsky to beat him on the glove side.^[53] The Golden Knights doubled their lead as Jack Eichel's shot bumped over Bobrovsky's shoulder and got covered, but was quickly poked away. With the free puck, Nicolas Hague scored for Vegas.^[54] The Panthers made it 2–1 early in the second period as Nick Cousins forced a turnover in the Vegas defensive zone and passed it to defenceman Aaron Ekblad whose long range shot made its way into the net.^[55] The Golden Knights recovered their two-goal lead as a stretch pass by Alex Pietrangelo made its way to Eichel who then dropped a pass to Alec Martinez and he shot it past Bobrovsky.^[56] Reilly Smith soon gave the Golden Knights a 4–1 lead as he fired in a between-the-legs pass from William Karlsson. Stone's second goal made it 5–1 as a Chandler Stephenson-led rush led to a cross-ice pass from Brett Howden, which Stone then shot between Bobrovsky's pads for his second goal of the game.^[57] Michael Amadio extended the Golden Knights lead to 6–1 with two seconds remaining; after pushing the puck towards the Panthers goaltender and being pushed himself into the net by a Panther defenceman, the puck found its way under Bobrovsky and in.^[58] In the third period, Vegas made the game a rout, with Ivan Barbashev scoring Vegas' seventh goal of the game. Florida brought their deficit down to five when a quick shot by Sam Reinhart hit the top corner past Adin Hill.^[59] Sam Bennett then dropped Florida's deficit to four goals as his long range shot was deflected into the net.^[60] With approximately six minutes remaining in the game, Florida head coach Paul Maurice opted to go for an empty net.^[61] However, Stone scored on the empty net to complete his hat trick, making it 8–3. His hat trick, the 40th to occur in the Stanley Cup Final,^[62] was the first since 1996, which was also against the Panthers,^[63] and the first to occur in a Cup-winning game since 1922.^[64] Nicolas Roy potted Vegas' ninth goal of the evening with 1:02 remaining to seal the Golden Knights victory and their first Stanley Cup.^[65] Vegas' nine goals set a new record for goals scored in a Cup-clinching game, surpassing the 8–0 score by which the Pittsburgh Penguins clinched the title in 1991,^[66] and tied the record for most goals by a team in a Final's game, previously set by the Detroit Red Wings in 1936 and later matched by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1942.^[67][68]

Jonathan Marchessault was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs,^[65] becoming the first undrafted player to win the award since Wayne Gretzky in 1988.^[69] Vegas became the second fastest team to win the Stanley Cup as an expansion franchise, following the Edmonton Oilers in 1984.^[70] Marchessault, William Carrier, William Karlsson, Brayden McNabb, Reilly Smith, and Shea Theodore were the only players from the Golden Knights' expansion draft, inaugural season, and 2018 Stanley Cup Final campaign to remain with the team up until the Stanley Cup victory; this group of players earned the collective monikers "Golden Misfits" and "Original Misfits".^[71][72] The win gave the state of Nevada and the Las Vegas metropolitan area its first ever major (North American "Big Four") men's professional sports championship,^[a] and the first ever championship for a North American Big Four men's professional sports team founded in the 21st century.^[b][73]

Chandler Stephenson, who previously defeated Vegas for the Cup in 2018 as a member of the Washington Capitals, became the third player of the expansion era to win a Cup with a team he previously defeated for it, joining Scott Niedermayer (with New Jersey in 2003 and Anaheim in 2007) and Billy Carroll (with the New York Islanders in 1983 and Edmonton in 1985).^[74]

Meanwhile, the Panthers were one of two South Florida teams to lose major championships within two days, as the Miami Heat also lost the 2023 NBA Finals to the Denver Nuggets one day prior.^[75]

Florida Panthers

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More information #, Nat ...

#	Nat	Player	Position	Hand	Age	Acquired	Place of birth	Final appearance
16		Aleksander Barkov – C	C	L	27	2013	Tampere, Finland	first
9		Sam Bennett	C/W	L	26	2021	East Gwillimbury, Ontario	first
72		Sergei Bobrovsky	G	L	34	2019	Novokuznetsk, Soviet Union	first
21		Nick Cousins	C	L	29	2022	Belleville, Ontario	first
22		Zac Dalpe	C	R	33	2021	Paris, Ontario	first
14		Grigori Denisenko	RW	R	22	2018	Novosibirsk, Russia	first
10		Anthony Duclair	LW	L	27	2020	Pointe-Claire, Quebec	first
5		Aaron Ekblad – A	D	R	27	2014	Windsor, Ontario	first
4		Casey Fitzgerald	D	R	26	2023	Boca Raton, Florida	first
42		Gustav Forsling	D	L	26	2021	Linköping, Sweden	first
7		Radko Gudas	D	R	32	2020	Kladno, Czechoslovakia	first
94		Ryan Lomberg	W	L	28	2020	Richmond Hill, Ontario	first
15		Anton Lundell	C	L	21	2020	Espoo, Finland	first
27		Eetu Luostarinen	C	L	24	2020	Siilinjärvi, Finland	first
34		Alex Lyon	G	L	30	2022	Baudette, Minnesota	first
28		Josh Mahura	D	L	25	2022	St. Albert, Alberta	first
62		Brandon Montour	D	R	29	2021	Ohsweken, Ontario	first
13		Sam Reinhart	C	R	27	2021	North Vancouver, British Columbia	first
54		Givani Smith	RW	L	25	2022	Toronto, Ontario	first
12		Eric Staal	C	L	38	2022	Thunder Bay, Ontario	third (2006, 2021)[78][79]
18		Marc Staal	D	L	36	2022	Thunder Bay, Ontario	second (2014)[80]
19		Matthew Tkachuk – A	LW	L	25	2022	Scottsdale, Arizona	first
23		Carter Verhaeghe	C	L	27	2020	Waterdown, Ontario	second (2020)[81]
6		Colin White	C	R	26	2022	Hanover, Massachusetts	first

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Vegas Golden Knights

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More information #, Nat ...

#	Nat	Player	Position	Hand	Age	Acquired	Place of birth	Final appearance
22		Michael Amadio	RW/C	R	27	2021	Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario	first
49		Ivan Barbashev	C	L	27	2023	Moscow, Russia	second (2019)[83]
53		Teddy Blueger	C	L	28	2023	Riga, Latvia	first
39		Laurent Brossoit	G	L	30	2021	Port Alberni, British Columbia	first (did not dress)
28		William Carrier	LW	L	28	2017	LaSalle, Quebec	second (2018)[84]
43		Paul Cotter	C/LW	L	23	2018	Canton, Michigan	first (did not play)
9		Jack Eichel	C	R	26	2021	North Chelmsford, Massachusetts	first
14		Nicolas Hague	D	L	24	2017	Kitchener, Ontario	first
33		Adin Hill	G	L	27	2022	Comox, British Columbia	first
21		Brett Howden	C	L	25	2021	Oakbank, Manitoba	first
17		Ben Hutton	D	L	30	2021	Brockville, Ontario	first
71		William Karlsson	C	L	30	2017	Märsta, Sweden	second (2018)[84]
8		Phil Kessel	RW	R	35	2022	Madison, Wisconsin	third (2016, 2017)[85][86]
55		Keegan Kolesar	RW	R	26	2017	Brandon, Manitoba	first
81		Jonathan Marchessault	RW	R	32	2017	Cap-Rouge, Quebec	third (2015, 2018)[87][84]
23		Alec Martinez	D	L	35	2020	Rochester Hills, Michigan	third (2012, 2014)[88][80]
3		Brayden McNabb	D	L	32	2017	Davidson, Saskatchewan	second (2018)[84]
94		Brayden Pachal	D	R	23	2019	Estevan, Saskatchewan	first
7		Alex Pietrangelo – A	D	R	33	2020	King City, Ontario	second (2019)[83]
32		Jonathan Quick	G	L	37	2023	Milford, Connecticut	third (2012, 2014)[88][80]
10		Nicolas Roy	C/RW	R	26	2019	Amos, Quebec	first
19		Reilly Smith – A	RW	L	32	2017	Etobicoke, Ontario	second (2018)[84]
20		Chandler Stephenson	C	L	29	2019	Saskatoon, Saskatchewan	second (2018)[84]
61		Mark Stone – C	RW	R	31	2019	Winnipeg, Manitoba	first
27		Shea Theodore	D	L	27	2017	Langley, British Columbia	second (2018)[84]
36		Logan Thompson	G	R	26	2020	Calgary, Alberta	first (did not dress)
2		Zach Whitecloud	D	R	26	2018	Brandon, Manitoba	first

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Players

• * Played both centre and wing.
• † Did not play or dress in Final.
• ‡ Exemption granted to engrave the name of a player who did not automatically qualify.^[c]

Engraving notes

• Vegas successfully requested an exemption to engrave the names of four players who did not automatically qualify.^[c]
  • #53 Teddy Blueger (C) played in 63 regular season games (45 with the Pittsburgh Penguins and 18 with the Golden Knights), plus six playoff games (two in the second round, four in the Western Conference Final).
  • #17 Ben Hutton (D) played in 31 regular season games and two playoff games (one each in the first and second round).
  • #39 Laurent Brossoit (G) played in 11 regular season games and eight playoff games (five in the first round, three in the second round) before missing the remainder of the playoffs due to injury.
  • #94 Brayden Pachal (D) played in ten regular season games and one playoff game in the first round.
• With Adin Hill, Jonathan Quick, and Logan Thompson all automatically qualified for engraving, and Laurent Brossoit added via exemption, Vegas became the first team in NHL history to have four goaltenders engraved on the Cup; the previous high of three goaltenders was most recently reached by the 2016 Pittsburgh Penguins (with Matt Murray, Marc-André Fleury, and Jeff Zatkoff).^[91][92]

Player notes

• Fourteen players were on the roster during the Final were left off the Stanley Cup engraving due to not qualifying.^[c] None appeared in the playoffs (they were healthy scratches, except for injured players Robin Lehner and Nolan Patrick). They received championship rings.^[93][94][95]
  • #16 Pavel Dorofeyev (LW) – 18 regular season games
  • #65 Dysin Mayo (D) – 0 regular season games with Vegas, 15 regular season games with Arizona
  • #46 Jonas Rondbjerg (RW) – 13 regular season games
  • #6 Kaedan Korczak (D) – 10 regular season games
  • #51 Byron Froese (C) – 9 regular season games
  • #30 Jiri Patera (G) – 2 regular season games
  • #56 Sheldon Rempal (RW) – 1 regular season game
  • #40 Lukas Cormier (D) – 0 regular season games, 62 with Henderson of the American Hockey League (AHL)
  • #24 Brendan Brisson (C) – 0 regular season games, 58 with Henderson of the AHL
  • #11 Ivan Morozov (C) – 0 regular season games, 58 with Henderson of the AHL
  • #5 Daniil Chayka (D) – 0 regular season games, 57 with Henderson of the AHL
  • #31 Isaiah Saville (G) – 0 regular season games, 10 with Henderson of the AHL
  • #90 Robin Lehner (G) – missed the entirety of the 2022–23 season due to injury (spent entire season with Vegas)
  • #41 Nolan Patrick (C) – missed the entirety of the 2022–23 season due to injury (spent entire season with Vegas)