The numbers from the Florida Panthers’ playoff run this 12 months are fairly unimaginable.
The Panthers didn’t simply repeat as Stanley Cup champions this 12 months, turning into solely the tenth franchise to take action in NHL historical past; they have been fully dominant, racking up lots of the greatest statistical marks of any staff up to now 30-odd years.
With Tuesday’s decisive 5-1 win in Sport 6 over the Edmonton Oilers, for instance, Florida completed with 94 whole targets scored, the fourth-highest mark in a postseason in league historical past — and the best because the Mario Lemieux-led Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991.
The Panthers weren’t simply an offensive powerhouse, both. They allowed solely 56 targets over 23 video games, giving coach Paul Maurice’s staff a plus-38 purpose differential that’s the fourth greatest in NHL historical past.
The one three groups forward of them? A couple of of the best playoff groups ever: the 1981 and 1983 New York Islanders and the 1985 Oilers.
Even the ultimate itself was finally lopsided, with captain Aleksander Barkov and firm discovering methods to restrict Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to a mixed two targets and 6 factors over the ultimate 4 video games.
The Panthers spent extra time main throughout this Stanley Cup Last than any earlier staff in historical past: 255:49
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) June 18, 2025
This Cup run by the Panthers, in different phrases, was very doubtless probably the most spectacular single-season playoff efficiency of any NHL staff up to now 20 years. But when we have a look at a much bigger pattern dimension — together with their three consecutive years going to the ultimate — is it sufficient for the Panthers to rank as the very best staff of the salary-cap period?
Listed here are our prime six, ranked so as of the very best three-season playoff runs since 2005-06.
6. Detroit Pink Wings, 2007-09Â
File: 41-22
Aim differential: 1.14 per sport
Prime gamers: Nicklas Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzen, Chris Osgood
Conn Smythe winners: Zetterberg (2008)
Stanley Cups: 2008
This staff included the ultimate Stanley Cup win in a stretch of 4 in 11 years for these dominant, largely pre-cap Pink Wings groups. Detroit went deep three consecutive years right here, however finally gained just one title after getting upset by a younger Sidney Crosby and the Penguins in Sport 7 of the 2009 last.
However this was nonetheless a formidable, memorable staff to cap a particular period for an Unique Six franchise, a run highlighted by 38-year-old Nicklas Lidstrom successful his first championship as Pink Wings captain.
5. Pittsburgh Penguins, 2016-18Â
File: 38-23
Aim differential: 0.76 per sport
Prime gamers: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Phil Kessel, Matt Murray
Conn Smythe winners: Crosby twice (2016, 2017)
Stanley Cups: 2016, 2017
Crosby and Malkin of their primes have been actually one thing, weren’t they?
These Penguins battled by way of every kind of adversity, together with accidents that at instances left them with a makeshift blue line. However that they had tour de power performances from their future Corridor of Famers, nice goaltending from Murray and Marc-Andre Fleury, and memorable scoring depth due to the 2015 offseason addition of Kessel down the lineup.
Perhaps this wasn’t the very best staff of the cap period, but it surely was actually some of the enjoyable to look at. Shedding in Spherical 2 to the Cup-bound Capitals in 2018 holds them again from the highest spots, nevertheless.
4. Los Angeles Kings, 2012-14Â
File: 41-23
Aim differential: 0.75 per sport
Prime gamers: Anze Kopitar, Jonathan Fast, Drew Doughty, Justin Williams, Jeff Carter
Conn Smythe winners: Fast (2012), Williams (2014)
Stanley Cups: 2012, 2014
They began by not qualifying for the playoffs till the 81st sport of the season after which occurring to win the Cup as an eighth seed in 2012, the primary NHL staff to perform that feat.
They ended up on some of the dominant three-season runs we’ve seen in the previous couple of a long time, due to a deadly mixture of dimension, defensive acumen, scoring depth and wonderful goaltending. These Kings have been so well-coached and disciplined that they allowed simply 2.09 targets per sport over these three postseasons and had a ridiculous 87.2 p.c penalty kill, top-of-the-line marks ever.
A five-game loss within the 2013 Western Convention last to the following staff stands as the one blemish. Should you can name it that.
3. Chicago Blackhawks, 2013-15Â
File: 43-22
Aim differential: 0.43 per sport
Prime gamers: Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Marian Hossa, Corey Crawford
Conn Smythe winners: Kane (2013), Keith (2015)
Stanley Cups: 2013, 2015
If we have been increasing our window right here to 6 seasons as a substitute of three, Chicago would doubtless come out on prime, as their win in 2010 was a part of some of the dominant stretches since these Nineteen Eighties dynasty groups.
In these three seasons, the Blackhawks dispatched of a Boston Bruins staff (2013) that was not far faraway from its personal Cup in 2011 and an up-and-coming younger Tampa Bay Lightning staff (2015) that ended up being a serious contender as their younger stars matured.
Solely the aforementioned 2014 Kings saved Chicago from successful three in a row, which clearly would have shifted them to the highest of this listing.
2. Florida Panthers, 2023-25Â
File: 45-23
Aim differential: 0.62 per sport
Prime gamers: Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Sergei Bobrovsky, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe
Conn Smythe winners: Sam Bennett (2025)
Stanley Cups: 2024, 2025
It began with a plucky eighth-seeded Cinderella staff occurring a run in 2023 however falling quick in Sport 5 of the ultimate towards the Vegas Golden Knights. It ended on Tuesday night time in Dawn with one more Stanley Cup celebration.
One of many foremost storylines of this Panthers staff has been their unimaginable depth yearly, due to constantly good maneuvering by GM Invoice Zito that included airlifting in Seth Jones and Brad Marchand on the 2025 commerce deadline. They each performed starring roles on this 12 months’s win.
“The depth of this staff is outstanding,” Bennett mentioned after being named MVP. “It actually might have went to anybody.”
I got here near placing the Panthers first, given how they restricted McDavid and the Oilers up to now two finals. However that should wait on how they fare a 12 months from now, as there’s one cap-era staff that had a extra spectacular three-season run.
1. Tampa Bay Lightning, 2020-22Â
File: 46-22
Aim differential: 0.65 per sport
Prime gamers: Nikita Kucherov, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Victor Hedman, Steven Stamkos, Brayden Level
Conn Smythe winners: Hedman (2020), Vasilevskiy (2021)
Stanley Cups: 2020, 2021
Perhaps a controversial alternative, however the Lightning are the one different cap-era staff — and solely different staff because the Nineteen Eighties Oilers — to make three finals in a row. And the Lightning have been a powerhouse yearly, pushing a sport nearer to successful three championships in a row than the Panthers did by attending to Sport 6 towards the Colorado Avalanche within the 2022 last.
How we choose the very fact the Lightning gained in unusual pandemic-era seasons — locked in a bubble, taking part in video games at unusual instances of 12 months, and towards odd opponents (the Canadiens?!) — is up for debate. However led by top-of-the-line NHL coaches ever in Jon Cooper and a solid of doubtless future Corridor of Famers, for my part this Tampa Bay staff gained’t be dethroned because the cap period’s greatest till the Panthers make one other deep run.
Which feels solely attainable, given how a lot of their staff is prone to be saved intact subsequent season.
(Prime picture: Mike Carlson / Getty Pictures)
