The Sporting News recently released its list of All-Time Greatest NHL Teams, based on single-season performances, and the 2024-25 Stanley Cup-winning Florida Panthers made the list, coming in at No. 11.
One of the most interesting aspects of the list is that the Panthers actually underperformed compared to previous seasons. For example, en route to their first Stanley Cup in 2023-24, Florida finished atop the Atlantic Division with 52 wins and 110 points.
In 2024-25, the Panthers secured 47 wins and only 98 points, finishing third in the division. Despite winning the Stanley Cup for a second consecutive season, that year’s team compiled the franchise’s third-highest single-season win total and fourth-highest point total.
During the regular season, the Panthers’ leading scorer was Sam Reinhart, who tallied 39 goals and 81 points. Meanwhile, captain Aleksander Barkov was an assist machine, collecting 51 helpers to go along with his 20 goals.
Florida boasted five 20-goal scorers and ten players with at least 30 points. Overall, 17 skaters reached double digits in points and ten in goals. At plus-33, Gustav Forsling had the eighth-best total in the NHL.
In goal, Sergei Bobrovsky went 33-18-2 with a .906 SV% and 2.44 GAA. His win total ranked fifth in the league, with his SV% total coming in fourth. Only three other netminders secured more shutouts than his five, which was a tie alongside Darcy Kuemper and Filip Gustavsson.
The Panthers began their quest to defend their title by taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. They won the first two games before dropping Game 3 and finishing off their cross-state rivals in five games, a repeat of the previous season.
In the next round, they challenged the Toronto Maple Leafs. Down 2-0 to begin the series, Florida won three straight before taking the series in Game 7 on the road with a 6-1 drubbing, thanks in part to career Maple Leafs killer Brad Marchand, who factored into three of the team's six goals.
The Panthers seemed destined to return to the Stanley Cup Final, going up 3-0 in the Eastern Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes, before a loss in Game 4 extended the series an extra game. With a 5-3 win, Florida was back to face the Edmonton Oilers in the repeat of the previous year’s Final.
Unlike the thrilling Game 7 series from a year prior, the teams alternated wins in enemy territory before the Panthers rallied with 5-2 and 5-1 victories in Games 5 and 6 to complete their mission of winning back-to-back titles.
In 2024, Connor McDavid walked off with the Conn Smythe Trophy, but when Florida repeated, they did it thanks to the brilliant performance from Sam Bennett, who led all playoff scorers with 15 goals. He was one of the Panthers' offensive sparkplugs, while also leading the playoffs in penalty minutes with 48.
Interestingly, when the Panthers advanced to the 2023 Stanley Cup Final, the team went 13-8, meeting the Boston Bruins, Maple Leafs, and Hurricanes on the way to losing to the Vegas Golden Knights in five games. During their first championship season, they were 16-8 against the Lightning, Bruins, New York Rangers, and Oilers. In 2024-25, they were 16-7 against regular postseason opponents: the Lightning, Maple Leafs, Hurricanes, and Oilers.
Had Florida not lost to Vegas in the 2023 Final, there’s an argument that that season’s team performed better than the Cup-winning squads, entering the Final with a 12-4 record, compared to the 12-5 and 12-6 teams that followed.
In the end, there’s no denying that the 2024-25 Panthers have a special place in franchise history, and their spot in NHL history is secured because they became only the third team in the salary cap era, 2005-present, to win back-to-back titles. Yet there is ample room for debate over whether that particular season is the best of their three consecutive runs to the Stanley Cup Final between 2023 and 2025.
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