The Florida Panthers are repeat Stanley Cup champions, the Edmonton Oilers repeat runners-up. Clearly the two best teams in the NHL over the past couple of seasons, both have every reason to be optimistic that they can run it back and meet again in the 2026 Final.
Florida has a core of great players under contract and a system that relentlessly wears down opponents. Edmonton has two of the best players in the world.
But before then, it’s time for the front offices to get to work. The next few weeks are crucial as free agency hits and the trade market opens again.
Both Edmonton and Florida face interesting summers, whether it’s dealing with huge extensions that will shape the organizational cap outlook for years, roster decisions on who to keep and lose, or which positions to re-shape entirely.
Yes, we’ve explored the off-season questions facing every other team in the league, from those that didn’t make it to the playoffs, to the ones eliminated after Rounds 1, 2 and 3. And, no, reaching the Cup Final or winning it does not mean you escape tough choices through the summer.
So, with the 2025 Stanley Cup handed out, let’s take a closer look at what the front offices for the Panthers and Oilers will be asking themselves this off-season.
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Florida Panthers: How many players can they keep?
Winning the Stanley Cup in the cap era means that you’re likely to lose some important players from the roster that very summer. After the Panthers won in 2024, they weren’t able to keep UFAs Brandon Montour or Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who were key players during the run. Backup goalie Anthony Stolarz, who made one appearance in the final, also departed and emerged this season as an excellent stopper for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
This off-season could be even more costly for the Panthers.
In all, Florida has eight pending UFAs, one RFA and $19 million in cap space with 10 forwards, five defencemen and one goalie accounted for. Three UFAs in particular pique our interest and, surely, will be top targets for rival GMs should they hit the market on July 1.
Sam Bennett won the Conn Smythe Trophy with 15 goals, and it’s believed he was already offered a Carter Verhaeghe sort of contract, which has a $7 million AAV. But after three stellar playoff performances in a row, how much could he get on the open market? Bennett is more or less a 20-25-goal and 50-point regular season player, but is someone who gets you through the playoffs. Could he get $10 million from a team looking for that type of energy?
Brad Marchand was the close runner-up to Bennett in the Conn Smythe voting and turned back the clock with a six-goal showing in the Stanley Cup Final. “That guy is the biggest dawg I have ever played with,” Bennett said of Marchand. Now 37 years old, the future Hall of Famer could chase at least one more lucrative contract on the open market and, like Bennett, is going to be an appealing target for anyone seeking playoff zest. Marchand, too, could be looking at $8 million or more this summer.
And Aaron Ekblad, Florida’s leading scorer from the back end, is facing his own tough decision after 11 years with the Panthers. The first-overall pick from 2014, Ekblad has long been the Panthers’ No. 1 defenceman but was eclipsed in even-strength ice time by both Gustav Forsling and Seth Jones in these playoffs, two blueliners under contract. Jones’ acquisition at the deadline certainly gave the team some insulation in case Ekblad decides to leave because they both shoot the same way and play the same side of the ice.
In all likelihood, the Panthers should be able to keep at least one of these players and it makes sense for Bennett to be the primary target. It would be a treat to be able to keep two of them. But retaining all three would require some neat work by GM Bill Zito and probably some help from the players themselves to fit inside a salary structure.
Edmonton Oilers: Do they think they can run it back with the same goalies?
Even if you think Edmonton’s defence needed to do more in front of Stuart Skinner, the fact is the team didn’t get enough stops and had to turn to its backup goalie a few times during its playoff run, including in the Cup Final itself. Skinner finished the playoffs with a .500 record (7-7) and an .889 save percentage. It’s the second year in a row that his playoff performance was inconsistent to shaky and forced Edmonton to turn to its No. 2.
So, how does management prioritize the position on the summer’s to-do list?
There are two other mammoth contracts to sort. Connor McDavid will be eligible to extend his contract as of July 1, and the longer he goes unsigned, the more uneasy Oilers fans will get. Evan Bouchard is an RFA set to land a deal that will eat up a huge chunk — if not all — of the Oilers’ $11.962 million in cap space.
Skinner ($2.6 million) and Calvin Pickard ($1 million) both have one more year left on their contracts, so it’s feasible for Edmonton to run it back and save money at the position. After all, Skinner has backstopped the team to consecutive finals and been great at times in both — he shut out Vegas in the last two games of Round 2 and held Dallas to two goals from Games 2-4 in the West Final.
But if the lesson Edmonton takes away from this latest loss is that they need a more proven, stable starter in net, then the Oilers will have to explore the market in creative ways. There are no stud goalies on the free agent market. In trade rumours, the Ducks’ John Gibson may be the biggest name out there, but he’s had injury issues, turns 32 this summer, and hasn’t played a post-season game since 2018.
So while the idea of seeking out a new starter might sound nice to some, actually finding that player will not be easy. The Panthers signed Sergei Bobrovsky to a $10-million AAV contract when he was a UFA and that deal was frowned upon for quite some time. The Oilers don’t have that kind of obvious big-ticket target in front of them, but this might be one of their greatest challenges to face over the summer.
Keep Skinner and find an upgrade support goalie to share the net with him? Or try to replace Skinner altogether with a new primary starter?
