When the Florida Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on Tuesday, they became the fourth team in the past 30 years to win back-to-back Cup titles.
They joined the Detroit Red Wings (1997, ’98), Pittsburgh Penguins (2016, ’17) and Tampa Bay Lightning (2020, ’21) as repeat champs in that span.
But which one stands above the rest? That’s the question we asked a panel of NHL.com writers and editors. Here are their responses:
Detroit Red Wings
This really isn’t a fair fight. The Panthers, Lightning and Penguins played in the NHL salary cap era. The Red Wings didn’t. You could argue playing in the cap era made it tougher because of parity. But if you’re asking which team is best, straight up, it’s Detroit. Florida, Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh each will have its share of Hockey Hall of Famers, but Detroit could stack its roster in a way the others couldn’t. Look at the list of Hall of Famers who played for the Red Wings then: Sergei Fedorov, Viacheslav Fetisov, Igor Larionov, Nicklas Lidstrom, Larry Murphy, Brendan Shanahan, Mike Vernon and Steve Yzerman. Vladimir Konstantinov might have made the Hall too if not for the limousine accident that ended his career after the 1997 victory. The Red Wings were coached by the greatest coach in NHL history, Scotty Bowman, who was already in the Hall of Fame at the time. They also had legendary role players on the “Grind Line”: Kris Draper, Joey Kocur, Kirk Maltby, Darren McCarty. It’s no coincidence that the last team to sweep the Cup Final was the 1998 Red Wings, who did it against the Washington Capitals. The last team before that? The 1997 Red Wings, who did it against the Philadelphia Flyers. -- Nicholas J. Cotsonika, columnist
Fedorov. Yzerman. Lidstrom. Shanahan. Murphy. Larionov. Fetisov. They're all in the Hockey Hall of Fame. They all played at least 40 games across the Red Wings' back-to-back Stanley Cup runs. Mike Vernon is in the Hall of Fame. He was Detroit's goalie in 1997. Chris Osgood could be and maybe should be a Hall of Famer. He was the Red Wings' goalie in 1998. Scotty Bowman was the coach. He's the greatest coach of all time. The Panthers aren't far off, but they don't quite equal what the Red Wings had in those years. An argument for the Panthers is they had to defeat the same team twice in the Stanley Cup Final. It's legit, especially when you consider that team, the Edmonton Oilers, has the game's best player in Connor McDavid and another top-five player in Leon Draisaitl. But to get to the Stanley Cup Final the Red Wings had to knock off the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche in 1997 in the Western Conference Final. That team had Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy. In 1998, they got past the Dallas Stars in the conference final. That team had Mike Modano, Sergei Zubov and Ed Belfour. It won the Stanley Cup in 1999. I could argue the Avalanche and Stars of those years were better than the Oilers of the past two seasons. It's a different era and game, and the fact that it's way closer than I ever thought it could be is a testament to Florida's greatness. But it's Detroit. -- Dan Rosen, senior writer