Exactly eight months after the 2024–25 NHL season began with an international series in Prague, Czech Republic, the season will conclude with the Stanley Cup Final starting June 4. In a rematch of last year’s final, the series pits the defending champion Florida Panthers against the Edmonton Oilers, but unlike last year, Edmonton has home-ice advantage.
A Rare Rematch
While this is the 12th rematch in Stanley Cup Final history, many of those happened during the pre-expansion era. The 2025 Stanley Cup Final is just the second rematch over the last 40 years, following the Red Wings and Penguins meeting in 2008–09. The reigning champs are 7–4 all-time in the rematches, which obviously favors the Panthers, but another statistic favors the Oilers.Road Woes, or Road Warriors?
The series will begin in Edmonton, and that could spell trouble for a Panthers franchise that has been historically futile in away arenas in this round. Florida is 1–7 all-time in road games in the Stanley Cup Final, with those defeats coming by an average of 4.9 goals. The Panthers lost the final two away games of last year’s series by a combined score of 13–2, and yet, that history conflicts with what the team has done lately in away environments.No Zach Hyman
Zach Hyman underwent surgery last week for an upper-body injury and will miss the final, robbing Edmonton of the player whose 35 postseason goals since the 2022 NHL playoffs are the second-most in the NHL. Last year, Hyman’s 16 playoff goals were the most in a single postseason in nearly 30 years, and he had two goals and two assists in last year’s final. He also scored three goals across two regular-season games versus Florida, so the committee that coach Kris Knoblauch deploys to replace him will be intriguing.Corey Perry’s Quest
Corey Perry won the Cup in his second season as a 21-year-old with the Ducks in 2007. Now, the 40-year-old is the NHL’s fourth-oldest player and is searching for his second Stanley Cup Final victory, having come so close in the past few years. Perry is on a six-year run during which he’s made five Stanley Cup Finals with four different teams, and he has zero titles to show for it. He lost in the final in 2020 while with the Stars, in 2021 with the Canadiens, in 2022 with the Lightning, and in 2024 with the Oilers. He’s the only player in NHL history to make the final with five different teams, but he just desperately wants that second ring in what’s presumed to be his final NHL season.Connor McDavid Wants More
Five times the leading point scorer and three times the MVP, McDavid added the Conn Smythe to his mantle last year as he became the sixth player in league history to win the Stanley Cup Playoffs MVP trophy while playing for the runner-up. McDavid would gladly trade in that trophy for Lord Stanley this year—it’s the one thing missing from his Hall of Fame resume. In his favor is that other all-time greats, Wayne Gretzky and Sidney Crosby, won their first Cups in final rematches after losing the previous year.Also in his favor is that McDavid leads all postseason players in points (26) and assists (20) in 2025. However, working against him is the success that Florida has had in containing the seven-time All-Star. McDavid was held without a point in three contests of the seven-game series versus Florida last year. Meanwhile, versus all other teams in the postseason, you have to go back 22 games to find three contests in which McDavid was held without a point. So the Panthers’ unique game plan against the game’s best player will likely determine who wins the Stanley Cup Final.
