Thoughts on Stanley Cup Final: Panthers' unique roster, McDavid's dominance and more

It is the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers for the Stanley Cup .... when we eventually get to it.

The 2023-24 Stanley Cup Final is set and it will be the Florida Panthers facing the Edmonton Oilers in what should be a fascinating and fantastic matchup of elite, high-end talent and legacy building moments.

Maybe even some narrative busting moments.

Let’s talk about some of it.

1. Florida’s roster has almost no homegrown products — but they hit on the important ones

The Panthers have rapidly become the class of the Eastern Conference with this ongoing three-year run. It started with a Presidents’ Trophy winning season in 2021-22, continued with a Stanley Cup Final appearance a year ago, and is still rolling along this season with a second straight Stanley Cup Final appearance.

They should be entering this year’s Final as the favorite.

But the thing I find most fascinating about how they got here is the way this team was built. There is an extremely limited homegrown feel to it as only three players on the postseason roster (that have actually appeared in a game) were actually drafted by the team.

That group consists of forward Aleksander Barkov (No. 2 overall in 2013), defenseman Aaron Ekblad (No. 1 overall in 2014) and forward Anton Lundell (No. 12 overall in 2020).

And that’s it.

It kind of goes against the grain and modern thinking in the salary cap era that you need to build your team from within. Every other player on the roster was acquired either through trade, free agency or waivers. Some of those trades were bigger than others. They took a massive swing a year ago when they landed Matthew Tkachuk from Calgary, one of the most seismic deals of the past decade. They took a chance on Sam Reinhart when he was a good, but mildly disappointing player in Buffalo by sending goalie prospect Devon Levi and a first-round pick to Buffalo. As soon as they got him into their system and around their talent he ended up being a natural fit and immediately reached all of his potential, eventually culminating in a 57-goal performance in 2023-24.

It was a similar story with Sam Bennett, who was starting to creep into bust territory with the Calgary Flames before arriving in Florida and, just like Reinhart, becoming a perfect fit in their system and within their style of play. He has blossomed with the Panthers and not only become one of the league’s most agitating players, but also an extremely productive, big-game player.

Gustav Forsling, one of their best defensemen — and arguably their best defenseman at the moment — was a waivers claim from Chicago four years ago.

Brandon Montour was something of an afterthought when they acquired him Buffalo at the 2021 deadline and is another player that has suddenly reached his full potential.

It has always been a wildly aggressive front office in building the roster.

But for all of those aggressive moves and overhauls, they still have the one thing internally that almost every Stanley Cup winning team has — top draft picks.

Just about every Stanley Cup Final team — and champion — in the salary cap era (and prior) has at least one, and in some cases two, top-two picks somewhere on their roster that make significant contributions. The Panthers, fortunately, hit home runs with their picks of Barkov (No. 2 in 2013) and Ekblad (No. 1 in 2014). That is especially true with Barkov who is one of the NHL’s elite, most well-rounded two-way players. He scores at a top-line rate and is as good of a defensive forward as you will find anywhere in the NHL, consistently shutting down opponents top forwards and scoring at a 90-point pace per 82 games.

They got the top picks and got the players they needed.

Then they went outside the organization to get what they needed around them.

2. Do not overthink how the Oilers got here — it is all about the superstars