If you searched for bright spots in the year that was for the NHL , you could find them. We saw a franchise win the Stanley Cup for the first time, immediate impact from another No. 1 pick, the (pending) return of NHL players to the Olympics and the arrival of a new team in a fresh locale.
The hockey world also, though, dealt with the tragic deaths of Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew. Here is a look back at those events and five more of the NHL’s most impactful stories from 2024. GO DEEPER The 10 biggest women's hockey stories of 2024: New league, setting records and making history Panthers win the Cup At various points in the Florida Panthers’ first 30 NHL seasons, a Stanley Cup win seemed to be a pipe dream.
They went 24 years between playoff series victories, after all. Doesn’t get much further than that. Ahead of Game 7 against the Edmonton Oilers , too, it was fair to wonder whether the Panthers had already blown their best shot; choking away a 3-0 series lead shouldn’t inspire much confidence.
GO DEEPER How the Panthers avoided historic collapse to win their first Stanley Cup with 2-1 Game 7 win: 5 takeaways Ultimately, though, the Panthers handled business. Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Reinhart each scored in a 2-1 win, extending the Canadian Cup drought to 31 seasons and (temporarily?) denying Connor McDavid (who still won the Conn Smythe Trophy , despite the loss) from reaching his final form. The win, most of all, was a testament to a profoundly talented .