The 2024 Stanley Cup Final is set between the Florida Panthers and the Edmonton Oilers. Last season the Panthers ended their playoff run three games short of Lord Stanley’s Cup. And this trip marks the fifth time in a row a Florida based team has won the Eastern Conference Championship. While the Oilers had a slow start to the season going 2-5-1 through the month of October followed by a 7-7-0 run through November. The Oilers stormed through the standing in the second half of the season to finish second in the Pacific Division. This included a 16 game winning streak from December 21st to February 6th, the second longest winning streak in league history.
This season’s Stanley Cup matchup has five former Flyers playing. These include Sam Ganger, and Calvin Pickard from the Oilers and Nick Cousins, Anthony Stolarz, and Sergei Bobrovsky from the Panthers. Ganger, a forward, has not played a playoff game yet this year spent. He spent one season with the Flyers in 2016 playing 53 games and recording 16 points. While goaltender Pickard played 11 games for the Flyers in the 2019 season. During that year the Flyers used 8 goalies due to due to injures and the depth they had at the position. While on the Panthers side forward Nick Cousins started his career in Philadelphia spending three seasons with the team. Since arriving in Florida Cousins has solidified himself as a solid bottom six forward for the organization. Both ends of the Panthers goalie tandem started their career in Philadelphia. Bobrovsky spent the first two season of his career in Philadelphia before moving on the Columbus and Florida. While Stolarz spent five seasons in the Flyers organization spending time in Philadelphia, Allentown, and Reading. After battling injuries Stolarz moved on to Edmonton and Anaheim before ending up in South Florida. Either way at least two former Flyers will win the Stanley Cup this season.
One thing to consider is how the last fifteen season Flyers would have been different if the team would held on to at least one of their goaltender prospects. These include both Anthony Stolarz and Sergei Bobrovsky from the Panthers as well as Alex Lyon from the Red Wings.
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