With the Florida Panthers winning the Stanley Cup once again, it sparks the question, “Are the Panthers the new powerhouse of hockey? Before we get into if the Panthers qualify, let’s talk about the previous powerhouses in the league and what even is a powerhouse.

The term powerhouse means having lots of power and mainly dominating. An example of a powerhouse in other sports would be the New England Patriots, in American football in the mid 2000’s. They not only won, but made several Superbowl appearances. An example in Major League Baseball, would be the New York Yankees dominating during 1923 to 1978 and having the most titles in MLB history. The last one for Basketball, is the Chicago Bulls powerhouse by winning six NBA championships in eight years. Overall, a sports team powerhouse is when one team wins several championships usually within ten years.

Now let’s talk about hockey’s previous powerhouses, but first let’s get the Montreal Canadians and the Toronto Maples out of the way because they dominated the NHL in its early days. The Canadians had won 21 Stanley Cups from 1930 to 1979 (anything before the 1925/26 season does not count due to the NHL not having control of the competition). Then the Toronto Maple Leafs had won eleven Stanley cups since 1932 to 1967.

Now on to our next powerhouse, the New York Islanders. They had a pretty dominant couple of years in the 80’s winning FOUR Stanley Cups all in a row. Only being done once by another team, the Montreal Canadians of course. The most recent powerhouse is the Chicago Black hawks from 2010 to 2015. They won three Stanley Cups during that time by being led from superstars such as Corey Crawford, Patrick Kane and the Captain Jonathan Toews.

Now onto the main question. The Florida Panthers clawed their way to the Finals during the 2023 season to finally make their first stanley cup appearance in over twenty years. But ultimately, got blown out by the Vegas Golden Knights in five games. A key part of this final was that this was the Golden Knights chance to avenge their performance in their 2018 Stanley cup loss. Now onto the 2024 season for Panthers. They made it to the finals again but with a chip on their shoulder due to their prior experience in the finals. After six competitive games straight the Panthers took a game seven win for their first ever Stanley Cup in franchise history. A key part of this performance was their superstars such as Matthew Tkachuk and Sergei Bobrovsky taking charge and leading the team. Continuing into the 2025 season the Florida Panthers stormed back to the finals with new players on the team to help not only win, but dominate over the Edmonton Oilers.

With all of this I consider the Panthers the newest powerhouse of hockey. They’ve brought home Lord Stanley two times out of three appearances. I believe that the Florida Panthers have more Stanley Cup victories in them due to great coaching, signings, captains and really great chemistry. With that being said, I believe the Florida Panthers are the newest powerhouse of hockey.