Florida Panthers will not three-repeat as Stanley Cup champions
The Panthers' quest for a three-peat are gone - they will not make the playoffs for the first time in seven years - and there will be a new Stanley Cup champion.
The Florida Panthers officially are out of the NHL playoffs. Back-to-back losses to the Pittsburgh Penguins over the weekend put the final nails in a coffin that had been waiting in the wings for the last two months. Thus, the Panthers' quest for a three-peat are gone and there will be a new Stanley Cup champion .
It was a season that went off the rails early with Aleksander Barkov suffering what turned into a season-ending knee injury on the first day of training camp. But there were other factors involved in seeing Florida's season end well before June and out of the playoffs for the first time in seven years. Here are four reasons why the Florida Panthers will not have a Stanley Cup 3-peat.
More hockey: US men's hockey gold: From ice to Trump's political stage | Habib Sasha Barkov has reconstructive knee surgery prior to season Barkov , who underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL and torn MCL in his right knee following a non-contact injury on Sept. 25, missed the entire 2025-26 NHL season. He had been given a 7-to-9-month timeline to return to the ice after the reconstructive surgery - which would have been either right before the playoffs or during the playoffs.
With no playoffs, the team shut him down even though he had been practicing on the ice since January. You can't lose your captain and star player for the season and not feel the effect. Matthew Tkachuk also missed first 3 months of the season Besides Barkov, the Panthers also lost left winger Matthew Tkachuk until mid-January.