Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic put the same question to 22 head coaches and 13 team executives ahead of the new season: who wins the Stanley Cup? The answer came back with a clarity that surprised even him.
Twenty of the 35 people asked, 57.1 percent of the group, picked the Florida Panthers. Colorado was the distant runner-up with six votes, Edmonton got three, and the defending champion Carolina Hurricanes, who return virtually their entire roster, managed just two.
Who is favourite to win the Stanley Cup?
What makes the result striking is that Florida missed the playoffs entirely last season. The coaches pointed to a healthy roster and the same qualities that carried them to consecutive titles in 2024 and 2025.
“I would go with Florida, as long as Jacob Markstrom gets back to his ‘A’ game. Very hard to play against physically and depth to play that way,” one anonymous coach said. “Lots of skill up front and on the blue line. Their true leader, Aleksander Barkov, is back and hungry. They’re very much motivated knowing their window is wide open still.”
READ MORE: How to watch the Florida Panthers in 2026-27
The goaltending is the obvious caveat, and it’s the one LeBrun himself keeps returning to. Florida lost Sergei Bobrovsky to Toronto over the summer and replaced him with Markstrom.
“Like many of the voters, I’m not sure about the Panthers’ goaltending after losing Sergei Bobrovsky. Sure, he stank last year, but so did the depleted team in front of him,” LeBrun wrote. “But to have dominated so overwhelmingly in a leaguewide poll is rather stunning.”
The players agree with their bosses. NHL.com asked 35 prominent NHL players the same question and 15 of them went with Florida, with Carolina next on six. Among those picking the Panthers was Gabriel Landeskog, captain of the Western Conference champion Colorado Avalanche.
Not everyone is convinced. Sean McIndoe of The Athletic placed Florida in his “Your Guess is as Good as Mine” category in his own rankings, noting the uncertainty around the roster after a lost season.
There’s a certain symmetry to how it begins. Florida is the visiting team on Tuesday evening when Carolina raises its championship banner at Lenovo Center, the opening game of ESPN’s season-opening tripleheader.
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