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By Ryan Kennedy
When it comes to Stanley Cup stories, it’s tough to beat Seth Jones’ introduction to the final. The year was 2001, and a legend was about to receive the trophy he had always wanted.
“I was at Game 7 when the Avs won,” Jones said. “Sakic passing the Cup to Ray Bourque – there aren’t a lot of moments more special than that in this league. I was there with my family. I was six years old, so that was really the turning point not only for me but a lot of kids in Colorado in the youth hockey market there.”
Joe Sakic, of course, is literally the reason Jones got into hockey in the first place. To tell a well-worn story, Seth’s dad, Popeye Jones, approached Sakic when both were in Denver, Sakic as the captain of the Avalanche and Popeye with the NBA’s Denver Nuggets. One day, in the weight room at what was then the Pepsi Center, Popeye asked Sakic for advice on getting his three boys into hockey. The kids were into it, but Popeye was much more familiar with hoops. Seeing the size of their dad, Sakic told him to get the lads into skating lessons first, and the rest is history: both Seth and Caleb eventually became NHLers (oldest brother Justin played college hockey at Div. III Salve Regina).
Now, Seth is a Stanley Cup champion himself, helping the Florida Panthers win for the second straight year. It was a long road for the big and talented defenseman, but perhaps that’s what made it especially sweet for him after a dozen seasons in the NHL.
In an alternate universe, Sakic becomes Seth Jones' boss. After all, the Avalanche had the first-overall draft selection in 2013, and Jones was one of the best prospects available. Sakic was a senior advisor with the franchise at the time and a couple of years later became the GM. As the history books indicate, however, the Avalanche ended up taking center (and Jones’ pal) Nathan MacKinnon with that pick, and you really can’t fault them. MacKinnon brought the Cup back to Denver in 2022 and has won the Calder, Lady Byng and Hart Trophies, not to mention the Ted Lindsay Award, during his tenure in Colorado. Jones ended up going fourth overall to the Nashville Predators, and while it took a little longer, he too has become an NHL champion.
The past few years had been particularly trying for Jones. Before being dealt to the Panthers at the trade deadline, he’d been playing for a Chicago Blackhawks organization that ended up being much different from the one he thought he’d signed up to play for after a trade with Columbus in the summer of 2021. Those Hawks still had Patrick Kane, Alex DeBrincat and, after missing one season due to Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, Jonathan Toews. Dylan Strome and Brandon Hagel were also there, just getting their soon-to-be excellent careers started.
By the fall of 2023, however, all those players except Jones were gone. The Hawks had already become a doormat – so bad that they had earned the right to draft center Connor Bedard first overall that summer. For the first time since Kane and Toews were pups, Chicago was rebuilding. For a veteran blueliner such as Jones, it was a tough fit. He had yet to make a long playoff run in his first decade in the NHL, and by February of this season, the frustration was boiling over.
After a 2-1 loss to Utah, he vented to the media, stating his team was no better than they were at the start of the season and that they hadn’t made any strides to improve. Days later, Jones was on his way to the Panthers in a trade that saw Florida send a promising young goalie in Spencer Knight the other way, plus a conditional first-round draft pick.
“They put development first, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but being there for four years as an older guy is tough,” Jones said. “It weighs a lot on you. I was losing my hair for a bit there. But listen, I wasn’t playing the greatest hockey either. I’ll be the first to admit that. I’m happy for the change, and I feel like I’ve found a little bit of new life.”
Indeed he did. With Aaron Ekblad starting a 20-game suspension for a failed drug test, the Panthers needed someone to fill minutes, and Jones was a perfect fit.
“Yes, and a righty, which we needed,” Ekblad said. “He is incredible, and I remember being giddy when we got him. He’s so good, and he’s a friend – I played with him on Team North America (at the World Cup of Hockey in 2016). He’s a good person and a guy we knew would fit well. He’s everything we needed.”
In 21 regular-season games with Florida, Jones averaged nearly 25 minutes of ice time, all while still getting adjusted to his new team, which also happened to be battling a spate of injuries at the time.
“He’s been great,” said left winger Carter Verhaeghe. “He’s so big, with such a long reach and so good defensively. It took him some time to get used to our system, but you see the talent now. He makes so much of an impact on the ice offensively and defensively. He plays so many minutes, and they’re always good minutes. He pushes the pace.”
Structurally, Florida’s game plan was night and day from Chicago’s. “On the ice, it definitely took a couple of weeks,” Jones said. “It was really a 180 of a system from where I came from. The ‘D’ are forced to be aggressive in the system, or it doesn’t work. The gap control is key and something I really had to focus on my first couple of weeks.”
Having said that, Jones was having a ball. For the first time in years, he was playing on a team that had expectations, both internal and external. These were the defending Stanley Cup champions, the acolytes of coach Paul Maurice.
“The first day I came in, talking to Paul and walking around the room on a practice day, you could just feel something different,” Jones said. “Everyone understands their task every day, has a goal every day, and everyone is working toward something bigger than just the regular season or an individual game. Them being in the final the past two years, they understood what it took to get back here and what it takes to win. It’s special being in that environment.”
It would’ve been easy to discount the defending champs down the stretch this season. The injuries were concerning, plus the Cats had played a ton of hockey the past few years, going to the final in 2023, then winning the franchise’s first Stanley Cup last season. Three straight runs with largely the same cast? And playing in a division where they would have to play Tampa Bay and Toronto just to get to the conference final? Well, yes. A challenge to be sure, but perhaps not as daunting as it appeared to be.
True, most of the Panthers had played a lot of hockey, but the moves made by GM Bill Zito before the deadline made the team even better than it had been last season. Along with Jones, a legitimate top-pair defenseman joining an already strong defensive team, the Panthers also shocked the hockey world by acquiring Boston captain Brad Marchand. The same Marchand who had won a Cup with the Bruins, two world juniors, a QMJHL title and World Championship gold, not to mention the recent 4 Nations Face-Off with Team Canada. And in Florida, Marchand didn’t even have to play the hero. He was slotted onto a third line with Anton Lundell and Eetu Luostarinen that gave teams absolute fits in the post-season.
Marchand, 37, etched his name into the history books before the final was even over by scoring in the first three games, making him the oldest player ever to accomplish such a feat.
“You want to have the best team possible, and those deals we made at the deadline, everybody brings something to the table,” said defenseman Niko Mikkola. “They’re great guys on the ice and off the ice. It brings new life to the room.”
Few players in the NHL bring as much life to a room as Marchand, in fact. For a guy who had pitched battles with the Panthers when he played in Boston, Marchand fit in seamlessly, even adding a new twist to a 30-year-old tradition in Florida. After fans had littered the ice with plastic rats following a win at home, some of the Panthers would shoot those rats at Marchand, who’d comically feign injury with every direct hit. There was also the preoccupation with ice cream and Dairy Queen runs that became part of the 2025 Cup run fable.
“As soon as he got traded here, he chirped me in the group chat instantly for our history in the last playoffs,” said Sam Bennett. “I truly don’t think we win a Stanley Cup without him. His leadership and will to win is inspiring. I told him before every game, ‘We’re going to follow you.’ And we did. He was a dawg every night. He’s a better player and person than I ever knew, and I’m grateful I got to play with him.”
For Marchand, who’d previously won the Cup with the Bruins way back in 2011, the feeling was mutual. “Once you become part of a group and get into these environments, you create such an incredible bond,” he said. “They already had an unbelievable culture that us new guys could come into and buy in, to embrace it. It made it very easy. It was definitely weird coming in initially, but they made it easy.”
Getting big performances from both Jones and Marchand was crucial to Florida’s repeat and well worth what their GM had to give up to get them.
“They came as advertised, both of them,” Zito said. “Now, I had the luxury of being with Seth in Columbus (Zito was assistant GM with the Blue Jackets), knowing what he could do, knowing him as a person, knowing first-hand how he would fit into our room and comport himself. With Brad, the whole (press) room knows. There’s no secret of what he is as a player and competitor. Getting to know him more as a human, he’s more special on that front. From that standpoint, yeah, it was really pleasant. Frosting on the cake.”
Speaking of Columbus, that’s really where Jones came into his own as an NHLer. Although he spent his first two-and-a-half seasons in Nashville with the Predators, that was a team in transition. They missed the playoffs in Jones’ rookie campaign but started on the ascent in his sophomore season. Jones was part of a monster blueline featuring Shea Weber, Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm, and Nashville had franchise icon Pekka Rinne in net. The Preds made the playoffs but lost in the first round. The next year, Nashville and Columbus pulled off a blockbuster trade when the Predators, in need of more skill up front, dealt Jones to the Blue Jackets for center Ryan Johansen. Things got even more surreal when Jones and Johansen literally passed each other in the airport en route to their new cities, stopping for a brief and friendly chat.
In Columbus, Jones was part of one of the biggest upsets in NHL history when he and the Blue Jackets not only beat the Presidents’ Trophy winners from Tampa Bay but swept them in the first round.
“It was one of the weirdest, biggest upsets considering what Tampa did that year,” Jones said. “We just played a good four games against them. But we kind of created a monster, because they learned to win after that.”
Indeed, the Bolts ended up going to the Cup final three years in a row after that setback, winning twice, and their dominance over the Eastern Conference only ended when the Panthers took over. Funnily enough, the goalie who knocked them out back in Columbus was Sergei Bobrovsky, who’s also been the man between the pipes for all three Florida runs. The veteran goalie already knew what Jones was capable of thanks to their days together in Columbus, so he was happy to be reunited in Florida.
“He’s been excellent,” Bobrovsky said. “When he came into Columbus as a young player, he was excellent. I enjoyed playing with him. He’s a very reliable ‘D,’ and I was so happy and excited when he joined us this year. He’s a pro on and off the ice. Everybody loves him. He’s a great guy.”
Having familiarity with Bobrovsky also meant that Jones had confidence in the situation he was entering when he joined the Panthers.
“He’s the same ‘Bob,’ ” he said. “I know I haven’t played with a guy who has better preparation day in and day out. He knows exactly where he’s at physically and mentally to be the best he can be. We’re blessed to play in front of him, and we have complete trust when he’s in the net.”
For the other members of the Panthers, they were similarly happy to see Jones on their side of the ice after years of playing against him. “It’s not fun,” Bennett said. “He’s big. He skates well. He moves the puck well. Trying to get by him is really difficult with his long reach and his big stick. It was definitely always difficult playing against him, and now that he’s on our team, he seems to have elevated his game even more.”
In the Cup final, the Oilers found out that lesson the hard way. It took a team effort in Florida to minimize the contributions of Edmonton superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and Jones did his part. In 45 minutes of 5-on-5 play during the series, the Panthers outscored the Oilers 4-1 when McDavid and Jones were both on the ice and 4-3 in the 46 minutes when it was Jones and Draisaitl.
And just like he did in his regular-season games with Florida, Jones was a minute-muncher for the Panthers. In the end, he led the playoffs in ice time, playing more than 586 minutes, including nearly an hour of shorthanded shifts and half an hour of overtime duty. Jones averaged 25:30 overall, putting him third behind Edmonton’s Evan Bouchard and Dallas’ Thomas Harley among those who played at least 15 playoff games. He also popped in four goals and nine points.
“This guy is a Norris Trophy candidate all day long,” Maurice said. “He’s just special. It was the perfect environment for him. The camera’s not on him all the time. And I’m not disrespecting his other organizations. They were just on a different curve. Those elite guys on those teams carry a lot of pressure. He can walk into the room, and his partner is Niko Mikkola? We’re gonna be OK here. Just play, and enjoy it. We’re just starting to see how good he is.”
As the Panthers try for a dynasty with a fourth straight appearance in the final next season, Jones will play just as big a role, if not bigger.
Even with all the reasons players have to stay in Florida, that pesky salary cap could force some difficult decisions for management and the potential free agents themselves. Bennett, coming off the Conn Smythe Trophy and a league-leading 15 goals in the playoffs, is due for a big-time payday (maybe not the eight-figure numbers being thrown around on the internet, but then again, if a team is desperate, maybe so), while Marchand and Ekblad also need new pacts. With only $19 million available under the cap, Zito and his team have a challenge on their hands. But with Jones and Mikkola as a pair and Gustav Forsling still under contract, that back end is still going to be pretty stout no matter what happens to veterans Ekblad and Nate Schmidt.
Of course, nobody wants to talk salary cap at a time like this, so let’s go all the way back to the beginning, with Jones getting his own Ray Bourque moment as he finally got to lift the Cup after so many years in the NHL.
On the ice in the wake of Florida’s clinching 5-1 victory over Edmonton in Game 6, surrounded by reporters, cameras, friends, family and teammates (and plastic rats, so many plastic rats), Jones had an almost euphoric stare about him as he soaked it all in. He was the third member of the team to hoist the chalice, as captain Aleksander Barkov went to Schmidt first, who then passed it off to Jones.
The Panthers, many of whom had already won the Stanley Cup, made sure that players who had never gotten the chance before were the first to get this one. Even depth guys like Jaycob Megna and Evan Cormier went ahead of Tkachuk and Bennett, which became a point of pride for their coach in post-game festivities.
So what was it like going from watching Bourque get his first (and only) Cup to becoming the guy who got his first after a lot of ups and downs?
“Yeah, it’s what you dream about every day when you’re a kid, right?” said Jones, 30. “You want to have a chance to play for a Stanley Cup, and I can’t praise this organization enough. The players here, everyone loves each other. Everyone wants the best for each other, and that’s the only way this thing works.”
Perhaps somewhere in the stands of Amerant Bank Arena that night, there was a little kid with big hockey dreams who saw Jones lift the Cup and began to think about what it’d be like to live out those same aspirations two decades from now. If that kid turns out to be 6-foot-4 with great wheels and a solid two-way game, then perhaps history will repeat itself once again.
