And then there was one. The Florida Panthers, after taking the long road to it, are the 2024 Stanley Cup Champions after winning game seven of the Finals 2-1. The cat’s season long mission to win it all comes to fruition and with it the curtain comes down on the NHL season. Game seven was a contest befitting of the stage, as the Oilers and Panthers played a fabulous game that will be remembered for a long time to come. It was the type of game that a professional sports league dreams of staging, and it was a privilege to watch. Credit to the Oilers for sending it to a seventh game and setting us up for this moment. They will be back here with McDavid leading the way again. But for now, that doesn’t matter, as the offseason is upon us. No more words can do that game justice or what winning the Cup means, so I’ll let the always poignant Paul Maurice say it for me.

From Russia with Brotherly Love: That’s right, its happening, and well ahead of schedule at that. Matvei Michkov, the 7th overall pick by the Flyers in the 2023 draft, announced on Sunday that he will be leaving SKA St. Petersburg in the KHL in Russia and joining the Flyers next season. The young Russian winger was not expected to join the orange crush for several years, so this move is an encouraging sign for Philly. This past season on loan in the KHL, Michkov put up 41 points (19 goals and 22 assists) in 47 games played, a sign of his level of skill we heard about at the draft. GM Danny Briere can now smile ear to ear about the pick as the Flyers will look to pair the winger with a core of players that nearly made the playoffs a year ago. The question remains however…how excited is Torts?

A Change of Scenery is All They Need: At least that is what the GM’s on both of ends of this trade are saying. This is a deal where both sides are just trying to jettison mistake signings that are hurting their teams pretty badly, though I don’t really see how one in particular is better off. This one for one swap sees the Capitals acquire center Pierre Luc Dubois and the remaining 7 years of his 8.5 million dollar a year cap hit, for goalie Darcy Kuemper and the remaining three years of his 5.25 million dollar a year deal. Let’s start with Kuemper who I could at least plausibly build a case for being useful in LA. The veteran cup winning goalie only has three years left on this current deal, albeit at a higher than reasonable cap hit, but the Kings could potentially get relief on the goalie front, which has plagued them for years. Kuemper has struggled the last two seasons, but more surprising things have happened than him bouncing back.

The far more confusing side is Washington acquiring DuBois, who increasingly feels like a lost cause in this league. The big and talented centerman was acquired by the Kings last summer in a sign and trade deal with the Jets to help bolster an already talented forward core. He didn’t come close in that regard, as he struggled to produce offensively and looked disengaged mentally for much of the year. Moving him just to dump his contract, after trading talented young players like Sean Durzi and Gabe Vilardi, to both open space and acquire him is really distressing if you’re a Kings fan. It’s the end result of a fireable sequence of transactions for LA GM Rob Blake and it may well get Capitals GM Brian McLellan fired, who now has the bulk of his cap tied up in aging legend Alex Ovechkin, Tom Wilson and Dubois. This trade will be one to monitor next season.

Bruins Breakup the Bromance: In the shadow of game seven, we had another trade take place, as the Bruins and Senators hooked up for a bit of a bizarre swap. The Bruins had just one year of control left over netminder Linus Ullmark, so they felt it was time to breakup their stud goalie tandem of Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman. The two have been brilliant but it’s clearly becoming Swayman’s net so the trade to the goalie needy Senators feels like a good opportunity for Ullmark to continue to start in the league. In exchange Boston acquires struggling Senators goalie Joonas Korpisalo, grinder Mark Kastelic and the 25th overall pick in Friday’s draft. Ottawa presumably makes out well here as they didn’t give up much and Ullmark is a big upgrade in net…assuming his well-documented issues with workload don’t come up next year. Meanwhile for Boston the return is disappointing, as they didn’t acquire much of anything to impact the roster now. If there isn’t another trade looming, GM Don Sweeney will have to answer to frustrated Bruins fans unhappy with his work, and Jeremy Swayman for taking away his best friend.

This is the final in season Around the Rink until opening night in the fall. I love doing this series, so I am sad to see it drawing to a close, as we’ll only do a few more to cover the offseason.You can find me on Twitter @YNWA9623 and subscribe to the site by hitting the follow button in the bottom right corner and entering your email address. Check out our Instagram feed @thebroadwaybreakdownsports for special gameday and promotional content. We have also launched a podcast which carries the same name as the Instagram account. Check out our mailbag page to join the conversation here on the site and on our partners show, The Rangers Ed Podcast! Myself and the Ed’s will have Ranger’s offseason content coming your way and another special announcement in our collaboration coming soon. We’ll be back with more soon!