Panthers' Paul Maurice Joins Elite Company with Cup Win

The Journeyman

Since breaking into the NHL as a bench boss, Maurice has coached for five teams (if you include the Hartford Whalers). Those teams and the number of seasons he coached for each of those teams are as follows: Hartford Whalers (two years), Carolina Hurricanes (seven years), Toronto Maple Leafs (two years), back with Hurricanes (four years), Winnipeg Jets (nine years), and now Florida Panthers (three years).

So far, that concludes a 27-year journey for Maurice, who is just finding real success with undoubtedly the best team he's led. It's probably been a pleasure for the 58-year-old Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, native to coach some of the league's best in Aleksander Barkov, who just became a three-time Selke Trophy winner, 50-goal scorer Sam Reinhart, and two-time Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky among the other exceptionally talented Panthers.

For a change, Maurice finally coaches a group of players that can deliver in the playoffs, which hasn't always been the case in his coaching career.

Before being hired as Florida's head coach back in June of 2022, Maurice had only reached the Finals once in his previous 24 seasons behind a bench, and it's one of the reasons why he's bounced around from team to team.

During Maurice's two stints with the Hurricanes, he coached the team to four playoff appearances in 11 seasons, one of which was his lone Cup Final appearance, before joining the Panthers. Eventually, then Hurricanes general manager, Jim Rutherford, grew impatient with his team's lack of success under Maurice and fired him for Kirk Muller.

Between his first and second stints with the Canes, Maurice coached the Leafs for two seasons before being let go for coaching another team to underwhelming seasons. His lack of playoff success would resurface during his time as Winnipeg's head coach, as the Jets played 39 playoff games under him, none of which were in the Finals. To this day, Maurice's days in Winnipeg were his darkest because, from a roster standpoint, it was top-to-bottom the most talented group he had ever called the shots to. For Maurice, Winnipeg was Carolina and Toronto all over again, and he decided to end it on his behalf this time.

"They need a new voice. They need somebody to help them get to that next place…. It's the right time for it, and I know that." said Maurice about his reasoning for stepping down as Winnipeg's head coach, per NHL.com. 

It's at this point that Maurice is starting to gain a reputation around the league for coaching good teams and not great ones. He had talent to work with, but that talent just couldn't make it work in late April. 

That is until he signed with the Panthers, where things have obviously taken a 180 from a coach who had little to no success in the playoffs to coaching a team to three consecutive Final appearances and back-to-back Stanley Cups.

But what's interesting when you look back at Maurice's first season with the Panthers is that his playoff ghosts almost crept back in.

During the 2022-23 season, the Panthers faced the Boston Bruins in the first round, who had set an NHL record for most wins in a single season. Florida would upset the Presidents Trophy winners by coming back from an improbable 3-1 series deficit.

What's amazing about that Cup run is how they clinched the Eastern Conference's 8th seed. The only reason they were able to meet the Bruins in the first round was due to the Buffalo Sabres losing to the New Jersey Devils and the Pittsburgh Penguins losing to the Chicago Blackhawks, who were at the time the third-worst team in the league.

So, to think Maurice was a Penguins win over the low-standing Blackhawks away from repeating his playoff shortcomings and potentially getting in the way of coaching a repeating Cup winner, and now sharing a coaching title with one of the greatest NHL coaches of all time, is remarkable.