The 2024 Stanley Cup Final begins Saturday (June 8) at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, where the Florida Panthers will host the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of the best-of-seven NHL championship series.
For the Oilers, this is their first appearance in the Stanley Cup Final since 2006 and Edmonton is trying to end a 34-year championship drought.
The last time Edmonton played in the championship series, captain Connor McDavid was just nine years old. The last time the Oilers won the Stanley Cup, coach Kris Knoblauch was the age of 11.
But while it has been a generation since Edmonton has been this close to hockey’s holy grail, the current Oilers lineup features a handful of players with Stanley Cup Final experience.
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These veterans have all joined the Oilers within the last two and a half years. To complement the unmatched talents of McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, general manager Ken Holland has bolstered his roster by bringing in players who know what it takes to get to the championship round. And now, at last, the Oilers are back in the Final, after defeating the Los Angeles Kings in Round 1, the Vancouver Canucks in Round 2, and getting past the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Final.
Here’s a look at the Oilers with championship series experience, and their roles in helping them advance to the 2024 Stanley Cup Final.
Mattias Ekholm
Defenceman Mattias Ekholm was a big part of the Nashville Predators’ Cinderella run to the 2017 Stanley Cup Final. Entering the playoffs as the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference, Nashville upset the Chicago Blackhawks, St. Louis Blues and Anaheim Ducks before ultimately losing the championship series in six games to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
In the 2017 postseason, Ekholm tied for the Predators’ lead with 10 assists, and his plus-6 rating was the highest of any Nashville blueliner.
After spending a decade with the Predators, Ekholm was traded to Edmonton in February 2023. He already has four goals this postseason, tied for fourth most among all defencemen in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
At age 34, Ekholm is one of the oldest players on the Oilers. He was born May 25, 1990, the day after Edmonton last won the Stanley Cup.
Adam Henrique
During his first NHL postseason in 2012, Adam Henrique helped the New Jersey Devils reach the Stanley Cup Final. And he did it by making all kinds of history.
In Round 1 against the Florida Panthers, Henrique became the second NHL rookie to score in overtime of Game 7. In the Eastern Conference Final against the New York Rangers, he became the first NHL rookie to score two series-clinching overtime goals in the same playoff year. And against the Kings in the Stanley Cup Final, he tied the NHL rookie record by scoring his third game-winning goal of the postseason.
Unfortunately for Henrique, New Jersey lost the 2012 championship series to Los Angeles in six games, and over the next 11 years, he would only get back to the playoffs once: as a member of the Anaheim Ducks who were swept by the San Jose Sharks in the first round in 2018. So one can imagine what it meant for the 34-year-old forward when he was traded away from the rebuilding Ducks and acquired by Edmonton on March 6.
Henrique scored six times in 22 regular season games with the Oilers. Early in the playoffs, he suffered a lower-body injury that sidelined the veteran for seven games, but he recently returned to the lineup in Game 3 against the Stars. He has two goals and two assists in 10 games so far this postseason.
Mattias Janmark
The Oilers have never played in a Stanley Cup Final game at Rogers Place, their home for eight years now since moving from Northlands Coliseum. But forward Mattias Janmark has.
During the pandemic in 2020, when Edmonton served as a playoff “bubble” with Rogers Place hosting the Stanley Cup Final, Janmark reached the championship final as a member of the Stars. The Swedish centre had a goal and two assists in the series, as Dallas was defeated by the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games.
Janmark signed with the Oilers in the summer of 2022. He totalled just four goals in the 2023-24 regular season but has scored twice in these playoffs.
He had a monumental goal against his former team in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final, breaking a 2-2 tie by scoring while the Oilers were short-handed. That would prove to be the game-winning goal, launching Edmonton on a streak of three straight victories to eliminate Dallas.
Brett Kulak
Defenceman Brett Kulak was acquired by the Oilers from the Montreal Canadiens at the trade deadline on March 21, 2022. Edmonton dealt William Lagesson, a conditional second-round pick in 2022, and a seventh-round pick in 2024 to the Habs.
In 2021, when the NHL had a shortened 56-game season with realigned divisions because of the pandemic, Kulak was part of Montreal’s unlikely run to the Stanley Cup Final. Montreal beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets and Vegas Golden Knights en route to a match-up with the defending champion Lightning.
Kulak suited up twice in the Stanley Cup Final, including Montreal’s lone win. Tampa defeated the Habs in five games to win its second straight Stanley Cup.
The 30-year-old Kulak has played in all 18 of Edmonton’s games this postseason, logging an average of 16:35 ice time. He has one goal and four assists, and ranks second on the Oilers with 39 blocked shots.
Corey Perry
When he takes to the ice against the Panthers, Corey Perry will become the first player in NHL history to play in the Stanley Cup Final with five different teams: the Ducks in 2007, Dallas in 2020, Montreal in 2021, Tampa Bay in 2022, and now the Oilers in 2024.
Perry had two goals and four assists in five games to help Anaheim defeat Ottawa in the 2007 championship series. In 2020, he had three goals for the Stars when they lost in six games to the Lightning. He scored once in Montreal’s five-game loss to Tampa Bay in 2021. And in 2022, he recorded a goal and two assists as the Lightning were beaten in six games by the Colorado Avalanche. All told, Perry has seven goals and six assists in 22 career Stanley Cup Final games.
That level of experience is one of the big reasons Edmonton signed Perry on Jan. 22, despite the cloud that hung over the veteran forward. Perry became a free agent following the termination of his contract by the Chicago Blackhawks, who said that he engaged in unacceptable conduct.
After an ineffective start to the playoffs, with zero points and a minus-3 rating over Edmonton’s first 10 games, Perry was a healthy scratch for almost two weeks. But with the Oilers trailing in their series against Dallas, Knoblauch called upon Perry for Game 4 of the Western Conference Final, and the 39-year-old responded with his best game of the 2024 postseason, registering an assist in Edmonton’s 5-2 win. He has remained in the lineup for the Oilers, who are 3-0 since his return from the press box.
There is an unfortunate commonality among Ekholm, Henrique, Janmark and Kulak: all four have lost in their only Stanley Cup Final appearance. Add to that Perry, who has been on the losing side of each of his last three trips to the championship series, and this is a quintet of players who are just as driven to hoist the Stanley Cup as Edmonton is eager to host a championship parade.
Maybe it was destiny that brought these five players together here. Or maybe it will all be a cruel twist of fate. The tale will be told as the 2024 Stanley Cup Final unfolds.
