Former Penguins Rodrigues, Hornqvist now back-to-back Stanley Cup champions

Them rats.

The Stanley Cup was awarded on Tuesday night to the Florida Panthers after delivering a dominant 5-1 win to capture Lord Stanley’s chalice for the second consecutive year.

The Panthers are the first team since the Tampa Bay Lightning (2020 and 2021) to become back-to-back Stanley Cup winners.

There are a few Pittsburgh Penguins connections to the now-back-to-back winners, namely in forward Evan Rodrigues and former Penguin-turned-Panther Patric Hornqvist. In Hornqvist’s case, he’s now a two-time back-to-back (four-time overall) Stanley Cup winner.

Since retiring with the Panthers in 2023, Hornqvist has become a scout and development consultant for the club.

Rodrigues completed his second season in South Florida, again putting up very respectable regular-season totals (82 games played, 15 goals, 17 assists, 32 points) and has become a dependable postseason fixture, too (21 games played, two goals, 15 assists, 17 points and a plus-3).

Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, who suited up for six games in a Penguins sweater during the 2022-23 campaign, also became a repeat champion.

Turning the page

And so the 2024-25 season officially comes to an end with the Stanley Cup staying in Florida and Canada still searching for its first champion since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens.

What more does Connor McDavid have to do to finally put his name on the Cup? Is leaving Edmonton a realistic outcome?

The 2025-26 season is McDavid’s last under his current eight-year, $100,000,000 deal he signed in 2017, making him eligible to sign a new extension this summer.

Minutes after the Stanley Cup was awarded, our own Gretz published “7 Way-Too-Early Free-Agency Landing Spots for Connor McDavid” on Bleacher Report.

While the likeliest outcome is Edmonton retaining its franchise player and the face of the league, the idea of McDavid departing the Oilers remains a possibility until pen meets paper. Those negotiations could be interesting to watch.

The focus now turns to the 2025 NHL Draft, which is just nine days away. The off-season is about to enter full-swing. Let’s ride.