The Florida Panthers secured a third straight Stanley Cup Final appearance on Wednesday night at Lenovo Center with a 5-3 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5. 

As hats were distributed to players and the Prince of Wales Trophy made its way to the ice, five former New Jersey Devils players celebrated on the ice. 

Jesper Boqvist, AJ Greer, Dmitry Kulikov, Tomas Nosek, and Vitek Vanecek are all members of the Panthers and will face either the Edmonton Oilers or Dallas Stars in the Final. 

We know what we came for. pic.twitter.com/16ZbRPID1V

— x - Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) May 29, 2025

BOQVIST: The 26-year-old was selected by the Devils in the second round of the 2017 NHL Draft and played the first 189 games of his professional career in New Jersey. 

After the 2022-23 season, Boqvist was not tendered a qualifying offer to remain in New Jersey, and as a free agent, signed a one-year contract with the Boston Bruins. After spending time in both the AHL and NHL, the Swede was once again not given a qualifying offer. As a free agent, he signed a one-year contract with the Panthers. 

Boqvist appeared in 78 regular-season games in Florida and 11 playoff games. 

GREER: The 6′3″, 209-pound winger spent the majority of time with the Devils organization in the American Hockey League (AHL). He appeared in 69 games for the Binghamton Devils and Utica Comets and only 10 games for the Devils.  

As a free agent, he left the Devils and signed with the Bruins. After a year in Boston, he was claimed off waivers in October 2023 by the Calgary Flames. He left the Stampede City as a free agent and signed with the Panthers on July 1, 2024. 

Since leaving New Jersey, Greer has been able to carve out a role for himself in the NHL, as his final AHL game was with the Comets in May 2022. 

KULIKOV: New Jersey was a quick stop for the defenseman, as he played 38 games with the Devils before he was traded to the Oilers during the 2020-21 season. 

Kulikov won the Stanley Cup with the Panthers last season. 

NOSEK: The veteran signed a one-year contract with the Devils on July 19, 2023. Due to injuries, the 32-year-old was limited to 36 games. As a free agent, he left New Jersey and signed with the Panthers. 

VANECEK: The goaltender was traded to New Jersey in 2022 and traded out of New Jersey in 2024. 

Vanecek started 77 games for the Devils over two seasons. New Jersey eventually traded him to the San Jose Sharks. He was ultimately traded to Florida for Patrick Giles on March 5, 2025. The 29-year-old appeared in seven games for the Panthers and is serving as Sergei Bobrovsky's backup.

The Panthers will now wait to see if they will face the Stars or the Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final. Connor McDavid and the Oilers currently have a  3-1 lead over the Stars. 

Make sure you bookmark THN's New Jersey Devils site for THN's latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more.

The Mental Side of the Game: Devils Players & Mental Skills Coach Andy Swärd Take You Behind the Scenes

Hischier's Manager Patrick Fischer: 'He's Driven to Succeed, but Not Easily Satisfied'

The Florida Panthers are the first team to advance to the fourth round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, doing so by way of a 5-3, come-from-behind victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 of the third round on Wednesday evening.

Falling behind 2-0 through the first 20 minutes, the Panthers fought back with two goals in half a a minute, knotting the game at twos in the middle stanza. Their well-balanced, gritty attack wore down the Hurricanes as the game progressed, helping Florida to its third-straight Stanley Cup Final appearance.

The Panthers will face either the Edmonton Oilers or Dallas Stars in the best-of-seven series set to get underway in mid-June. The Oilers, which hold a 3-1 series lead, are hoping to close out their third round matchup on Thursday night in Dallas. 

Should Edmonton take care of business against the Stars in any of the next three games, the last two clubs standing would face a rematch of the 2024 final, to which Florida beat Edmonton in seven games to win hockey's greatest prize.

Leading the charge on bench is head coach Paul Maurice and assistant Jamie Kompon, who served long stretches in Winnipeg with the Jets.

Having left Winnipeg abruptly in December of 2021, Maurice took the rest of the season off from coaching before agreeing to become the head honcho in Florida in June. 

His time with the Panthers has been nothing short of spectacular. In his first season, Maurice guided the team to the Western Conference championship, ultimately losing the Stanley Cup to Vegas. He brought the team right back last season, beating Edmonton for his first taste out of the mug. And once again this year, Maurice is back in the fold, where he will look to repeat as the NHL's best following the final game of the year. 

He's of course doing so beside longtime friend Kompon, as well as former Jets defenders Nate Schmidt and Dmitry Kulikov - the latter of which won the Cup last season. 

Having spent nine years with the Jets, Maurice managed just one visit to the Western Conference Final (2018) before deciding to take his talents to South Beach in 2022. He currently ranks No. 2 all-time in games coached and career wins, while owning the NHL record for most losses recorded behind the bench. 

Maurice has amassed a 998 career regulation and postseason wins, two shy of 1,000 - a number that just two individuals have ever hit (Scotty Bowman - 1,467 and Joel Quenneville, 1,090). The 58-year-old will look to hit the 1,000-win mark next week in the Stanley Cup Final.  

Jacques Martin, the all-time winningest head coach in Ottawa Senators history, was inducted into the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame on Wednesday, a fitting tribute to the man who helped guide the franchise out of its difficult early years.

Martin stepped behind the bench in 1996, at a time when the Senators were still looking for their first taste of success after four straight last-place finishes. He was the team’s third head coach in four months that season, replacing Dave Allison, who went 2–22–1 after taking over from Rick Bowness. Martin couldn’t turn things around that season, but just a year later, he got them into the playoffs.

Bookmark The Hockey News Ottawa and never miss the latest Senators news, interviews, columns, features and more. 

More Sens Headlines:
Ottawa Senators Open To Re-Signing Adam Gaudette – But At What Cost?
Ottawa Senators Hope To Deal Themselves Another Winner At 21
Former Senators Defenceman Officially Signs On To Play In Switzerland

Over the next nine seasons, Martin turned the team into a consistent contender. He led them to that first playoff appearance in 1997, their first playoff series win, and their first trip to the conference final in 2003. Ottawa finished atop the NHL standings in 2002–03, winning the Presidents’ Trophy, and Martin was honored with the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year.

Despite all the regular-season success, he kept running into the Toronto Maple Leafs in the playoffs. The Senators were eliminated by their provincial rivals four times in five years. Following a seven-game loss to Toronto in the first round of the 2004 playoffs, the organization decided to move on from Martin.

His contributions to hockey began well before his NHL days. Martin played university hockey at St. Lawrence and the University of Ottawa before launching a coaching career that started in junior with the Rockland Nationals and the Hawkesbury Hawks. He later led the Guelph Platers to a Memorial Cup title in 1986.

Why The Kovalchuk Precedent Won't Help The Ottawa Senators Retrieve Their Forfeited First-Round PickIn November 2023, the NHL came down hard on the Ottawa Senators, announcing they would have to forfeit a first-round draft pick due to the mishandling of their July 2021 trade of Evgenii Dadonov to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Martin also served as head coach of the Florida Panthers and Montreal Canadiens, and won two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins as an assistant coach. He was also part of Team Canada’s staff during its gold medal run at the 2002 Winter Olympics, when Canada ended its 50 year gold medal drought.

After the firing of head coach D.J. Smith early in the 2023–24 season, Martin returned as interim head coach to guide the Senators through to the end of the year. When the team hired Travis Green last May, Martin returned to his advisory role with the franchise. But he was pleased to have a final go around as an NHL head coach.

“I've enjoyed it and hopefully (the players) learned something from a standpoint that they can carry over to the next season,” Martin said at the end of last season. “I think we talked a lot about different things, whether it's game management, whether it's handling the highs and lows of a game, the different situations and so on.

“And I talked to them also quite often about what it takes to be in the playoffs and win in the playoffs. So hopefully those lessons or that information will stay.”

Indeed, with the Sens finally making the playoffs this year, it appears some of those lessons stuck.

Martin was inducted alongside former NHL players Fred and John Barrett and the entire Barrett family, former Ottawa Rough Rider Pat Stoqua, former Riders GM Jo-Anne Polak, sportswriter Don Campbell, Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler Erica Wiebe, snooker player Ervin Budge, and the 2012 Ottawa Fury women’s soccer team.

Steve Warne
The Hockey News Ottawa

Bookmark The Hockey News Ottawa and never miss the latest Senators news, interviews, columns, features and more.