Billion-dollar showdown: Oilers and Panthers clash in Stanley Cup finals rematch
The Stanley Cup finals start Wednesday evening, pitting two billion-dollar teams — the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers — against each other in a best-of-seven series in a rematch of last year's finals, which the Panthers won in seven games.
The Oilers and the Panthers are valued in the billions, with Forbes finding them to be the sixth and 24th most-valuable NHL teams, respectively.
Edmonton heads into the Stanley Cup Final with an estimated value of $2.65 billion, according to the outlet’s yearly ranking of NHL teams released in December.
STANLEY CUP FINAL PREVIEW: OILERS EYE REVENGE, PANTHERS LOOK TO REPEAT
The Oilers saw a 43% jump in their value between 2023 and 2024, Forbes reported.
Meanwhile, the value of the Panthers, the reigning Stanley Cup champions, experienced an 81% increase in value, hitting $1.4 billion, per the outlet.
The first and second games of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final will be played in Edmonton, due to the Oilers having a better record in the regular season.
If the Panthers win this year’s Stanley Cup Final, it would mark their second-ever championship title and their second in a row. A win for the Oilers would be Edmonton's sixth time lifting the Cup in the team’s history, with the Oilers having last won it in 1990, which was their first and only Stanley Cup championship without NHL legend Wayne Gretzky.
The Stanley Cup, which players traditionally hoist after winning the Final, weighs over 34 pounds.