Florida Panthers’ Evan Rodrigues Details Key To Team’s Back-To-Back Stanley Cup Wins

Florida Panthers player Evan Rodrigues celebrates the team’s recent NHL championship by bringing the Stanley Cup and his family to Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Their incredible day at EPCOT included meeting Goofy in his hockey attire, eating maple popcorn, riding fun attractions like Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and taking the Cup all around the park. (Mariah Wild, photographer)

Disney

Florida Panthers winger Evan Rodrigues is a back-to-back Stanley Cup champion.

The 32-year-old veteran signed with the Panthers in 2023 after they made their first Stanley Cup Finals run in this current era. During that season, the Panthers – as an eighth seed – came up short, losing in five games to the Vegas Golden Knights.

However, that was just the beginning of things to come as the Panthers have emerged as the powerhouse in the NHL, winning back-to-back cups as they aim for a third consecutive this upcoming season.

“No, I don’t think you ever expect to win back-to-back cups, no matter what kind of team you have or where you are,” says Rodrigues in a one-on-one interview when asked if ever expected to win back-to-back cups upon signing with Florida.

Rodrigues signed a free agent deal during the 2023 offseason, with the Panthers retaining much of their core from the previous season, including the likes of Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe and Sergei Bobrovsky.

He explains how the mentality from the very beginning of his tenure in Florida was that the Panthers were going to win the Stanley Cup.

“The season went on (the 2023-24 season) and the playoffs went on, and it all made sense,” says Rodrigues. “All of a sudden it was like the mentality of all the guys in the room who had returned from the previous year that lost to Vegas, mentality was, ‘We’re winning it this year. This is it’s our year, it’s our turn, we’re winning it.’ There wasn’t really a question about it. It was just, ‘This is what we’re going to do, and this is how we do it. We’re gonna go do it now.’”

During Rodrigues’ first season with the Panthers, he played a key role immediately, ranking sixth on the team in points and racking up 12 goals to along with 27 assists.

Florida has managed to outplay and defeat a highly-talented Edmonton Oilers team in back-to-back seasons, led by arguably the NHL’s best player in Connor McDavid. McDavid is one of only two players in NHL history unanimously win the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league’s best player.

This time around, the Panthers received a boost when they acquired both Brad Marchand and Seth Jones at the trade deadline, two proven veterans who played a major role in this year’s Stanley Cup, especially considering Tkachuk was playing through a torn adductor injury suffered at the 4-Nations Face-Off.

“It was a little different at first, and then all of a sudden, you saw the results, and it just became normal, it became natural,” says Rodrigues. “The same thing kind of happened the second year. We won it last year and coming into this past year it was like, ‘Okay, this is what we have to do.’ Every new guy that came in, there’d be this one-week adjustment. You can pinpoint exact moments where itclicks for them.

“But every guy that comes in, it’s like, ‘Hey, we don’t do that. You’re doing this.’ It takes less than a week. Every guy’s bought in and if they do this, we’re going to win. It’s worked. That’s kind of now our mentality is, this is what it takes. This is what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it.”

Evan Rodrigues Details Panthers Culture As Key To Their Stanley Cup Success

Rodrigues points to Panthers culture as a big reason for the team’s success. There’s an undeniable camaraderie amongst all the players in the locker room, which is a big reason why the entire core from this most recent Stanley Cup Finals is returning for another one. Marchand, Bennett and Aaron Ekblad all re-signed.

“The way I describe it is, it’s like playing with 20-to-25 of your brothers,” says Rodrigues. “There’s no one in the world that is your biggest fan, but also makes fun of you more than your brother. If you have that, that bond where you tell it how it is, you’re honest with each other, you chirp at each other. But at the end of the day, there’s nothing more you want than for the guy next to you to succeed, and it’s become contagious.”

The Panthers have an assortment of players and battle-tested veterans who have all stepped up in big moments. Whether it’s Tkachuk galvanizing an eighth-seeded team to the Stanley Cup with his grit and leadership, whether it’s Verhaeghe hitting clutch goals, Bobrovsky stepping up during the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals run, Reinhart coming through in close-out games or Bennett winning the Conn Smythe Trophy, the list goes on and on.

Florida has the deepest roster in the NHL and they know it – it’s why all of the guys are returning this season in a bid to become the first three-peat Stanley Cup champions since the early 1980’s Edmonton Oilers.

“When you’re winning, it’s, I’m not going to lie, when you’re winning, it’s a lot easier to do,” says Rodrigues. “It’s a lot easier to root for the guy next to you, because we win as a team, we’re all going to have individual success. It’s a lot easier to join and to build on. That really is what it is, that every guy that comes in buys into it, because you don’t really have a choice.

The “Panthers culture” – which is a play off of “Heat culture” from the Miami Heat – is what has set the tone for what looks to be the NHL’s modern dynasty.

“I’ve learned I came in, I did it with a handful of guys that have come in after me,” says Rodrigues. “It’s been the same way, you come in, you do what you know, what we set out to do, and what our coach tells us to do. If you don’t like it, it’s just not going to work for you. There’s really no choice but to buy in. I think everyone really has a problem with it, because you see the results, and everyone that comes in has played against us and knows how annoying it is to play against us. They want to be a part of that. It’s a great group to be a part of.”

Evan Rodrigues Talks About Celebrating With Stanley Cup At Epcot In Walt Disney World

Rodrigues recently spent his day with the Stanley Cup at Epcot in Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The veteran winger celebrated with his wife, Christina and his kids, Grayson, Noah and Elia.

He says he was lucky enough to have the cup for 14-to-15 hours, detailing that you generally only have the cup for about 12 hours or half a day. That’s partly due to the fact that Panthers general manager Bill Zito celebrated with the cup during the previous day in South Florida while Rodrigues celebrated in Orladno the following day.

“We were over at the Four Seasons in Orlando, and started there, had some family time in the morning, took some pictures, and had a lot of close family and close friends there,” Rodrigues details. “I did a small group this year. After that, went over to Epcot and went around the world a little bit, did some rides, mostly for my kids for the most part. My nieces and nephews were there as well. Just tried to do something unique.

“The first time you win it, everyone does the whole big party,” Rodrigues continues to say. “Wanted to make it a little more tight knit this year. On top of it, wanted to do something that would just stick in my kids’ minds and and just be a good memory.”

Rodrigues says the second cup celebration was different from the first. The first time around, it was a big party and he brought it up to Boston, where he spent his college years.

“Last year, we brought it back to Boston, and I brought it back to where I went to school at Boston University,” says Rodrigues. “We brought it there, did a little boat ride in the Charles River down in Boston, and then had a relatively big party at night just north of Boston. Everything from the celebration to the cup day is all a whirlwind. The first time you win it, it’s almost like planning a wedding.

“After you win, it’s a lot more chaotic I would say, because you don’t know what to expect,” says Rodrigues. “You’re just kind of riding the emotions, riding the wave, and this year, it was a lot more calm in terms of what to expect, what’s coming. You can enjoy it a lot more because you’re not caught up in everything that comes with it.”

The Ontario native says this day with the cup was more enjoyable than the first, but says nothing compares to the first Stanley Cup win.

“I would say this year was a little more enjoyable than it was last year,” says Rodrigues. But the actual thing, the feeling when you know you win your first one is something that you can’t really describe.”

When the topic of possibly winning a third one and celebrating at this time of the year again is brought up, Rodrigues brings out a smile.

“I won’t say no,” Rodrigues answers while laughing.