Florida Panthers head coach Paul Maurice kisses the Stanley Cup after a 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the Final at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Fla., on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, securing the NHL championship.
Photo by David Santiago
dsantiago@miamiherald.com
Paul Maurice knew it was coming. During the first television timeout of the Florida Panthers’ home game against the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday night, all eyes would be on him as the team recognized him for a major milestone.
One slight problem: It took a little longer than usual for that timeout to come as the Panthers and Kraken played uninterrupted for nearly nine minutes midway through the frame, blowing through the normal time for the first two built-in breaks to the game. The stoppage whistle finally came with 4:04 left in the period.
“I was hoping we could run that thing right to the intermission,” Maurice said with a chuckle after the game, a 5-4 shootout win.
Maurice isn’t one for the limelight. He doesn’t want the moment to be about him, even on occasions when it should be solely about him.
But that minute-long tribute, as much as it probably pained him to think about, was coming.
And it was a well-deserved minute of honor.
Tuesday was Maurice’s 2,000th game as an NHL head coach. He’s just the second person in league history to accomplish the feat, along with the legendary Scotty Bowman.
The in-arena recognition was brief, flashing through a couple quick moments early in his career before showing him celebrating the two Stanley Cup championships he won the past two years with the Panthers. A slew of more personal tributes from all parts of his hockey life came in a more private setting, with the team putting the highlights (and ones with suitable language) in a 10-minute package on social media.
Maurice stared up at the video board at center ice while the video played, remaining stoic. The crowd gave him a round of applause. He lifted his right hand into the air and mouthed “Thank you” back.
“This place has been great,” Maurice said. “The fans have been great here. I really appreciate the acknowledgement.”
Even if the reality is one Maurice still has trouble accepting as truth sometimes.
His professional hockey career was cut short before it could really begin due to an eye injury before he could make it to the NHL.
He got into coaching at the urging of Jim Rutherford, now the president of hockey operations with the Vancouver Cancuks. He became a head coach in 1995, at age 28 — the second youngest to do so in NHL history. His stops included the Hartford Whalers (1995-97) who then became the Carolina Hurricanes (1997-2004), Toronto Maple Leafs (2006-2008), a second stint in Carolina (2008-2012), the Winnipeg Jets (2013-2021) and now the Panthers (2022-present).
“This has been an incredible experience,” Maurice said. “I do have a pretty good spectrum of emotions in my career: Tensions, pressures, darkness, light, extreme sadness, incredible joy. I do get flashes of it when you allow yourself to. It has been an unusual day. I had not thought about it, was not in the mood to think about it, then I got shown a life reel. God, I was young. I was young and unprepared. I don’t feel as young, but I’d like to think I am far more prepared.”
Maurice was ready to call it a career after he resigned from the Winnipeg job in December 2021. He thought he had accomplished all he would get done in his career even if he was missing some noted milestones.
And then came a phone call from Bill Zito while Maurice was fishing, an urging that he had something left to give to the sport.
Maurice agreed. He became the head coach of the Florida Panthers.
He found a new zeal for the sport he loves. The flame inside him rekindled.
The success came with it. He and Zito overhauled the Panthers and turned them into perennial contenders. Florida reached the Stanley Cup Final each of Maurice’s first three years at the helm, winning it all the past two years.
Even with the struggles that have come this year — Florida has been ravaged by injuries and is all but assuredly going to miss the playoffs this season for the first time under Maurice — he has no plans of slowing down. He signed a contract extension after the first championship. He plans to honor that.
And with that, the record for most games played could eventually become his. Bowman coached 2,141 games. Maurice would hit that mark during the 2027-28 season if he goes that far.
“Life happens to you,” said Maurice, who also ranks third on the NHL’s all-time wins list with 951. “The next thing you know, you have a couple thousand games in. You’ve got a group of guys that you love coming to work with, so you’re not ready [to stop]. I don’t feel like 2,000 is the end of it for me. It wasn’t hang out [in the NHL] until a number. We’re in a tough spot here. We all understand that. But we like our group. We like what we’ve built. I love coming to the rink and I love working here. I love living in Florida, and I love these guys.”
And they love him. They appreciate how he has impacted their careers in a multitude of ways. But don’t take our word for it.
Here’s what they had to say about Maurice:
Defenseman Aaron Ekblad: “A mentor. A coach. He’s a family man. He’s awesome. He’s great to the players. He’s great to us. And his mind for hockey is second to none. So happy for him on 2,000 games. It’s just incredible. Here’s to many more as a player under him.”
Froward Evan Rodrigues: “He always knows what to say and knows what we need when we need it. There are games where we know it’s a big game, and he keeps it short and sweet and keeps it tight and we know what we have to do. And then there are games where the whole room kind of feels down and maybe a little out of it or tired and he comes in with one that makes you want to run through a wall. So he’s really good — not only speeches-wise, but even in meetings and stuff — at knowing what we need. He knows when we need a kick in the ass or when to just let us ride it out and figure it out ourselves. I’m sure that comes with experience, but he’s elite at reading a room.”
Defenseman Niko Mikkola: “He probably knows the game more than anybody else. He sees everything, has great thoughts. He knows the right way to play and all the details. He’s got that under control. And obviously, I feel like it’s been the motivation factor with how he speaks and how he gets the boys going every day. How he makes us feel on the ice and off the ice, like the environment and what we have here, it’s fun. Everybody can be themselves.”
Forward A.J. Greer: “There’s a lot of respect for him around the league and around the locker room definitely. Everyone believes in what he teaches, what he coaches. The biggest thing is his pedigree. It works. People understand what he’s saying. He doesn’t put you in positions to not have success. He’ll always try and do the best for everyone individually. He invites mistakes. And there’s not a patriarchal kind of energy to it. We’re in it as a group, and he motivates the hell out of you. Every night, whether it’s a Tuesday night, a Saturday night, away, home, his speeches and what he preaches, everyone buys in. So everyone loves playing for him. I love playing for him. And I think just the fact that he’s not hypersensitive to mistakes. He wants you to succeed. He wants everyone to have the best times possible.”
Forward Anton Lundell: “His passion for coaching, his passion for the team winning. He shows his respect to the players every day. He’s intense, a hard-working coach that. Every player respects him. He has that aura when he walks in the room the guys feel right away. He has a personality that everybody respects. It can be intense, but he just wants to win so bad, but the way he just drives himself and drive this team, it’s been very fun.”
Forward Eetu Luostarinen: “One of the biggest things was his trust in me, trust in my game and putting me in tough situations. That way I could get that experience, get the ice time and earn his trust. That was probably the biggest thing.”
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Miami Herald
Jordan McPherson covers the Miami Hurricanes and Florida Panthers for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and covered the Gators athletic program for five years before joining the Herald staff in December 2017.