Brandon Montour Left Undeniable Legacy on Stanley Cup Champion Panthers

Brandon Montour left an indelible mark on the 2024 Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, both on the ice and in the locker room.

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The Florida Panthers locker room has been a little bit quieter this season.

Brandon Montour was a key part of the fabric that held the 2023 Cup-winning team together: He brought the energy, he was in charge of the locker room’s music, and perhaps most importantly, he brought the jokes.

And nobody was safe from being on the butt-end of one of them.

“It’s nice not to have my skates tied together before I go out on the ice or anything like that,” Aaron Ekblad, Montour’s former locker neighbor, joked during training camp.

Whenever someone walked in the Florida locker room, one could not avoid hearing some kind of chirp from either Montour or his good pal Nick Cousins. It kept the locker room light.

The Panthers will get to reunite with Montour and hand him his ring on Tuesday when they visit him and his Seattle Kraken.

“He keeps the room light,” Evan Rodrigues told PucksAndPalms during the 2024 playoff run. “He’s very loud and he likes to joke around a little bit. He’s a big personality and he always gets a good laugh at everybody.

“There are times when the room can be a little quiet or a little dead and he can turn it around with one joke. He just has a big personality and a great personality.”

That was just one piece to the legacy that Montour left behind with the Panthers.

The Brampton, ON native developed from a young defenseman who was still trying to find his way on struggling Buffalo Sabres and Anaheim Ducks teams into a bonafide power play quarterback and locker room lightning rod who ranks sixth among defensemen in franchise history in goals (37), seventh in points (147), seventh in power play points (58) and fifth in plus/minus (+33) after a three-and-a-half season career in South Florida.

But perhaps most importantly, Montour ended his Panthers career with three goals and 11 points in 24 points on Florida’s 2024 Stanley Cup run before signing a seven-year deal with the Kraken.

“For me coming into the locker room, I think it’s easy for me to adjust,” Montour said of his development with the Panthers. “I think it’s just my personality, talking to everyone.

“But for me, every year is different. You get new faces every year and right from when I got here, I kind of meshed well with everyone right away … It’s not even joking with and laughs with the players, it’s the staff, our therapists, our fitness and strength coaches and our equipment guys. I just came here and felt like it right away and I wanted to bring that kind of personality right away like I do with every team.”

It did not take long for Montour to make his presence felt in the Florida locker room.

Just under a year after the 2021 trade that brought him to South Florida, Montour naturally took over the aux cord after Frank Vatrano was traded to the New York Rangers ahead of the 2022 trade deadline.

“I just put my pod on there and said ‘Hey, this is my job now and I’m taking it,’” Montour told P&P last year.

Both through music — and the familiar jokes — Montour grew more and more comfortable in the room.

“He’ll play some songs for certain people, kind of laugh at it a little bit,” Rodrigues said last year. “But I always feel like if people aren’t complaining about the music, it’s usually a good thing. You never hear the music guy get compliments, but you’ll definitely hear him get chirped for it, but he does a good job of being the DJ of our room.”

He was not surprised about the reviews, at all.

“I expect nothing less,” Montour said. “I think my DJ skills are pretty good.”

The confidence in that statement sums up how his personality and his play developed in his time in South Florida.

After peaking at 37 points in the first seven years of his NHL career, Montour took over Florida’s power play quarterback job in the 2022-23 season and ran with it. He finished the year with 16 goals and 73 points, which both still stand as the most scored by a defenseman in franchise history.

He’s picked up that production this season after an injury sustained in the 2023 playoffs led him to miss the first month of last season, scoring seven goals and 19 points in his first 28 games with the Kraken.

Montour developed in both fascets of the game in Florida: As someone who will lift your locker room up and someone who will go out there and make a play in big situations.

“I enjoy the personalities we have on this team,’’ Montour said, “and I think it’s one of those things where our group meshes so well.

“I take pride in enjoying being at the rink every day and it’s fun being part of this when I’m always coming in with a positive attitude.

“Laughter is huge and we’ve got a pretty funny team. If I can keep that up and be vocal on and off the ice when times are stressful or when times are easygoing, it’s something I take pride in; Keeping that even keel but enjoying the moment, having everyone laugh, not being too stressed out and bringing the leadership.”

That is how he is receiving a Stanley Cup ring today.