Montour, Mahura Get Stanley Cup Rings Before Playing the Panthers

Brandon Montour and Josh Mahura went out to dinner with their former Florida Panthers teammates Monday night in Seattle — and left the restaurant with their Stanley Cup championship rings.

The two defensemen will face their former team tonight at 10 p.m. when the Kraken play host to the Panthers at Climate Change Arena.

Montour and Mahura are the latest members of the 2024 Stanley Cup champions to get their rings, with Nick Cousins getting his in Ottawa; Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Anthony Stolarz, and Steven Lorentz got theirs last month when the Toronto Maple Leafs visited Florida.

Ryan Lomberg will get his ring later this week when the Panthers travel to Calgary.

“The best part,” Evan Rodrigues said, “is seeing them open the box up. It brings you back to when we all got them. It brings back a lot of good memories.”

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Montour and Mahura opened their boxes up at the same time, as the Panthers have been doing since their ring ceremony on Oct. 7 at the War Memorial Auditorium.

Montour, who signed a seven-year deal worth $50 million with Seattle the day after the Panthers’ championship parade, said he thinks the Panthers shined his ring up just for him.

No, they are just that nice.

“It was nice to see everyone’s reaction, see it in person,’’ Montour told reporters following the morning skate in Seattle. “Got to see pictures and videos from the guys, but to have it home now, it’s a pretty awesome feeling. …

“It is obviously something we worked so hard for together. Good memories, good years.’’

• Gary Bettman: Florida Panthers ‘Close’ to Outdoor Game in Miami

Tonight’s game will be special in more ways than just playing against former teammates for Montour.

The Kraken are celebrating Indigenous Peoples Night.

Got dinner with some good friends last night and gave them some bling 💍

Congrats Monty and Muzzy! pic.twitter.com/sH0t111bhu

— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) December 10, 2024

There will be a ceremonial puck drop which will likely include Montour at center ice with Florida captain Sasha Barkov.

Montour, who is of Mohawk decent, brought the Stanley Cup to where he grew up in Ohsweken, Ontario, to share it with the Six Nations of the Grand River community.

“I’ve told people today is obviously about me and what I’ve done,” Montour said via CBC, “but today is about everyone else and to share that with them.’’

— Tonight’s starting goalies: Joey Daccord goes against Sergei Bobrovsky.

— Local Betting Odds: The Panthers are -185 favorites on the money line tonight in Seattle.

ON DECK: GAME 29

FLORIDA PANTHERS AT SEATTLE KRAKEN

• When: Tuesday, 10 p.m.
• Where: Climate Pledge Arena, Seattle
• Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FtL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (SWFla)
• Streaming: Panthers+, ESPN+
• Radio: WPOW 96.5-FM2; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
• Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
• Betting Odds — Panthers Favored: Money Line (-185); Puck line (-1.5, +130); Over/Under 6 (+100/-120)
• Season Series — At Seattle: Tuesday. At Florida: Feb. 22.
• Last Season: Tied 1-1
• All-Time Regular Season Series: Seattle leads 4-2-0
• Up Next for the Panthers: Thursday at Vancouver Canucks, 10 p.m.

PROJECTED FLORIDA PANTHERS (17-9-2) LINES

23 Carter Verhaeghe // 16 Sasha Barkov // 13 Sam Reinhart

70 Jesper Boqvist // 9 Sam Bennett // 19 Matthew Tkachuk

27 Eetu Luostarinen // 15 Anton Lundell // 17 Evan Rodrigues

10 AJ Greer // 94 Tomas Nosek // 25 Mackie Samoskevich

42 Gus Forsling // 5 Aaron Ekblad

77 Niko Mikkola // 7 Dmitry Kulikov

88 Nate Schmidt // 26 Uvis Balinskis

72 Sergei Bobrovsky

30 Spencer Knight

Scratched: Adam Boqvist, Jonah Gadjovich

PROJECTED SEATTLE KRAKEN (14-14-1) LINES

17 Jaden Schwartz // 10 Matty Beniers // 37 Yanni Gourde

19 Jared McCann // 9 Chandler Stephenson // 95 Andre Burakovsky

20 Eeli Tolvanen //  51 Shane Wright // 22 Oliver Bjorkstrand

12 Tye Kartye // 67 Mitchell Stephens // 13 Brandon Tanev

29 Vince Dunn // 6 Adam Larsson

24 Jamie Oleksiak // 62 Brandon Montour

41 Ryker Evans // 3 Will Borgen

35 Joey Daccord

31 Philipp Grubauer

Scratched: Daniel Sprong, Josh Mahura

Injured: Jordan Eberle (pelvis)