SUNRISE, Fla. — Connor McDavid won a trophy in Game 7 against the Florida Panthers. Just not the one he wanted to win.

The Edmonton Oilers were defeated by the Florida Panthers, 2-1, to end their miraculous comeback in the Stanley Cup Final, having forced a Game 7 after trailing 3-0 in the series — only the third team in NHL history to accomplish that feat. In leading that comeback, and having a record-breaking postseason, McDavid was announced as the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the 2024 postseason.

McDavid is the sixth player in NHL history to win the Conn Smythe from team that lost in the Stanley Cup Final. He’s only the second skater after Reggie Leach of the Philadelphia Flyers, who was named MVP in 1976. The other winners were all goaltenders who lost in the Final: Jean-Sebastien Giguere of Anaheim in 2003, Ron Hextall of Philadelphia in 1987, Glenn Hall of St. Louis in 1968 and Roger Crozier of Detroit in 1966.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced McDavid as the Conn Smythe winner, with the trophy positioned atop a podium on the ice. There it stayed as Panthers fans booed the selection. McDavid had left for the Edmonton dressing room and did not reemerge to accept the award.

After the game, as the Panthers’ ongoing Cup celebration could be heard in the distance, a despondent McDavid briefly acknowledged the achievement.

“Yeah, obviously, I guess it’s an honor. With the names on that trophy. But … yeah,” he said.

McDavid earned the Conn Smythe thanks to one of the most dominant runs by an individual player in NHL playoff history.

His 42 points are the 4th most in a single postseason in NHL history behind only Wayne Gretzky (47 in 1985 and 43 in 1988) and Mario Lemieux (44 in 1991), who both won the Conn Smythe in those seasons. His 11 points in the Stanley Cup Final were 2 points shy of tying the Stanley Cup Final record held by Wayne Gretzky with 13 in 1988. He posted back-to-back four-point games in the Final, the first player in NHL history to do so, in rallying the Oilers.

But the crowning achievement of his postseason run was shattering Wayne Gretzky’s record for assists in a single postseason (31 in 1988) with 34 helpers in 24 games.

“He’s the greatest player to ever play, in my books,” said his teammate and friend Leon Draisaitl after Game 7. “So many things that a lot of people don’t see that he does. His work ethic. He singlehandedly turned our franchise around, pretty much. Just love sharing the ice with him. He’s just a really, really special person.”

Draisaitl asked about McDavid winning the MVP award in a losing effort.

“I don’t think he cares,” Draisaitl said. “I mean, it speaks to how amazing of a hockey player he is. There’s no player in the world that wants to win a Stanley Cup more than him. He does everything right, every single day, just to win it one day. It’s really hard with him being sad and being disappointed at the end.”

McDavid’s MVP performance stretches back to the regular season, where he led the Oilers back from an atrocious first 12 games (2-9-1) to rally for a playoff berth.

“Proud of the way we fought all year. Behind the 8-ball almost immediately. We fought an uphill climb for months and months and months,” McDavid said. “(This) just … sucks.”

McDavid went from 10 points in his first 11 games to 122 points in his next 65 games.

“You think about the year that Connor had: 100 assists, leading our team; the performance he had in this playoffs, especially in this final round, when we’re down three games to zero and then he comes out with eight points in two games,” said Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch, who also coached McDavid with the Erie Otters in junior hockey.

“Yeah, he’s our leader. He’s our best player. Obviously everybody wanted to win it for the team and we’d like to obviously do it (for) him, the captain of our team,” coach said. “I can’t say enough things about what he provides: the leadership and what he does on the ice.”

McDavid had a frustrating end to his postseason, with no points in the last two games of the Stanley Cup Final.

The Oilers captain praised the Panthers for the way they played in Game 7.

“We knew it was going to be a real tight game and it was going to come down to one thing here and there. We’re an inch away from going ahead 2-1 right before they go ahead 2-1,” he said, referencing a bouncing puck that the Panthers cleared from their crease before Sam Reinhart scored the game-winner in the second period. “They did a good of shutting things down. We had our looks. We just didn’t find it.”

This was the farthest McDavid has ever advanced in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, having established a “Cup or bust” mentality for his team before the season.

In nine seasons, McDavid has captured five scoring titles, one goal-scoring title, three Hart Trophy wins as league MVP and the NHLPA’s player of the year four times. Now, he adds the Conn Smythe Trophy to that collection.

But not the Stanley Cup.

“We never stopped believing. We really believed we were going to get one. Lots of looks. It just didn’t go,” McDavid said. “It sucks … it sucks.”

It took the Florida Panthers 30 years to win their first Stanley Cup ever. They’ll be betting favorites to do it again next year.

At sportsbooks across the nation, the Panthers are consensus favorites to win the NHL’s top prize for the 2024-25 season, showing +900 odds at ESPN BET and several other major operations.

The Stanley Cup runner-up Edmonton Oilers are also among the top three choices across the marketplace, with 10-1 odds at ESPN BET.

Florida seeks to become the first repeat champion since the Tampa Bay Lightning (2019-20 and 2020-21), who entered that ’20-21 season at +900 — but not as the favorites.

If that price holds to opening night, it will tie the 2006-07 Ottawa Senators and 2023-24 Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes for the longest odds for a preseason favorite since at least 1984, per SportsOddsHistory.com.

That speaks to the overall level of parity on display across the NHL. The Dallas Stars are tied with Florida for the odds lead at +900 at several major books, including ESPN BET, though Florida is the sole leader at FanDuel.

The Hurricanes (10-1) and Avalanche (12-1) are also lurking near the top.

The consensus longest odds to win next year’s Cup belong to the San Jose Sharks, who own the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NHL draft and are widely expected to select Macklin Celebrini. They are 400-1 to win it all.

SUNRISE, Fla. — The Florida Panthers captured their first Stanley Cup in franchise history with a 2-1 Game 7 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday night in a thrilling conclusion to a classic playoff series.

Winger Sam Reinhart‘s second-period goal proved to be the winner, as goalie Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves to close out the series — and help his team avoid postseason infamy.

The Panthers’ win averted one of the most epic collapses in sports history. Florida had built a 3-0 series lead, but the Oilers roared back with three straight wins, just the third time in NHL history that a team forced a Game 7 after losing the first three games of a Stanley Cup Final.

But the legacy of the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs remains intact; they’re still the only team to rally from a 3-0 deficit in the Final to win the Cup, after the Oilers came up short.

Instead, Florida became just the third team in the past 40 years to win the Stanley Cup after losing in the Final during the previous postseason, as the Panthers fell in five games to the Vegas Golden Knights in 2023.

Florida captain Aleksander Barkov was awarded the Cup by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, and after his skate with it, Barkov handed if off to Bobrovsky.

“He deserves it. He’s been here for a long time and has been our best player for a long time,” Barkov said of Bobrovsky. “He played incredible.”

Florida coach Paul Maurice — who joined the franchise two seasons ago after stepping down as coach of the Winnipeg Jets and had been to the Final twice in two years — won for the first time in a lengthy career.

“I’ve been chasing that for a long time,” Maurice said after handing off the Stanley Cup to his coaching staff. “It’s got nothing to do with the coach; this group has been special since day one.”

The Oilers were making their first Stanley Cup Final appearance since 2006.

This was the furthest Edmonton superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl had carried their team in the postseason. Neither player had a point in Game 7, with McDavid going scoreless in the last two games of the series. He finished as the playoffs’ leading scorer with 42 points. Despite the loss, McDavid was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the postseason’s most valuable player.

The energy in the building for Game 7 could be felt well before puck drop. A significant number of Oilers fans purchased tickets for the game, cheering Edmonton players during warmups and loudly singing “O Canada” over guest anthem singer Alanis Morissette. Panthers fans belted their own lively rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” in response.

The Panthers opened the scoring moments after an early power play ended, following a high-sticking call on Edmonton’s Warren Foegele. Florida winger Evan Rodrigues flung the puck toward the Edmonton net where he found Carter Verhaeghe alone in front, tipping it home for his 11th goal of the playoffs at 4:27 to send the home crowd into a frenzy.

“They say it’s the hardest trophy to win in sports, and you can’t imagine how hard it is, until you do it,” Rodrigues said. “Getting to Game 7, it took pressure off of us, and we did it the hard way. But it was a perfect outcome.”

Teams that scored first in Game 7 of a Stanley Cup Final owned an all-time record of 12-5, including eight straight wins dating back to 1994.

But Mattias Janmark gave the Oilers fans in Sunrise a reason to cheer just 2:17 later, taking a rink-length outlet pass from defenseman Cody Ceci and converting a breakaway goal for his fourth of the playoffs to knot the score at 1-1.

The Panthers took the lead in the second period in a “hockey is a game of inches” sequence.

Foegele shot the puck with a crowd in front of Bobrovsky. It deflected over the goaltender’s arm and fell to the ice next to him, where defenseman Dmitry Kulikov cleared it to the corner while falling down.

Kulikov’s play ended up as the secondary assist on Reinhart’s go-ahead goal at 15:11, a wrist shot through a screen that beat goalie Stuart Skinner. It was Reinhart’s 10th goal of the playoffs and first since Game 3.

Florida took a lead into the third period for the 10th time, having gone 9-0 in that situation during the postseason. Over the past two postseasons, they were 18-0 when leading after two.

In Stanley Cup Final history, teams were 13-1 when leading after two periods in a Game 7. The lone team to rally? Those 1942 Maple Leafs, who won the Cup after trailing the Detroit Red Wings 1-0.

The Oilers pushed in the third period but couldn’t find the equalizer, despite some chaotic moments in front of Bobrovsky.

Plastic rats, gloves and sticks littered the ice as the Panthers celebrated.

“It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it, everything was worth it,” Bobrovsky said. “It was all for this moment that I want to enjoy.”

McDavid said it was “Cup or bust” after last season. It took until the last possible game of the season for his championship push to end and his nation’s Stanley Cup drought to continue. No Canadian team has won the Cup since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993.

“We lost to a very deserving team,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said.