‘This is the f**kin best day of my life’: Panthers’ Seth Jones celebrates first Stanley Cup win

The Florida Panthers defeated the Edmonton Oilers in Tuesday night’s sixth game of the Stanley Cup Final to secure a 4-2 series win and repeat as Cup champions.

While the vast majority of the team was on last year’s roster and thus had won a Stanley Cup before, the same can not be said for veteran defenseman Seth Jones.

The right-shot defenseman was overcome with emotion in his postgame interview with Sportsnet’s Gene Principe.

“It’s been a long year,” Jones said. “These guys are unbelievable here. This organization is unbelievable. The teammates, the coaching staff, Bill Zito believed in me and gave me a chance, so this is the f**kin best day of my life.”

Zito and the Panthers made a bold move to acquire Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks ahead of the trade deadline after Jones requested a move out of Chicago.

Florida sent highly-touted goaltender Spencer Knight and a 2027 first round pick in the deal, as Chicago retained $2.5 million of Jones’ $9.5 million cap hit for the next five years to make the deal work financially.

The move paid dividends for the Panthers, who now have a long-term quality defender locked in on the right side as Aaron Ekblad is set to hit free agency.

Jones was a dominant force on the team’s run to the Stanley Cup, as he scored four goals and tallied five assists while posting a plus-11 rating and skating an average of 25:30 per game.

The American blue liner had not appeared in the playoffs since the 2019-2020 season when he was a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets, and this postseason also marked the first time a team he was on advanced past the second round.